Abstract
Economic independence from the North was a desired goal of antebellum southern leaders of the nineteenth century. Southern Commercial Convention participants strongly supported such independence at their meetings held irregularly between 1837 and 1860. They proposed that Southerners should trade directly with Europe for manufactured goods in exchange for cotton and other products produced in the South. In Leon County, Florida, newly-settled planters had arranged for direct trade with Liverpool by 1831. Plantation supplies such as Negro clothes and blankets, bagging, iron, and salt from Liverpool sold at lower prices than similar goods from New York in 1835. Although the exchange with Europe continued spasmodically, the desire for more independence from the North was evident in the contemporary Tallahassee newspapers.
Recommended Citation
Ordonez, Margaret T.
(1981)
"Plantation Self-Sufficiency in Leon County, Florida: 1824-1860,"
Florida Historical Quarterly: Vol. 60:
No.
4, Article 4.
Available at:
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/fhq/vol60/iss4/4
