cotton

Edward Baptist's rigorously researched book interweaves economic analysis of the slave trade and the production that came from it with heartbreaking stories of the lives and suffering of the people who were enslaved.

Whites who live in parts of the South once dominated by the slave economy are much more likely than other Southerners to express resentment toward blacks, to oppose affirmative action, and to vote Republican, according to a new study by political scientists at the University of Rochester.

Cheap labor, regressive taxes, federal dependency: Is the South's economic approach really an example for the nation?