Steamboats and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom by Robert H. Gudmestad (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 88 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY own half-brother to liquidate their partnership in a successful barbershop and bath—and then went into competition with him (178-79). Race and racial boundaries constantly change in this story, making them both important and unimportant by turns. Apoline shrewdly chose relationships with white men who might make her life comfortable. Her grandson, Henry Clamorgan Jr., became white physician Fordé Morgan, an expert in pharmaceuticals. Another grandson, Louis P. Clamorgan, saw his family rocked by the scandal associated with passing. The family lived in Maplewood, a “white” suburb of St. Louis, and called themselves Spanish. A daughter, Maud, and her husband, who also passed, had a baby whose appearance betrayed her African American heritage . Another daughter was outed by a rejected suitor. A third daughter’s husband sought an annulment when he learned of the family’s history. Apoline’s son, Cyprian, was white and then black in Reconstruction New Orleans and then white again when he returned north. Winch knows Cyprian well, having introduced and edited his 1858 book, The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis (1999), and she uses him and his family to close the story. Fast-dealing Cyprian is an apt bookend to his like-minded grandfather.Fashioninghimselfaswhiteattorney C. C. Morgan in Reconstruction New Orleans, he tried to “squeeze” five hundred dollars out of P. B. S. Pinchback, convicted of assault with intent to kill after a fight with his brother-in-law. The two became enemies and engaged in a gunfight on Canal Street. Had Cyprian been a better shot, Winch says, “he might have gone down in history as a notorious assassin” (337). Instead, his political aspirations thwarted, Cyprian was reduced to seeking financial assistance from his daughter and is buried in an unmarked grave in St. Louis. This is remarkably layered storytelling, and Winch’s engaging, even gossipy style hints at the relish with which she undertook the project. Her subjects, especially Jacques and Cyprian, seem to amaze even the author in their baldfaced deceptions. These were not nice people, but that makes the story fun. Keeping track of the characters—and the lawsuits!—can be daunting, but the family trees at the beginning of each chapter help, and Winch does her best to keep the narrative from spiraling into a series of “begats.” The Clamorgans is very good work. Victoria L. Harrison Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Steamboats and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom Robert H. Gudmestad The nostalgic imagery of the steamboat as a majestic floating palace gliding into shore captures the imagination, innovation, and life of society surrounding the inland waterways. In Steamboats and the Rise of the Cotton Kingdom, Robert Gudmestad pushes beyond the limits of romantic steamboat nostalgia and argues for the centralityofriverboatstothesouthernantebellum economy and cotton culture. Patterns and rate of southern migration, economic development, and distinct regional and sectional culture underwent dramatic transformations thanks in part to the far-reaching impact of the adoption of steam technology for water-based transportation. Gudmestad had assiduously analyzed an impressive breadth of sources, including traveler BOOK REVIEWS SUMMER 2012 89 accounts, newspapers, government reports, court records, manuscripts, illustrations, and state and local histories. He has produced a complex and rich history that places steamboats inextricably within southern antebellum culture and society. Early optimism and prospects of efficient transportation linked the region’s communities to markets via waterways, while ensuring regional development and individual economic opportunities. However, the proliferation of steamboats on the western waters underscored the successful incorporation of the new technology into southern antebellum society and unleashed environmental , agricultural, economic, and cultural changes that reshaped the region. Southern entrepreneurs recognized the potential economic and cultural impact of the arrival of steamboats on the western waterways, but they reconciled their local and individual goals with the market and technological implications of steamboat ownership. While northern and eastern owners of steamboats entered the South to create river trade monopolies , southern community leaders, merchants, and farmers sought ownership of steamboats to ensure market access. These actions did not contradict southerners’ states rights view. Instead, the development of local ownership, the building of purpose-specific boats, and the demands for federal mail service via steamboats helped break...