Book Outlines Intertwined History of Cotton, Race
Gene Dattel grew up in the segregated South and was one of the few Mississippians enrolled at Yale University in 1962 when his home state became ensnared in a bloody confrontation over integration.
More than 1,200 miles and a cultural universe away from the land of cotton, the white freshman found himself answering questions about the violent resistance to James Meredith's court-ordered admission as the first black student at the University of Mississippi.
"I was really put on the defensive," Dattel, now 65 and living in New York City, recalled recently.
He said his struggle to answer questions, and to understand what led to events of the day, prompted him to begin an intense course of study. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Yale in 1966 and a law degree from Vanderbilt University in 1969.
Now, after decades of working in international finance and lecturing occasionally at universities, Dattel has written a book titled "Cotton and Race in the Making of America: The Human Costs of Economic Power." The publisher, Ivan R. Dee of Chicago, gave the book an initial print run of 7,500 copies.
"Cotton and Race" is a compelling story of how the cash crop shaped the 19th-century global economy and magnified the United States' racial problems. His narrative begins during the framing of the U.S. Constitution in the 1780s, decades before the cotton boom. It ends in about 1930, when, Dattel says, subsidies made cotton "a permanent ward of the federal government."
While Dattel's work condemns slavery as "a tragedy of racial epic proportions," the book focuses more on money than morality.
"Without cotton, slavery would most probably have been headed for extinction," Dattel writes.
The book outlines changes in society, including Europeans' demand for clothing made from cotton rather than wool, that made the crop the top U.S. export from 1803 to 1937. It also notes that the cotton trade helped propel New York to commercial prominence...
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More than 1,200 miles and a cultural universe away from the land of cotton, the white freshman found himself answering questions about the violent resistance to James Meredith's court-ordered admission as the first black student at the University of Mississippi.
"I was really put on the defensive," Dattel, now 65 and living in New York City, recalled recently.
He said his struggle to answer questions, and to understand what led to events of the day, prompted him to begin an intense course of study. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Yale in 1966 and a law degree from Vanderbilt University in 1969.
Now, after decades of working in international finance and lecturing occasionally at universities, Dattel has written a book titled "Cotton and Race in the Making of America: The Human Costs of Economic Power." The publisher, Ivan R. Dee of Chicago, gave the book an initial print run of 7,500 copies.
"Cotton and Race" is a compelling story of how the cash crop shaped the 19th-century global economy and magnified the United States' racial problems. His narrative begins during the framing of the U.S. Constitution in the 1780s, decades before the cotton boom. It ends in about 1930, when, Dattel says, subsidies made cotton "a permanent ward of the federal government."
While Dattel's work condemns slavery as "a tragedy of racial epic proportions," the book focuses more on money than morality.
"Without cotton, slavery would most probably have been headed for extinction," Dattel writes.
The book outlines changes in society, including Europeans' demand for clothing made from cotton rather than wool, that made the crop the top U.S. export from 1803 to 1937. It also notes that the cotton trade helped propel New York to commercial prominence...