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Eugene R. Dattel
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Cotton and Race in the Making of America: The Human Costs of Economic Power Hardcover – September 16, 2009

by Gene Dattel (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 49 ratings
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Since the earliest days of colonial America, the relationship between cotton and the African-American experience has been central to the history of the republic. America's most serious social tragedy, slavery and its legacy, spread only where cotton could be grown. Both before and after the Civil War, blacks were assigned to the cotton fields while a pervasive racial animosity and fear of a black migratory invasion caused white Northerners to contain blacks in the South.

Gene Dattel's pioneering study explores the historical roots of these most central social issues. In telling detail Mr. Dattel shows why the vastly underappreciated story of cotton is a key to understanding America's rise to economic power. When cotton production exploded to satiate the nineteenth-century textile industry's enormous appetite, it became the first truly complex global business and thereby a major driving force in U.S. territorial expansion and sectional economic integration. It propelled New York City to commercial preeminence and fostered independent trade between Europe and the United States, providing export capital for the new nation to gain its financial "sea legs" in the world economy. Without slave-produced cotton, the South could never have initiated the Civil War, America's bloodiest conflict at home.

Mr. Dattel's skillful historical analysis identifies the commercial forces that cotton unleashed and the pervasive nature of racial antipathy it produced. This is a story that has never been told in quite the same way before, related here with the authority of a historian with a profound knowledge of the history of international finance. With 23 black-and-white illustrations.
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  1. Print length
    432 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ivan R. Dee
  4. Publication date
    September 16, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    6.63 x 1.43 x 9.68 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9781566637473
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1566637473
  8. See all details
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4.5 out of 5 stars
49 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book informative and well-researched. They describe it as an excellent read that explains much of history. Readers praise the writing style as easy to understand and say it's worth reading for anyone interested in American slavery. The story offers surprises and new ideas.

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14 customers mention "Research quality"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's research quality good. They appreciate the insightful analysis and unique perspective on cotton's economic impact. The book provides an informative and interesting account of how the cotton trade was intertwined with American history. It expertly demonstrates the economic realities that have defined black life in America.

"...It is thoroughly researched and confronts the reader with new ideas" Read more

"Expertly demonstrates the economic realities that have defined black life in America -- indirectly shining a light on my own family history: my great..." Read more

"...I believe that having read this book, we can better understand our history. Maybe we can even prevent repeating bad history...." Read more

"This is a fact-packed account of how the cotton trade was intertwined with the evil that was slavery in America...." Read more

13 customers mention "Readability"10 positive3 negative

Customers find the book well-written and easy to read. They appreciate the author's comprehensible writing style and consider it an extraordinary work for anyone interested in American slavery.

"...My thanks to the author in this extremely fine work. Although this was not an "easy" book to read, it should be read from cover to cover." Read more

"This was required reading for a college class. This provides the history of cotton in America and around the world...." Read more

"...Well worth a read for anyone interested in American slavery and its aftermath." Read more

"...The writer's style is interesting and very comprehensible, I am awed by his ability to give a tragic human face to such dry economic data...." Read more

3 customers mention "Story quality"3 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the story's quality. They mention it has great research and prose, with many surprises and new ideas.

"...It is thoroughly researched and confronts the reader with new ideas" Read more

"...There are many surprises in this book and I thought that the author did an outstanding job of making what some might think would be a boring subject..." Read more

"great story, great research, great prose..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Tom Wood
    5.0 out of 5 stars A different perspective on cotton and slavery
    Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    It is often assumed that once the slaves were emancipated abolitionists and other anti-slavery forces would accord them equal rights and integrate them into white society. As Dattel documents, however, many abolitionists and other anti-slavery people in the north and in the western territories wanted to keep African-Americans far away from their own soil, having them remain in the south, or shipping them off to a far away colony, which few of the freed slaves wanted. In a word, they were racist. (Equal rights, voting in particular, were obtained only briefly during Reconstruction in the South and ended with the withdrawal of Union (northern) protection after the 1876 Hayes-Tilden election. During Reconstruction the Republican Party hoped, hypocritically, that keeping the freedmen in the south, voting en bloc, would enhance its political power nationally.)

