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Book Secession

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charles River Charles River Editors
  • Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
  • Release : 2018-01-20
  • ISBN : 9781984037817
  • Pages : 124 pages

Download or read book Secession written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-01-20 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Explains the issues that led to secession, including the Missouri Compromise, Dred Scott, John Brown's Raid, Lincoln's election, and more. *Chronicles the secession of each of the 11 Confederate states, including passages from their ordinances of secession and their declarations justifying their secession. *Explains the preparation and fighting at Fort Sumter and its aftermath. *Includes pictures of important people, places, and events. On December 20, a little more than a month after Republican Abraham Lincoln had been elected the 16th president, a convention met in Charleston and passed the first ordinance of secession by one of the United States, declaring, "We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain... that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America, ' is hereby dissolved." That came two days after the failure of the Crittenden Compromise, a proposed Constitutional Amendment to reinstate the Missouri Compromise line and extend it to the Pacific failed. President Buchanan supported the measure, but President-Elect Lincoln said he refused to allow the further expansion of slavery under any conditions. In January 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Kansas followed South Carolina's lead, and the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4 in Montgomery, Alabama, with former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis inaugurated as its President. A few weeks later Texas joined, and after Fort Sumter several more states would secede and join the Confederacy, most notably Virginia. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the impetus for the secession of the South, but that was merely one of many events that led up to the formation of the Confederacy and the start of the Civil War. Sectional hostility over the issue of slavery had been bubbling for most of the 19th century, and violence had already broken out in places like Bleeding Kansas. Political issues like the Missouri Compromise, popular sovereignty, and the Fugitive Slave Act all added to the arguments. The secession of the South was one of the seminal events in American history, but it also remains one of the most controversial. Over the last 150 years, the greatest debate over the Civil War has remained just what caused it, and as recently as April 2010, Virginia's governor declared April "Confederate History Month in Virginia," issuing a proclamation that made no mention of slavery. Facing an intense backlash, Virginia's governor first defended his proclamation by noting "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states." Days later, the governor apologized for the omission of slavery. In turn, the governor's backtracking was criticized by many Southerners, most prominently the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a large organization dedicated to commemorating the Confederates. The governor later declared that there would be no Confederate History Month in 2011. Secession: The Formation of the Confederate States of America and the Start of the Civil War comprehensively covers the events and political issues that led up to the secession of the Southern states in 1860 and 1861, the fighting at Fort Sumter, and the immediate aftermath of the Civil War's first battle. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the creation of the Confederacy like you never have before, in no time at all.

Book Secession

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charles River Charles River Editors
  • Publisher :
  • Release : 2013-09-05
  • ISBN : 9781492341710
  • Pages : 64 pages

Download or read book Secession written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by . This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Explains the issues that led to secession, including the Missouri Compromise, Dred Scott, John Brown's Raid, Lincoln's election, and more. *Chronicles the secession of each of the 11 Confederate states, including passages from their ordinances of secession and their declarations justifying their secession. *Explains the preparation and fighting at Fort Sumter and its aftermath. *Includes pictures of important people, places, and events. On December 20, a little more than a month after Republican Abraham Lincoln had been elected the 16th president, a convention met in Charleston and passed the first ordinance of secession by one of the United States, declaring, "We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain... that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." That came two days after the failure of the Crittenden Compromise, a proposed Constitutional Amendment to reinstate the Missouri Compromise line and extend it to the Pacific failed. President Buchanan supported the measure, but President-Elect Lincoln said he refused to allow the further expansion of slavery under any conditions. In January 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Kansas followed South Carolina's lead, and the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4 in Montgomery, Alabama, with former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis inaugurated as its President. A few weeks later Texas joined, and after Fort Sumter several more states would secede and join the Confederacy, most notably Virginia. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the impetus for the secession of the South, but that was merely one of many events that led up to the formation of the Confederacy and the start of the Civil War. Sectional hostility over the issue of slavery had been bubbling for most of the 19th century, and violence had already broken out in places like Bleeding Kansas. Political issues like the Missouri Compromise, popular sovereignty, and the Fugitive Slave Act all added to the arguments. The secession of the South was one of the seminal events in American history, but it also remains one of the most controversial. Over the last 150 years, the greatest debate over the Civil War has remained just what caused it, and as recently as April 2010, Virginia's governor declared April "Confederate History Month in Virginia," issuing a proclamation that made no mention of slavery. Facing an intense backlash, Virginia's governor first defended his proclamation by noting "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states." Days later, the governor apologized for the omission of slavery. In turn, the governor's backtracking was criticized by many Southerners, most prominently the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a large organization dedicated to commemorating the Confederates. The governor later declared that there would be no Confederate History Month in 2011. Secession: The Formation of the Confederate States of America and the Start of the Civil War comprehensively covers the events and political issues that led up to the secession of the Southern states in 1860 and 1861, the fighting at Fort Sumter, and the immediate aftermath of the Civil War's first battle. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the creation of the Confederacy like you never have before, in no time at all.

