This first book to make a detailed exploration of the system of riverboat traffic of the Delta region, Steamboats and the Cotton Economy is also the first balanced study showing how steamboats in the early years of the republic performed essentially the same role that railroads would later perform in revolutionizing the interior of the nation. Today, the mention of steamboats conjures up romantic visions of cotton landings and mythological river traders. Some of the steamboats plying the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta waterways give form to the myth. Others call forth the true work-a-day...

Perspectives and Irony in American Slavery Edited by Harry P. Owens Essays by Carl N. Degler, Eugene D. Genovese, David Brion Davis, Stanley L. Engerman, William K. Scarborough, John W. Blassingame, and Kenneth M. Stampp This volume is an outgrowth of a symposium entitled "The Slave Experience in America: A Bicentennial Perspective," sponsored by the University of Mississippi in October, 1975. Few institutions have had as much influence on American history as the institution of slavery. For at least three centuries slavery has generated discussion, heated debate, or active denunciation. In...

Not all codes and traditions of the Old South ended abruptly with the Civil War. For many historians, however, there is truth in the thesis that the war marks the division between the Old South and the New South. To assess what happened to the old order during the tumultuous four years of the Confederacy, the essays in this book examine the South's dealing with the problem of continuity and persistence as a new era emerged. In the crucible of war what happened to the class system, to yeomen and planters, to millions of slaves, and to the common soldier? Myths and realities of the Old South...