    Cotton, the mainstay of southern power before the Civil War, could most profitably be marketed by the slave system. I do not think Dattel makes abundantly clear that it was not slavery per se that makes this the case but that once the slave trade was in place (and continued illegally after 1809) the cheapest supply of labor was slaves. The backbreaking nature of the work failed to attract others voluntarily especially when there was land out west to be settled. (The migration from the old to the new south, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, entailed extension of the slave system as the principal crop in these new southern lands was cotton.)

    After the Civil War, if the freedmen were welcomed up north—which they were not—there would not have been cheap labor to plant and harvest cotton, which remained the principal source of revenue in the south, albeit precariously as the yield varied with the vicissitudes of weather, insects and prices on the English and New York markets. (The north also benefited from cotton as bankers provided credit to southern planters and manufacturers sold their goods to southern markets when the cotton crop was good.) Retained primarily as sharecroppers and tenant farmers—the distinction between the two is not made clear by Dattel—the freedmen enabled plantation owners to plant and market cotton, although smaller planters were less likely to survive.

    It was only during and after World War I when labor was in short supply in the north that the migration of African-Americans from the south accelerated. And in the 1930s new technology for cotton harvesting reduced the demand for intensive labor.

    Dattel provides a different perspective on the relation between north and south before and after the Civil War than most popular books. It is thoroughly researched and confronts the reader with new ideas
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Ron Mayes
    4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Research with the role of cotton in US economy
    Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Expertly demonstrates the economic realities that have defined black life in America -- indirectly shining a light on my own family history: my great-great's were slaves on cotton picking plantations in TN & MS; my great's grew up in Reconstruction, but were still confined to the cotton picking industry; my grand parents' lives improved a hair as they moved to the city in the latter part of their lives to work as domestics due largely to the advent of the mechanized cotton picker -- leading to my parents who would be the first generation of my family to have limited choices (factory work) beyond the cotton field... the story of cotton is our story, but its also America's story. The author hints at how cotton laid the foundation for other industries to evolve, but focuses more on how it defined and confined black labor before and after the Civil War. Nice piece of scholarship... very nice
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Richard P. Canon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Now I Better Understand What It Was All About
    Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2010
    Verified Purchase
    Being a proud fifth-generation Southerner, I thought that I fully understood why the Civil War was fought. Most of my understanding was based upon the influence of society and culture within which I grew up. Although none of my family were flag flying Confederates, there was very much pride in being a Southerner and having ancestors who fought for the Confederacy.

    After reading this book, I honestly believe that I better understand why the Southerners did what they did. Within my lifetime I have been told over and over that the war was fought over the issue of slavery. As this book shows, slavery was at the root of the war. The primary issue of the war, however, was pure economics.

    I had always accepted blame for the war as a Southerner. I felt that the Northern influence of slavery was insignificant or nonexistent. I was wrong. Just as the masses of Southerners were not the cause of the war, nor were the masses of the Northerners the cause of the war. Both North and South, it seems from this book, a relatively small number from the "United States" had the production of cotton paramount in their minds and their lives. It was all about MONEY. No cotton, no money. No money, no cotton. No slaves, no cotton. No slaves, no money. I really believe that it is that simple and this book led me to that conclusion.

    I highly recommend this book to any citizen of the United States of America. I believe that having read this book, we can better understand our history. Maybe we can even prevent repeating bad history.

    My thanks to the author in this extremely fine work. Although this was not an "easy" book to read, it should be read from cover to cover.
    14 people found this helpful
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  • Robert
    5.0 out of 5 stars Tells the ugly truth about cotton and slavery
    Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    This was required reading for a college class. This provides the history of cotton in America and around the world. It discusses the rise of slave labor and the South's economic dependence on both. It ain't pretty, but it's the truth.
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