GRAND EMPORIUM, MERCANTILE MONSTER by Professor Emeritus, Dr. Ritchie Watson. The Antebellum South's Love-Hate Affair with New York City. Ritchie Devon Watson Jr. is Professor Emeritus of English at Randolph-Macon College. Drawing on contemporary letters, diaries, fiction, and travel writings, GRAND EMPORIUM, MERCANTILE MONSTER provides the first detailed study of the complicated relationship between the antebellum South and New York City in the decades leading up to the Civil War. Focusing on the crucial period of 1820 to 1860, Grand Emporium, Mercantile Monster examines the strong economic bonds between the antebellum plantation South and the burgeoning city of New York that resulted from the highly lucrative trade in cotton. In this richly detailed work of literary and cultural history, Ritchie Devon Watson Jr. charts how the partnership brought fantastic wealth to both the South and Gotham during the first half of the nineteenth century. That mutually beneficial alliance also cemented New York’s reputation as the northern metropolis most supportive of and hospitable to southerners. Published June 2023 by LSU Press.