MODULE # 5

"King Cotton"

I. Outline:

                    A. Cotton History:
                         1. End of "Golden Age" of cotton planters.
                         2. U.S. emerging as an industrial nation.
                         3. South producing raw materials – North increasing industrial
                              production.
                              a. South sinking further into colonial status.
                              b. South committed to industrial progress for other lands (because
                                  of cotton) but not for itself.

                   B. "King Cotton" Illusion:
                         1. Belief that Europe would be ruined if any disruption of cotton flow
                             from the South occurred.
                         2. Any blockade would be broken in an attempt to keep flow open.
                         3. Europe and the North would war (thus insuring Southern independence).

                    C. Cotton Embargo:
                         1. Attempt (by committees of public safety) to invoke the sovereignty
                             of King Cotton.
                         2. Never officially endorsed by the Confederate Congress.
                         3. England (and, therefore, the rest of Europe) not likely to submit to
                             economic "blackmail."
                         4. England develops alternative sources of cotton in India and Egypt.

                    D. Reversal of Embargo (1863):
                         1. Cotton famine in England worst in late 1862.
                         2. Textiles losing central support in England (ship-building and
                             munitions industries replace textiles).

                    E. The South needed England more than England needed the South’s
                         cotton.

II. Military Significance:

                    A. "No power on earth dares to make war on cotton!" (Illusion that cotton
                         would protect the South from Northern military actions).

                    B. Cotton was the chief weapon of Southern foreign policy.

                    C. Growth of Union Navy spurred by implementation of the blockade.

                    D. Cotton trade during the war more profitable than before.

III. Required Reading:

                    Craven. Coming. 94-116.

                    McPherson. Battle Cry. 91-103, 382-387.

                    __________. Ordeal. 216-218, 378-382

.

IV. Vocabulary:

A.	William Porcher Miles		G.	Emperor Napoleon
B.	James Hammond		H.	Cotton Belt
C.	A. Dudley Mann		I.	Robert J. Walker
D.	Count de Morny**		J.	Pierre A Rost
E.	Lord John Russell		K.	Calico Act
F.	Eli Whitney		L.	David Clark

**Count de Morny - Born, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, he was the illegitimate half brother of Emperor Napoleon III.  He was a military hero to the French people and was elected to the legislature in 1854.  He served as President of that body until 1865.  His service on behalf of his half brother got him in trouble with Secretary of State William Seward when he strongly supported Maximillian as the Emperor of Mexico in 1863.  Seward advised the French to get out of Mexico and threatened Count de Morny with military action if they failed to do so.  It became a moot point when France pulled its troops out of Mexico and Maximillian faced a firing squad.