Don Wildman

The flip side of that economics is that much of that was done with forced labor.

I mean, there's a story to be told about steamboats having to do with slavery, correct?

Very visible there.

It's important, you know, we're going to talk about the romance of this in a moment, and yet important to keep it all in balance with what was not romantic at all.

The steamboats link these cities.

You mentioned New Orleans, St.

Louis, Cincinnati.

All of these commercial centers become tighter and tighter as a network, and therefore the economies grow as well and draw people to them.

It has everything to do with the development of this city.

whole settlement of the Middle West.

So after this short break coming up, we'll come back to talk about what it was like on board these ships.

I mean, we've all seen the movies.

We've all seen the Broadway show.

Let's talk about the reality of what was it like.

So welcome back.

We're talking to Professor Robert Goodman said, and we're discussing the context of the golden age of the steamboat, what it was like to be on board one of these ships.

Obviously, if you were a paid passenger, it was very different from being an enslaved person who's working on them.

But what would it be like as you walked around on one of those boats?

Robert, was it a glamorous experience or am I just looking through the lens of history?

You're not getting much.