The 17th and 18th centuries brought attempts to introduce cotton to an area where it had never been established before: the southeastern United States. A small portion of that area, the islands off the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, came to specialize in a market class called "sea island". Sea island cotton ceased to be produced commercially in 1920, nevertheless it was an important market class in the 19th century and sea island cultivars strongly influenced most of the cultivars grown today.