There was no whaling from Florida ports, and few if any Floridians ever went whaling on northern ships.

However, much of the cotton used for sails and other New England textiles was grown in the Deep South, and was loaded onto ships in Pensacola and other Gulf ports for transport to the northern factories.

Also, the African-American stevedore songs of the Gulf ports were carried to sea by black sailors in the 1820s and '30s, and furnished the repertoire of chanteys (shipboard worksongs) sung by whalemen.