Book The Secession of the South

Download or read book The Secession of the South written by Charles River and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2024-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On December 20, 1860, a little more than a month after Republican Abraham Lincoln had been elected the 16th president, a convention met in Charleston and passed the first ordinance of secession by one of the United States, declaring, "We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain... that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America, ' is hereby dissolved." That came two days after the failure of the Crittenden Compromise, a proposed Constitutional Amendment to reinstate the Missouri Compromise line and extend it to the Pacific failed. President Buchanan supported the measure, but President-Elect Lincoln said he refused to allow the further expansion of slavery under any conditions. In January 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Kansas followed South Carolina's lead, and the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4 in Montgomery, Alabama, with former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis inaugurated as its President. A few weeks later Texas joined, and after Fort Sumter several more states would secede and join the Confederacy, most notably Virginia. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the impetus for the secession of the South, but that was merely one of many events that led up to the formation of the Confederacy and the start of the Civil War. Sectional hostility over the issue of slavery had been bubbling for most of the 19th century, and violence had already broken out in places like Bleeding Kansas. Political issues like the Missouri Compromise, popular sovereignty, and the Fugitive Slave Act all added to the arguments. The secession of the South was one of the seminal events in American history, but it also remains one of the most controversial. Over the last 160 years, the greatest debate over the Civil War has remained just what caused it, and as recently as April 2010, Virginia's governor declared April "Confederate History Month in Virginia," issuing a proclamation that made no mention of slavery. Facing an intense backlash, Virginia's governor first defended his proclamation by noting "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states." Days later, the governor apologized for the omission of slavery. In turn, the governor's backtracking was criticized by many Southerners, most prominently the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a large organization dedicated to commemorating the Confederates. The governor later declared that there would be no Confederate History Month in 2011. Arguments over the war's causes are nothing new. Before the war had even ended, Confederate soldiers were asserting that they were fighting for states' rights. In the early 20th century, prominent historians such as Charles Beard theorized that the war was based on economic differences between the North and South. Although slavery had been the dominant political issue in the 50 years leading up to the Civil War, these historians began to assert that slavery was not necessarily a factor.

Book Rebels in the Making

    Book Details:
  • Author : William L. Barney
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press
  • Release : 2020-05-01
  • ISBN : 0190076100
  • Pages : 393 pages

Download or read book Rebels in the Making written by William L. Barney and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-05-01 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regardless of whether they owned slaves, Southern whites lived in a world defined by slavery. As shown by their blaming British and Northern slave traders for saddling them with slavery, most were uncomfortable with the institution. While many wanted it ended, most were content to leave that up to God. All that changed with the election of Abraham Lincoln. Rebels in the Making is a narrative-driven history of how and why secession occurred. In this work, senior Civil War historian William L. Barney narrates the explosion of the sectional conflict into secession and civil war. Carefully examining the events in all fifteen slave states and distinguishing the political circumstances in each, he argues that this was not a mass democratic movement but one led from above. The work begins with the deepening strains within Southern society as the slave economy matured in the mid-nineteenth century and Southern ideologues struggled to convert whites to the orthodoxy of slavery as a positive good. It then focuses on the years of 1860-1861 when the sectional conflict led to the break-up of the Union. As foreshadowed by the fracturing of the Democratic Party over the issue of federal protection for slavery in the territories, the election of 1860 set the stage for secession. Exploiting fears of slave insurrections, anxieties over crops ravaged by a long drought, and the perceived moral degradation of submitting to the rule of an antislavery Republican, secessionists launched a movement in South Carolina that spread across the South in a frenzied atmosphere described as the great excitement. After examining why Congress was unable to reach a compromise on the core issue of slavery's expansion, the study shows why secession swept over the Lower South in January of 1861 but stalled in the Upper South. The driving impetus for secession is shown to have come from the middling ranks of the slaveholders who saw their aspirations of planter status blocked and denigrated by the Republicans. A separate chapter on the formation of the Confederate government in February of 1861 reveals how moderates and former conservatives pushed aside the original secessionists to assume positions of leadership. The final chapter centers on the crisis over Fort Sumter, the resolution of which by Lincoln precipitated a second wave of secession in the Upper South. Rebels in the Making shows that secession was not a unified movement, but has its own proponents and patterns in each of the slave states. It draws together the voices of planters, non-slaveholders, women, the enslaved, journalists, and politicians. This is the definitive study of the seminal moment in Southern history that culminated in the Civil War.

