Muir noted in his "Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf" journal that cotton was the principal crop and that Blacks were the principal workers. He had never written about non-whites before this trip and used language drawn from harmful stereotypes. "The negroes are very lazy and merry, doing a great deal of noise and very little work. One energetic white, working with a will, would easily pick as much cotton as half a dozen Sambos and Sallys." (John Muir Papers, Journal, The "Thousand Mile Walk" from Kentucky to Florida and Cuba)