A lot were out of New England.
And, pray tell, why weren’t more out of the Southern States?
Virtually all of them were out of New York/New England.
And, pray tell, why weren’t more out of the Southern States?
This was a question that I myself had spent quite awhile wondering, and i'm still not sure I have a good answer for that, but I did happen to run across a fellow who gave me the best explanation for it I have yet heard. (and he has a particularly important perspective on the topic, he is descended from those very shippers of New York that controlled the trade. It was their family business. ) To put it most simply, it was the consequence of money and a near monopoly on the existing shipping industry. It's like they "Standard Oiled" the Southern manufactures and shipping industries out of business.
I will try to find the link for this fellow's explanation of it, but it is deep in another thread on this subject, but for whatever reason, virtually the entire shipping industry had become controlled out of New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
They set their rates at just below the costs of hiring a foreign ship and crew per the Navigation act of 1817. The Southern growers knew they were getting screwed, but couldn't do anything about it.
The South had no shipping industry.