The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old Southwest, Mississippi 1770-1860 (review)

360CIVIL WAR HISTORY valuable guidebook to America's military parks. This book will help introduce tourists and buffs alike to both familiar and obscure battle sites. Richard A. Sauers Lewisburg, Pennsylvania The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old Southwest, Mississippi 1770-1860. By John Hebron Moore. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. Pp. xii, 323. Cloth $40.00, paper $17.00.) John Hebron Moore's The Emergence of the Cotton Kingdom in the Old Southwest is a worthy companion to his earlier study, Agriculture in Antebellum Mississippi. It is not merely an update of the earlier volume, however; it is a more extensive examination of topics and issues that were raised but not thoroughly treated in that study. Moore traces the agricultural revolution of the 183Os and 1840s, which introduced new planting techniques and a new machine technology that in turn spawned a revolution in water and rail transportation. In a chapter on manufacturing, Moore details the "complementary industries [which] developed in the towns to provide essential services for farmers, planters, and townsmen as well as for steamboats and railroads." This long recognized agricultural historian takes a turn at social history in such chapters as "Agricultural Slavery," "Rural Whites," "Towns and Villages," "White Inhabitants of the Towns," and "Urban Blacks." In the brief final chapter, "Secession from the Union," Moore assesses the political ramifications of the Cotton Kingdom's renewed "confidence in the slave worked cotton plantation that was the basic unit in [its] socioeconomic system." Moore's well-conceived and well-written study of the Old South's leading cotton-producing state is enriched by the generous use of maps and charts, two appendices, a bibliography, and a thorough index. And the Louisiana State University Press, which richly deserves its high standing among university presses, maintained its high design standard. The book is a happy blend of good narrative and interpretive history. It is essential reading for students of the American South and for those interested in understanding the long-term underlying and more complex causes of the Civil War. David G. Sansing University of Mississippi Admiral of the Amazon: John Randolph Tucker, His Confederate Colleagues , and Peru. By David P. Werlich. (Charlottesville, Virginia, and London: University Press of Virginia, 1990. Pp. xv, 353. $29.95.) Few people have ever heard of John Randolph Tucker. Even most Civil War historians do not seem to be aware of his many contributions to ...