Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Maps and Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The New Orleans -- One: Southern Steamboat Entrepreneurs -- Two: Working on Old Man River -- Three: Floating Palaces and High-Pressure Prisons -- Four: Indian Removal -- Five: Speed and Safety -- Six: The Nature of Improvements -- Seven: The Rise of the Cotton Kingdom -- Eight: Steamboats in Decline -- Epilogue: Mark Twain's Odyssey -- Appendix A: Estimates of Steamboat Construction, Tonnage, and Longevity on Southern Rivers, 1811-1860 -- Appendix B: Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and Cherokees Removed by Steamboat, 1830-1843 -- Appendix C: Estimates of Accident Rate, 1811-1851, and Fatality Rate from Boiler Explosions, 1816-1848, for Western Steamboats -- Appendix D: Estimates of Wood Consumption by Southern Steamboats, 1811-1860 -- Appendix E: Estimated Costs Associated with Southern Steamboats, 1811-1860 . . . 186 -- Appendix F: Estimated Ton-Miles, Passenger Miles, and Tonnage Hauled for Southern Steamboats and Southern Railroads in Selected Years -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index.