Old Dominion Industrial Commonwealth: Coal, Politics, and Economy in Antebellum America

A look at the role of state policies in North-South economic divergence and in American industrial development leading up to the Civil War.

In 1796, famed engineer and architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe toured the coal fields outside Richmond, Virginia, declaring enthusiastically, "Such a mine of Wealth exists, I believe, nowhere else!" With its abundant and accessible deposits, growing industries, and network of rivers and ports, Virginia stood poised to serve as the center of the young nati...