Title River of dark dreams : slavery and empire in the cotton kingdom / Walter Johnson

Published Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013 ©2013

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Description 1 online resource (526 pages) : illustrations, maps Contents Introduction : Boom -- Jeffersonian visions and nightmares in Louisiana -- The Panic of 1835 -- The steamboat sublime -- Limits to capital -- The runaway's river -- Dominion -- "The empire of the white man's will" -- The carceral landscape -- The Mississippi Valley in the time of cotton -- Capital, cotton, and free trade -- Tales of Mississippian empire -- The material limits of "Manifest Destiny" -- "The grey-eyed man of destiny" -- The ignominious effort to reopen the slave trade Summary This work looks at the history of the Mississippi River Valley in the nineteenth century and the economy that developed there, powered by steam engines and slave labor. When Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Territory, he envisioned an "empire for liberty" populated by self-sufficient white farmers. Cleared of Native Americans and the remnants of European empires by Andrew Jackson, the Mississippi Valley was transformed instead into a booming capitalist economy commanded by wealthy planters, powered by steam engines, and dependent on the coerced labor of slaves. This book places the Cotton Kingdom at the center of worldwide webs of exchange and exploitation that extended across oceans and drove an insatiable hunger for new lands. This bold reaccounting dramatically alters our understanding of American slavery and its role in U.S. expansionism, global capitalism, and the upcoming Civil War. Here, the author traces the connections between the planters' pro-slavery ideology, Atlantic commodity markets, and Southern schemes for global ascendency. Using slave narratives, popular literature, legal records, and personal correspondence, he recreates the harrowing details of daily life under cotton's dark dominion. We meet the confidence men and gamblers who made the Valley shimmer with promise, the slave dealers, steamboat captains, and merchants who supplied the markets, the planters who wrung their civilization out of the minds and bodies of their human property, and the true believers who threatened the Union by trying to expand the Cotton Kingdom on a global scale. But at the center of the story the author tells are the enslaved people who pulled down the forests, planted the fields, picked the cotton - the people who labored, suffered, and resisted on the dark underside of the American dream Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages [423]-508) and index Notes English Print version record Subject Slavery -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century Cotton growing -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century Slavery -- Economic aspects -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century Capitalism -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century Social change -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century Imperialism -- History -- 19th century Slave trade -- History -- 19th century Slavery -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century 15.85 history of America. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Ethnic Studies -- General. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies. HISTORY -- United States -- 19th Century. Capitalism Commerce Cotton growing Imperialism Race relations Slave trade Slavery Slavery -- Economic aspects Social change Territorial expansion Sklaverei Sklavenhandel Wirtschaft Slavernij. Expansie (macht) Kapitalisme. Katoenproductie. Slavenhandel. Sociaal-economische verandering. Slavery -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century. Cotton growing -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century. Imperialism -- History -- 19th century. Slave trade -- History -- 19th century. Slavery -- Economic aspects -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century. Capitalism -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century. Social change -- Mississippi River Valley -- History -- 19th century. Slaveri -- historia. Bomullsodling -- historia. SUBJECT Mississippi River Valley -- Race relations -- History -- 19th century Mississippi River Valley -- Commerce -- History -- 19th century United States -- Territorial expansion -- History -- 19th century Subject Mississippi River Valley United States Mississippital Verenigde Staten. Zuidelijke staten. Mississippi River Valley -- Race relations -- History -- 19th century. Mississippi River Valley -- Commerce -- History -- 19th century. United States -- Territorial expansion -- History -- 19th century. Mississippi (Etats-Unis, vallée) Etats-Unis. Förenta staterna -- Mississippi (stat) Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 2012030065 ISBN 9780674074880 0674074882

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