A House Dividing

John Majewski. A House Dividing: Economic Development in Pennsylvania and Virginia Before the Civil War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000

In order to examine the role that slavery played in retarding the economic development in the antebellum South, Majewski has written a work of comparative history contrasting Albemarle County, Virginia, and Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Both counties were somewhat inland but directly connected to the Atlantic economy, and both were settled in the colonial era. Furthermore, Virginia and Pennsylvania shared certain characteristics that the latter wouldn't share with a Deep South state--they were both former colonies, and both had a trans-Allegheny hinterland which proved a challenge for early transportation improvements to surmount. In fact, Pennsylvania's efforts were expensive and not always successful in that endeavor, and Virginia's were complete failures.

Both states utilized "developmental corporations", with both private and public (State) financing, to build turnpikes and canals originally. However, issues with canals--which were much more expensive than turnpikes per mile--put a high strain on local financing. Getting statewide political support for transportation initiatives which would favor one county, town, or region over another proved very difficult. In the end, Pennsylvania was able to get the Mainline Canal (which also included rail sections) built largely because of the critical mass of interested investment capital in Philadelphia and also Pittsburgh.

Virginia, on the other hand, did not have any cities anywhere near as big in absolute or relative (to the rest of the state population) as Philadelphia. While Majewski cites geography as part of the reason, he argues that slavery was the root cause. The plantation economy encouraged low population density growth, and the minimal processing needs of the tobacco industry discouraged the development of central places and towns. Rather than a Boston or a Philadelphia or a New York City--or even a Charleston, SC or New Orleans--Virgina had several relatively small urban centers along the fall line from north to south, none of which had as diverse a manufacturing economy as Philadelphia did.

Every step of the way, Virginia's structural weaknesses compounded the issue, as a lack of development led to lagging growth, which could not fund further needed development, and so on. Majewski makes a strong case but further examination into the developmental possibilities and limitations of slave labor would strengthen his argument.