"South Carolinian James Henry Hammond famously called the antebellum South, 'the cotton kingdom.' Michael Frawley's stimulating analysis offers a more dynamic understanding to the Gulf states on the eve of the Civil War. As he persuasively demonstrates, southern industry was extensive and fully integrated into the regional and national economies. A fresh corrective to older historical arguments, Industrial Development and Manufacturing in the Antebellum Gulf South is a noteworthy contribution to the history of capitalism in the slave states. -- Richard Follett, author of The Sugar Masters: Planters and Slaves in Louisiana's Cane World, 1820-1860