A chromolithograph depicting U.S. Army General (and President) Zachary Taylor's Louisiana plantation near the Mississippi River. The print depicts a man standing in a small rowboat on the Mississippi shore with houses in the background and a steamboat on the river. A page taken from Henry Lewis Das Illustrierte Mississippithal [The Mississippi Valley Illustrated]. Taylor, as a slave-owner and member of the Southern planter class, supported the system of slavery established in the United States at this time. Slavery was one of the contributing factors leading to the war between the U.S. and Mexico. As the U.S. pushed for the annexation of Texas territories (in which the Mexican government had abolished slavery in 1829 and had subsequently attempted to prevent more slave owners from entering these areas), influential slaveowners throughout Texas and the South contributed funds and equipment to the war effort and served in the army in order to defend the slave system and gain more land in which to expand the presence of plantations.
