This thoughtful study traces the impact of southern cotton on most of the important facets of life in antebellum America, including employment, international relations, agriculture, shipping, the U.S. economy, Native American relations, and the subjugation of humans. This one plant fashioned the...

The cotton crisis: Lancashire, the American South, and the turn to "Empire Cotton" -- "The Black man's crop": The British Cotton Growing Association and Africa -- "The scientific redemption of Africa": Coercion and regulation in colonial agriculture -- "King Cotton's impoverished retinue":...