John Phillip Sousa wrote the march King Cottton during the summer of 1895 in the fullest possible flush of a very happy and successful time of his life. He and his band were nothing less than a smashing success. Sousa signed the King Cotton manuscript on July 28, 1895 having finished the composition while in residence at Manhattan Beach, New York. Later the band would introduce it at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta where it became the offical march of the exposition.
