Industrial Development and Manufacturing in the Antebellum Gulf South

Michael S. Frawley's book rests on an ingenious research method. Combing through newspaper advertisements, city directories, and R. G. Dun credit reports, he found a number of manufacturing firms missing from the 1860 manufacturing census of the Gulf South (defined as Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas, as the census returns of Louisiana have been lost). The number of manufacturing firms and employees might have been as much as 25 percent higher than enumerated in the 1860 census. Using the corrected estimates, Frawley claims, throws into doubt the arguments of antislavery observers (Frederick Law Olmsted is a favorite target) and subsequent economic historians who believed that slavery retarded southern industrial growth and economic development. Fawley contends that northern criticisms of slavery as economically backward missed the hidden economic vitality of the Gulf South. Many historians will appreciate the considerable statistical research that Frawley undertook. There are dozens of tables, graphs, and maps

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