Before the American Civil War, especially 1840-1861, great quantities of cotton were shipped to Europe from New Orleans. Returning ships, rather than dead-heading, carried immigrants. As I understand, most of the cotton carriers went to Le Havre, so that would be the place from which to obtain cheap passage. I also understand that some westbound ships stopped at Baltimore to discharge passengers not going to New Orleans. Bob Doerr in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks Please see http://www.rollanet.org/~bdoerr/state.htm