Book The Day of the Confederacy  a Chronicle of the Embattled South

Download or read book The Day of the Confederacy a Chronicle of the Embattled South written by Nathaniel W. Stephenson and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2015-03-09 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a concise but comprehensive history of the secession of the Confederate States of America. On December 20, a little more than a month after Republican Abraham Lincoln had been elected the 16th president, a convention met in Charleston and passed the first ordinance of secession by one of the United States, declaring, "We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain... that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America,' is hereby dissolved." That came two days after the failure of the Crittenden Compromise, a proposed Constitutional Amendment to reinstate the Missouri Compromise line and extend it to the Pacific failed. President Buchanan supported the measure, but President-Elect Lincoln said he refused to allow the further expansion of slavery under any conditions. In January 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Kansas followed South Carolina's lead, and the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4 in Montgomery, Alabama, with former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis inaugurated as its President. A few weeks later Texas joined, and after Fort Sumter several more states would secede and join the Confederacy, most notably Virginia. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the impetus for the secession of the South, but that was merely one of many events that led up to the formation of the Confederacy and the start of the Civil War. Sectional hostility over the issue of slavery had been bubbling for most of the 19th century, and violence had already broken out in places like Bleeding Kansas. Political issues like the Missouri Compromise, popular sovereignty, and the Fugitive Slave Act all added to the arguments. The secession of the South was one of the seminal events in American history, but it also remains one of the most controversial. Over the last 150 years, the greatest debate over the Civil War has remained just what caused it, and as recently as April 2010, Virginia's governor declared April “Confederate History Month in Virginia,” issuing a proclamation that made no mention of slavery. Facing an intense backlash, Virginia's governor first defended his proclamation by noting "there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states.” Days later, the governor apologized for the omission of slavery. In turn, the governor's backtracking was criticized by many Southerners, most prominently the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a large organization dedicated to commemorating the Confederates. The governor later declared that there would be no Confederate History Month in 2011.Secession:

Book The Union that Shaped the Confederacy

Download or read book The Union that Shaped the Confederacy written by William C. Davis and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This biography tells how two Georgia men--Robert Toombs and Alexander H. Stephens--dominated the formation of the Confederacy and served as its vice president and secretary of state. 2 photos.

Book The Start of the Civil War

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charles River Charles River Editors
  • Publisher : CreateSpace
  • Release : 2013-08-24
  • ISBN : 9781492239789
  • Pages : 106 pages

Download or read book The Start of the Civil War written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-08-24 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures of important people, places, and events. *Includes maps of the battles. *Includes accounts of the fighting at Fort Sumter and First Bull Run by important generals and leaders who fought there. *Explains the causes and chain of events that led to the secession of Southern states and the formation of the Confederacy. *Includes a Bibliography for further reading. The secession of the South was one of the seminal events in American history, but it also remains one of the most controversial. The election of Abraham Lincoln was the impetus for secession, but that was merely one of many events that led up to the formation of the Confederacy and the start of the Civil War. On December 20, a little more than a month after Republican Abraham Lincoln had been elected the 16th president, a convention met in Charleston and passed the first ordinance of secession by one of the United States, declaring, "We, the people of the State of South Carolina in convention assembled, do declare and ordain... that the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of 'the United States of America, ' is hereby dissolved." In January 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Kansas followed South Carolina's lead, and the Confederate States of America was formed on February 4 in Montgomery, Alabama, with former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis inaugurated as its President. A few weeks later Texas joined. The Confederacy's hope of being let go in peace ended at 4:30 a.m. on the morning of April 12, 1861, when Confederate Brigadier-General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered the first shots to be fired at the federal garrison defending Fort Sumter in the Charleston Harbor, effectively igniting the Civil War. For nearly 36 hours, Beauregard's Confederates unleashed a general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars positioned at various points across the Harbor. Unable to effectively reply or defend themselves, Major Robert Anderson raised the white flag early in the afternoon of April 13, bringing the first battle of the Civil War to a close. No casualties were suffered on either side during the dueling bombardments across Charleston Harbor, but ironically two U.S. Army soldiers were killed by an accidental explosion during the surrender ceremonies. Fort Sumter is popularly remembered today as the first fighting of the Civil War, and a relatively painless battle at that, but much of the history before April 12 that led to the shelling of the fort is often overlooked. The federal garrison had been stationed there months before the fight, carefully watching the secession of South Carolina, the buildup of Confederate forces in the region, and the actions of the Buchanan Administration and incoming Lincoln administration in the weeks leading up to the bombardment. After Fort Sumter, the Lincoln Administration pushed for a quick invasion of Virginia, with the intent of defeating Confederate forces and marching toward the Confederate capitol of Richmond. Lincoln pressed Irvin McDowell to push forward. Despite the fact that McDowell knew his troops were inexperienced and unready, pressure from the Washington politicians forced him to launch a premature offensive against Confederate forces in Northern Virginia. Today First Bull Run is remembered as the first important land battle of the Civil War, but with over 350 killed on each side, it was the deadliest battle in American history to date, and both the Confederacy and the Union were quickly served notice that the war would be much more costly than either side had believed. The Start of the Civil War comprehensively covers all of the events that led to the secession of the South, the events that led up to the two historic battles, what happened at the battles, and their aftermath and legacies. Along with pictures and a Bibliography, you'll learn about the start of the Civil War like never before.

