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Atlas of Antebellum Southern Agriculture (review)
- Southeastern Geographer
- The University of North Carolina Press
- Volume 25, Number 2, November 1985
- pp. 155-158
- 10.1353/sgo.1985.0004
- Review
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Vol. XXV, No. 2 155 cross references; these were present in relatively few chapters. Second, add a county location map near the front of the atlas, allowing reference to the location of Florida's 67 counties to which many contributors frequently referred. The present county designations on the large fold out maps are not adequate substitutes for one locational key. Third, shift the map of population distribution from Chapter 10 to an earlier chapter. Fourth, qualify the general term "water use" as to whether the reference made is to offstream consumptive or nonconsumptive use or to instream use. And finally, expand the index to include all relevant terms and concepts used in the atlas. For example, interbasin transfers are discussed in several parts of the atlas under that term or under "transfer of water" but are indexed under "water wars." The foregoing problems are minor, however, when compared to the overall utility and high quality of the atlas. It is highly recommended as a valuable reference not only for those interested in the use ofnatural resources in general but also specifically for students ofwater resources both in Florida and the U.S. Atlas of Antebellum Southern Agriculture. Sam Bowers Hilliard. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1984. xi and 77 pp., maps, diagrams. $27.50 cloth (ISBN 0-8071-1182-1); $8.95 paper (ISBN 08071 -1202-X) Few contributions to the study of antebellum southern agriculture should be more welcome than the Atlas of Antebellum Southern Agriculture . The lack ofmaps and/or a disregard for the spatial perspective among the works ofmany well known scholars ofantebellum agriculture have been notable. A few examples would include the following: Paul Gates' The Farmer's Age: Agriculture 1815—1860 (one pictorial map); John Hebron Moore's Agriculture in Antebellum Mississippi (no maps); and Ralph Anderson's UNC dissertation, "Labor Utilization and Productivity , Diversification and Self Sufficiency, Southern Plantations, 1800—1840" (no maps). Lewis Cecil Gray in History of Agriculture in the Southern United States to 1860 set a somewhat better example by using twenty maps to show the distribution of slaves and the evolving Walter E. Martin, Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223. 156Southeastern Geographer production of tobacco and cotton. Sam Hilliard has helped to revive this tradition of spatial analysis with the compilation of 111 historical maps. The niche for this contribution is long standing and well established . The Atlas ofAntebellum Southern Agriculture is organized in eight sections. Following a brief introduction the maps are grouped in seven categories: the land, the atmosphere, population, the land and labor system, livestock, major crops, and other crops. The selection of map themes does not stray far from the data sources which include the United States Census primarily and some input from the Atlas ofAmerican Agriculture and the Climatic Atlas of the United States. The manipulation of census data to produce "ratios" and "indices" is frequently tempting and occasionally enlightening but Hilliard's prudent selection of more straightforward measures results in a less controversial and more easily interpreted product. Most of the atlas is a cartographic version of the census itself. Dot maps, choropleth maps, and isarithmic maps are all suitably used to depict the pattern, density, and texture of southern agriculture. Pleasant shades of blue and brown combine with high quality semigloss paper to produce an aesthetically attractive work reasonably priced at $8.95 (paper). All maps are the same scale and projection inviting the reader to almost limitless spatial and temporal comparisons. The introduction briefly places the southern antebellum economy in a national context, provides the reader with a guide to reading and interpreting dot, choropleth, and isarithmic maps, and includes a brief discussion of sources. Section 1, The Land, delimits and discusses the major physiographic regions. The writing style is pleasant and lively enough to help the reader to see the verbal and cartographic portrayals: for example, "The face of the South is a wrinkled one, reflecting the complex of natural forces ..." The section also includes an invaluable map and description of southern topographic regions. Included in the forty-three "topographic regions" is everyplace from the Alabama Black Belt and the Boston...