Focusing on the crucial period of 1820 to 1860, Grand Emporium, Mercantile Monster examines the strong economic bonds between the antebellum plantation South and the burgeoning city of New York that resulted from the highly lucrative trade in cotton. In this richly detailed work of literary and cultural history, Ritchie Devon Watson Jr. charts how the partnership brought fantastic wealth to both the South and Gotham during the first half of the nineteenth century. That mutually beneficial alliance also cemented New York's reputation as the northern metropolis most supportive of and hospitable to southerners. Both parties initially found the commercial and cultural entente advantageous, but their collaboration grew increasingly fraught by the 1840s as rising abolitionist sentiment in the North decried the system of chattel slavery that made possible the mass production of cotton. In an effort to stem the swelling tide of abolitionism, conservative southerners demanded absolute political fealty to their peculiar institution from the city that had profited most from the cotton trade. By 1861, reactionary circles in the South viewed New York's failure to extend such unalloyed validation as the betrayal of an erstwhile ally that in the words of one polemicist deemed Gotham worthy of being "blotted from the list of cities." Drawing on contemporary letters, diaries, fiction, and travel writings, Grand Emporium, Mercantile Monster provides the first detailed study of the complicated relationship between the antebellum South and New York City in the decades leading up to the Civil War.

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Yes, you can access Grand Emporium, Mercantile Monster by Ritchie Devon Watson, Jr., Scott Romine in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & North American Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher

LSU Press

Year

2023

ISBN

9780807180051

Topic

Literature

Subtopic

North American Literary Criticism

Index

Literature

COVER
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT PAGE
DEDICATION
CONTENTS
ONE. THAT MOST SOUTHERN CONNECTED OF NORTHERN CITIES
TWO. THE GREATEST EMPORIUM OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE: THE SOUTH TRAVELS TO GOTHAM
THREE. EARLY FICTIONAL APPRAISALS OF NEW YORK CITY
FOUR. BLOTTED FROM THE LIST OF CITIES: SOUTHERN WRITERS ASSAIL GOTHAM
FIVE. WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS, WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, AND THE BREAKING OF THE HINGE OF UNION
SIX. EXECRABLE NEW YORK
NOTES
INDEX