Book Seceding from Secession

    Book Details:
  • Author : Eric J. Wittenberg
  • Publisher : Savas Beatie
  • Release : 2020-06-09
  • ISBN : 1611215072
  • Pages : 290 pages

Download or read book Seceding from Secession written by Eric J. Wittenberg and published by Savas Beatie. This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “thoroughly researched [and] historically enlightening” account of how the Commonwealth of Virginia split in two in the midst of war (Civil War News). “West Virginia was the child of the storm.” —Mountaineer historian and Civil War veteran Maj. Theodore F. Lang As the Civil War raged, the northwestern third of the Commonwealth of Virginia finally broke away in 1863 to form the Union’s 35th state. Seceding from Secession chronicles those events in an unprecedented study of the social, legal, military, and political factors that converged to bring about the birth of West Virginia. President Abraham Lincoln, an astute lawyer in his own right, played a critical role in birthing the new state. The constitutionality of the mechanism by which the new state would be created concerned the president, and he polled every member of his cabinet before signing the bill. Seceding from Secession includes a detailed discussion of the 1871 U.S. Supreme Court decision Virginia v. West Virginia, in which former Lincoln cabinet member Salmon Chase presided as chief justice over the court that decided the constitutionality of the momentous event. Grounded in a wide variety of sources and including a foreword by Frank J. Williams, former Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court and Chairman Emeritus of the Lincoln Forum, this book is indispensable for anyone interested in American history.

Book Secession and the Formation of the Confederacy

Download or read book Secession and the Formation of the Confederacy written by William H. Clasby and published by . This book was released on 1936 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Confederate Military History

Download or read book Confederate Military History written by Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry and published by Jazzybee Verlag. This book was released on 2020-10-19 with total page 892 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work spanning twelve extensive volumes is the result of contributions by many Southern men to the literature of the United States that treats of the eventful years in which occurred the momentous struggle called by Mr. A. H. Stephens “the war between the States.” These contributions were made on a well-considered plan, to be wrought out by able writers of unquestionable Confederate record who were thoroughly united in general sentiment and whose generous labors upon separate topics would, when combined, constitute a library of Confederate military history and biography. According to the great principle in the government of the United States that one may result from and be composed of many — the doctrine of E pluribus unum--it was considered that intelligent men from all parts of the South would so write upon the subjects committed to them as to produce a harmonious work which would truly portray the times and issues of the Confederacy and by illustration in various forms describe the soldiery which fought its battles. Upon this plan two volumes — the first and the last-comprise such subjects as the justification of the Southern States in seceding from the Union and the honorable conduct of the war by the Confederate States government; the history of the actions and concessions of the South in the formation of the Union and its policy in securing the existing magnificent territorial dominion of the United States; the civil history of the Confederate States, supplemented with sketches of the President, Vice-President, cabinet officers and other officials of the government; Confederate naval history; the morale of the armies; the South since the war, and a connected outline of events from the beginning of the struggle to its close. The two volumes containing these general subjects are sustained by the other volumes of Confederate military history of the States of the South involved in the war. Each State being treated in separate history permits of details concerning its peculiar story, its own devotion, its heroes and its battlefields. The authors of the State histories, like those of the volumes of general topics, are men of unchallenged devotion to the Confederate cause and of recognized fitness to perform the task assigned them. It is just to say that this work has been done in hours taken from busy professional life, and it should be further commemorated that devotion to the South and its heroic memories has been their chief incentive. This volume one out of twelve, covering the secession and civil history of the Confederate States.

