A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN THE COTTON KINGDOM : FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED AND THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH

This paper takes as its subject Frederick Law Olmsted\u27s experiences as a northern journalist traveling in the South before the Civil War. Olmsted (1822-1903), produced numerous newspaper articles and published three books and a one-volume edition of the three titled The Cotton Kingdom. Much of the quoted material in this paper is taken from this abridgement. The focus of this paper is Olmsted\u27s experiences as a traveler. His thoughts on southern transportation via stagecoach, steamboat and train will be dealt with at some length, as will his estimate of the southern road system. Also, his stays in hotels and private homes, since they make up much of his experience with the southern people and therefore figure in much of his writing, form another section of this paper. Because meals are important to all travelers, this subject will not be neglected. Also, service at the hotels and inns at which Olmsted stayed will be treated. Finally, his thoughts on the character and manners of northerners and southerners will be surveyed. Another theme of this paper is sectionalism. The North and the South, from the earliest times, had been culturally distinct. The Civil War was not so much a war of brother against brother as it was a war between two cultures. It will be necessary to provide a brief background sketch of America in the 1850\u27s so that the reader will have a better understanding of the forces at work driving the two sections apart. Slavery was, of course, the most divisive issue between the North and the South, but other differences existed that, though they did not cause as much emotion as slavery, were also important in bringing on the war. Olmsted\u27s The Cotton Kingdom is a valuable document about American culture at perhaps the most important period in American history. A study of it is important to an understanding of the factors that shaped America at this time. Because Olmsted was an educated northern gentleman traveling in the South, his writings form a unique window on a now largely vanished culture as well as contributing to our understanding of how the North and the South differed