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The Cotton Kingdom: A Traveler’s Observations on Cotton and Slavery in the American Slave States, 1853–1861 Audiobook
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In 1853, Frederick Law Olmsted was working for the New York Times when he journeyed to the southern slave states and wrote one of the most important pro-abolition discourses.
The Cotton Kingdom recounts his daily observations of the curse of slavery: the poverty it brought to both black and white people, the inadequacies of the plantation system, and the economic consequences and problems associated with America’s most “peculiar institution.”
Disproving the opinion that “cotton is king,” Olmsted examined the huge differences between the economies of the northern and southern states, contrasting the more successful, wealthy, and progressive North with the South, which was stubbornly convinced of the necessity of slavery.
Hailed as one of the most convincing and influential antislavery arguments, Olmsted’s work was widely praised, with London’s Westminster Review declaring, “it is impossible to resist his accumulated evidence.”
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About Frederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) was an American landscape architect, journalist, social critic, and public administrator. Considered the nation’s foremost landscape architect, he is best known for designing New York City’s Central Park. Before that, he was a correspondent for the New York Times, and it was under its auspices that he journeyed through the slave states in the 1850s. His day-by-day observations were collected in The Cotton Kingdom, published in 1861 to great acclaim.
About the Narrators
John Lescault, a native of Massachusetts, is a graduate of the Catholic University of America. He lives in Washington, DC, where he works in theater.
John Lescault, a native of Massachusetts, is a graduate of the Catholic University of America. He lives in Washington, DC, where he works in theater.