Book The Confederate Secession

Download or read book The Confederate Secession written by William Schomberg Robert Kerr Marquess of Lothian and published by . This book was released on 1864 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book A Short HIstory of the Confederate States of America

Download or read book A Short HIstory of the Confederate States of America written by Jefferson Davis and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2014-08-11 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about the real history of America and the causes of Lincoln's War against the Confederacy. President Davis delves into the forgotten history of these United States, contrasting the limited federal republic of sovereign States with what Yankee New England sought to turn these United States of 1783 into, a consolidated government under their rule - the United States we know today. He further goes into the reasons for secession, its lawfulness, the foundation of the Confederate States of America, and Lincoln's war of conquest against American States, not only Confederate, but Northern as well. This is a history that should be read by every American bewildered by the Federal government running roughshod over American liberties.

Book Confederate Reckoning

    Book Details:
  • Author : Stephanie McCurry
  • Publisher : Harvard University Press
  • Release : 2012-05-07
  • ISBN : 0674265912
  • Pages : 456 pages

Download or read book Confederate Reckoning written by Stephanie McCurry and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-07 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize Finalist Winner of the Frederick Douglass Prize Winner of the Merle Curti Prize “Perhaps the highest praise one can offer McCurry’s work is to say that once we look through her eyes, it will become almost impossible to believe that we ever saw or thought otherwise.”—Drew Gilpin Faust, The New Republic The story of the Confederate States of America, the proslavery, antidemocratic nation created by white Southern slaveholders to protect their property, has been told many times in heroic and martial narratives. Now, however, Stephanie McCurry tells a very different tale of the Confederate experience. When the grandiosity of Southerners’ national ambitions met the harsh realities of wartime crises, unintended consequences ensued. Although Southern statesmen and generals had built the most powerful slave regime in the Western world, they had excluded the majority of their own people—white women and slaves—and thereby sowed the seeds of their demise. Wartime scarcity of food, labor, and soldiers tested the Confederate vision at every point and created domestic crises to match those found on the battlefields. Women and slaves became critical political actors as they contested government enlistment and tax and welfare policies, and struggled for their freedom. The attempt to repress a majority of its own population backfired on the Confederate States of America as the disenfranchised demanded to be counted and considered in the great struggle over slavery, emancipation, democracy, and nationhood. That Confederate struggle played out in a highly charged international arena. The political project of the Confederacy was tried by its own people and failed. The government was forced to become accountable to women and slaves, provoking an astounding transformation of the slaveholders’ state. Confederate Reckoning is the startling story of this epic political battle in which women and slaves helped to decide the fate of the Confederacy and the outcome of the Civil War.

Book Slavery and Secession in America

Download or read book Slavery and Secession in America written by Thomas Ellison and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 1862 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book The Story of a Great Conflict  a History of the War of Secession

Download or read book The Story of a Great Conflict a History of the War of Secession written by Rossiter Johnson and published by New York, Bryan, Taylor & Company. This book was released on 1894 with total page 758 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Book Secession Winter

    Book Details:
  • Author : Robert J Cook
  • Publisher : Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM
  • Release : 2013-03-22
  • ISBN : 142140897X
  • Pages : 161 pages

Download or read book Secession Winter written by Robert J Cook and published by Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM. This book was released on 2013-03-22 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three historians examine what drove southern secession in the winter of 1860-1861 and why it culminated in the American Civil War. Politicians and opinion leaders on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line struggled to formulate coherent responses to the secession of the deep South states. The Confederate attack on Fort Sumter in mid-April 1861 triggered civil war and the loss of four upper South states from the Union. The essays by three senior historians in Secession Winter explore the robust debates that preceded these events. For five months in the winter of 1860–1861, Americans did not know for certain that civil war was upon them. Some hoped for a compromise; others wanted a fight. Many struggled to understand what was happening to their country. Robert J. Cook, William L. Barney, and Elizabeth R. Varon take approaches to this period that combine political, economic, and social-cultural lines of analysis. Rather than focus on whether civil war was inevitable, they look at the political process of secession and find multiple internal divisions—political parties, whites and nonwhites, elites and masses, men and women. Even individual northerners and southerners suffered inner conflicts. The authors include the voices of Unionists and Whig party moderates who had much to lose and upcountry folk who owned no slaves and did not particularly like those who did. Barney contends that white southerners were driven to secede by anxiety and guilt over slavery. Varon takes a new look at Robert E. Lee’s decision to join the Confederacy. Cook argues that both northern and southern politicians claimed the rightness of their cause by constructing selective narratives of historical grievances.

Book The Formation of the Confederacy

Download or read book The Formation of the Confederacy written by Russell Roberts and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Describes the social and political differences between the American North and South that lead to the secession of eleven states, the formation of the Confederate States of America, and the start of the American Civil War. Includes critical "Think About It" questions and a "Voices from the Past" special feature"--