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  1. Home
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  3. A House Dividing
  • Cited by 29
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
September 2010
Print publication year:
2000
Online ISBN:
9780511528699
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511528699
Subjects:
Economics, Economics: General Interest, History, Economic Development and Growth, Early Republic and Antebellum History
Series:
Studies in Economic History and Policy
Information

Book description

A House Dividing compares Virginia and Pennsylvania to answer a crucial question of American history: how did slavery undermine the development of the southern economy? Extensive archival research reveals that in the first decades of the nineteenth century, local residents in each state financed transportation improvements to raise land values and spur commercial growth. In the 1830s, however, Philadelphia capitalists began financing Pennsylvania's railroad network, eventually building integrated systems that reached deep within the Midwest. Virginia's railroads, still dependent upon local investment and funds from the state government, remained a collection of local lines without western connections. The lack of a great city that could provide capital and traffic for large-scale railroads was the Achilles' heel of Virginia's slave economy. The chains of slavery, Virginians learned to their dismay, also shackled the invisible hand of the market.

Reviews

‘This scholarly work is also a very pleasurable read.’

Source: Open History

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