Fair to Middlin' · the Antebellum Cotton Trade of the Apalachicola/Chattahoochee River Valley

Doing business in the antebellum South required a very delicate balancing act - with the central role in the process played by the coastal merchant. From this vantage point the merchant manipulated the resources from the up-river suppliers and, through an intricate economic network and banking, provided cotton to the international brokers. It was, in effect, a closed system on each river under the careful control of the coastal merchants. This study focuses on the port of Apalachicola, Florida, and the businessmen who created a chain of international finance and trade in the promotion and distribution of the Old South's major source of income.