There was a considerable amount of Copperhead sentiment in New York City during the Civil War. The mayor New York City (up to 1862), Fernando Wood was notoriously sympathetic to the Confederacy. In January 1861, he proposed that New York City secede from the Union and declare itself a free city, in order that it might continue its profitable cotton trade with the Confederacy. And we shouldn't forget the Draft Riots of 1863 either.
Jim F.
-- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
On Nov 19, 2007, at 5:30 PM, farmelantj at juno.com wrote:
> In antebellum days wasn't the South basically an economic colony of
> Great Britain, whose textile mills were dependent upon Southern
> cotton?
Via New York City. Most of the South's cotton was exported by New York merchants, and the imported fabrics and garments were shipped back through New York. The city's elite was very sympathetic to the South until the moment the Civil War broke out, when they made the necessary patriotic turn. The upper-class boys of the 7th regiment - whose armory is where Steve Schwarzman held his 60th birthday party last February - actually went off to war for a few weeks, but came back because of the press of business. There's a lot about all this in Sven Beckert's book.
Doug ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk