Exhibit looks at how slavery divided N.Y.

[twilight_sailing]

NEW YORK - It was the war between North and South, between slavery and freedom, between New York and itself.

A new exhibit explores how slavery, while outlawed in New York state in 1827, continued to be an incredibly divisive issue, pitting the economic powerhouse of New York City's connection to the cotton trade against the moral outrage of white and free black New Yorkers disgusted by the institution.

New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War runs through Sept. 3 at the New-York Historical Society. It follows an exhibit from last year that looked at how important slavery was to the building of the city and state until it was made illegal.

New York was integral to both sides of the slavery issue in the decades leading up to the Civil War, the exhibit's organizers say. Cotton from Southern slave-holding plantations was a massive American export, and New York business helped keep it that way — lending money to plantation owners, taking delivery of the raw material and shipping it to Europe. For every dollar made off cotton, New York City got 38 cents.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/4341369.html

[malaise]

1. Thanks for this

and some useful links as well.

[Vorta]

2. I remember reading about financiers playing both sides against the middle

There was some article, can't source it, that lays out the game plan between some recognizable names ( like Carnegy or Mellon) and London financiers, essentially exposing all social and political issues we generally associate with the War as a ruse.

[twilight_sailing]

3. Who Is Richard Mellon Scaife?

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1998/04/27/scaife.profile/

No big deal. Just an interesting (IMO) little connection.