From Southern Plantation to Northern Mill: Traveling the Cotton Trail During the Civil War

During the Civil War, all commercial relations between North and South were ruptured and declared treasonous. Nonetheless, a vigorous cotton trade between both sides re-emerged through the neutral port of Matamoros, Mexico. The politics of war were seemingly trumped by the “invisible hand” of the market. Professor Montejano approaches this conundrum by following the cotton stream from Texas to Massachusetts and making visible the many hands involved in this suspect wartime commerce.