The Northern Manufacturers of Southern Plantation Goods

Plantation owners in the Southern United States regularly furnished their enslaved workers with goods – clothing, shoes, axes, and shovels, that had been manufactured in the North. Many Northern manufacturers specifically targeted the Southern plantation market, enticed by the prospect of selling cheap goods on a regular schedule. While in some cases the Northern manufacturers supported surprising politics – joining the Republican Party and donating to Abolitionist causes – they had no qualms about making their money in an industry adjacent to the slave economy. Joining me in this episode is Dr. Seth Rockman , Associate Professor of History at Brown University and author of Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery . Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag , composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “ Relaxing Enchanted Piano ” by Mikhail Smusev from Pixabay and is used under the Pixabay Content License . The episode image is “ Brogans, Manufacturer Little & Co., third quarter 19th century ,” Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of the Brooklyn Museum, 2009; Gift of…