Winner, 2010 Bennett H. Wall Award, Southern Historical Association
In this fresh study Brian Schoen views the Deep South and its cotton industry from a global perspective, revisiting old assumptions and providing new insights into the region, the political history of the United States, and the causes of the Civil War.
Schoen takes a unique and broad approach. Rather than seeing the Deep South and its planters as isolated from larger intellectual, economic, and political developments, he places the region firmly within them. In doing so, he demonstrates that the region’s prominence within the modern world—and not its opposition to it—indelibly shaped Southern history.
The place of “King Cotton” in the sectional thinking and budding nationalism of the Lower South seems obvious enough, but Schoen reexamines the ever-shifting landscape of international trade from the 1780s through the eve of the Civil War. He argues that the Southern cotton trade was essential to the European economy, seemingly worth any price for Europeans to protect and maintain, and something to defend aggressively in the halls of Congress. This powerful association gave the Deep South the confidence to ultimately secede from the Union.
By integrating the history of the region with global events, Schoen reveals how white farmers, planters, and merchants created a “Cotton South,” preserved its profitability for many years, and ensured its dominance in the international raw cotton markets. The story he tells reveals the opportunities and costs of cotton production for the Lower South and the United States.
Brian Schoen is an associate professor of history at Ohio University.
Table of Contents
Series Editor's Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction Prologue, 178 1. The Threads of a Global Loom: Cotton, Slavery, and Union in an Interdependent Atlantic, 1789–1820 Cotton, Empire, and Nation The Formation of a Transatlantic Cotton Interest Cotton's "Revolution" and Its Limits 2. Calculating the Cost of Union: Nationalism and Sectionalism in a Republican Era, 1796–1818 The Cotton South and a Republican Coalition of "Equals" "The Honor of Bearing It Best": Cotton, Commercial Warfare, and War Peace Abroad, Dissension at Home: Republicans Active and Passive 3. Protecting Slavery and Free Trade: The Political Economy of Cotton, 1818– 1833 Panic and Protection Cotton and a Harmonious Domestic and International Division of Labor "Unequal" Protection under the Law and Cotton's Minority Status 4. Building Bridges to the West and the World: Empowerment and Anxiety in the Second Party System, 1834–1848 Publishing the "Banns" of Marriage: The Search for Lower South Commercial Advancement American Proslavery Thought in the Age of British Abolition The Second Party System in the Cotton South 5. An Unnatural Union: King Cotton and Lower South Secession, 1849– 1860 Economic Advancement in an Age of Democratic Ascendance Converting Friends to Enemies and Enemies to Friends: The Search for Natural Allies Realists Decide: Election and Secession Epilogue, 1861 Notes Essay on Sources Index
In this bold new interpretation of the contours of southern political economy between the Constitution and the Civil War, Brian Schoen skillfully embeds U.S. history in its proper international context. The Fragile Fabric of Union marks the impressive debut of an exceptional young historian.
— Peter A. Coclanis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
John Majewski
A complex portrayal of southern cotton planters that will revise the way many scholars interpret the political economy of slavery.
— John Majewski, University of California, Santa Barbara
Charles Postel
This fascinating and deeply researched book challenges enduring myths about the Cotton South and the roots of the Civil War. From the vantage point of global political economy, it sheds new light on how American slaveholders aggressively pursued commercial power.
— Charles Postel, Bancroft prize–winning author of The Populist Vision
From the Publisher
A complex portrayal of southern cotton planters that will revise the way many scholars interpret the political economy of slavery.—John Majewski, University of California, Santa Barbara
In this bold new interpretation of the contours of southern political economy between the Constitution and the Civil War, Brian Schoen skillfully embeds U.S. history in its proper international context. The Fragile Fabric of Union marks the impressive debut of an exceptional young historian.—Peter A. Coclanis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
This fascinating and deeply researched book challenges enduring myths about the Cotton South and the roots of the Civil War. From the vantage point of global political economy, it sheds new light on how American slaveholders aggressively pursued commercial power.—Charles Postel, Bancroft prize–winning author of The Populist Vision
