Farmers in antebellum America were committed to a mix of subsistence and commercial production. Slavery and the cotton gin drove the rapid expansion of cotton farming in the South. Slavery and the plantation system also created profitable markets for northern farmers, particularly for the sale of corn and pork. Midwestern farmers increasingly specialized their production for local and regional markets, and the emerging railroad network carried farm products to eastern markets cheaply and efficiently. Northeastern farmers could not compete with Midwestern farmers who raised cattle, hogs, and grain, and they began to specialize in dairy, hay, and fruit production. Rapid technological change and settlement between

Frontier prairie farmers near Lexington, Nebraska, ca. 1890. © BETTMANN/CORBIS

the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River also characterized agriculture during the antebellum years. Periodic economic depressions caused financial problems but most farmers experienced general economic improvement during the antebellum period. Prior to the...