The arrival of the first steamboat, The New Orleans, in early
1812 touched off an economic revolution in the South. In states
west of the Appalachian Mountains, the operation of steamboats
quickly grew into a booming business that would lead to new
cultural practices and a stronger sectional identity.
In Steamboats and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom, Robert
Gudmestad examines the wide-ranging influence of steamboats on the
southern economy. From carrying cash crops to market to
contributing to slave productivity, increasing the flexibility of
labor, and connecting southerners to overlapping orbits of
regional, national, and international markets, steamboats not only
benefited slaveholders and northern industries but also affected
cotton production.
This technology literally put people into motion, and travelers
developed an array of unique cultural practices, from gambling to
boat races. Gudmestad also asserts that the intersection of these
riverboats and the environment reveals much about sectional
identity in antebellum America. As federal funds backed railroad
construction instead of efforts to clear waterways for steamboats,
southerners looked to coordinate their own economic development,
free of national interests.
Steamboats and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom offers new
insights into the remarkable and significant history of
transportation and commerce in the prewar South.
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