Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
Thanks for your kind words. I had a wonderful time and enjoyed warm weather, which was a Godsend after the terrible summer we had here. Now I am back in this cold, consumptive little island and feeling rather sorry for myself!
We know that it is absurd to think that one can measure a person’s worth by the pigmentation of their skin. But it is really important to try to put our own views aside and try to immerse ourselves in the world as 19th century people saw it. And the key point here is that the beliefs you criticise were held by Northerners just as much as by Southerners. It seems that one cannot repeat this often enough: there was no meaningful distinction between the racial attitudes of Americans in the various sections of the country before the war.
Thank you for your approval. I intend to start the new thread Monday night as this weekend I will be involved with my two grandchildren. I too, look forward of guiding you to the light, you horrible little man.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Dawna
"But this was not much different than the average farmer in the South who was left impoverished and uneducated since only the wealthy could afford the luxury of an education.
In that time and age,anyone getting even 2 years of a backwoods school was considered having some education. This may not be a 'college' but it was an education. These 'uneducated farmers' held debates on everything from politics to 'The Origin of Man'(a very common topic after 1862, and even produced Shakesperian Plays.
I think they were better "educated' than formerly thought to be.
"Soldier correspondence and other firsthand evidence indicates that most of the Rebel rank and file lay between the two educational extremes. They were neither learned or illiterate, though it must be admitted that those who were barely literate were much more numerous than those of fair education."
(...but the great majority of companies throughout the army had anywhere from one to a score of members that could not sign their names.)
The Life of Johnny Reb-B. Wiley.
I'm amazed at the number of eloquent and heart warming letters that were written by so many soldiers during the Civil War, but as you indicated, the majority of correspondence indicates that the greater number of soldiers were barely literate.
Since children from wealthy families were educated by private tutors or sent to exclusive private academies, without access to public education it would appear that antebellum South neglected to provide education for it's citizens. How did the average, uneducated white farmer survive during the years of the Civil War?
From your post it seems that you think only wealthy people could read and write. Barely literate does not mean that everyone in the poorer classes could not read or write. Which is not true in any sense of the word.
Many parents of that time tried to make sure their kids got some schooling, even if only 1 or 2 years. They at least taught the 3 R's, if nothing else.
I would suppose they got by the same as the poor classes do today, back-breaking work. And, in that time, fighting over every scrap of food they could manage to keep the Yankees or even their own soldiers and neighbors, from stealing from them.
Chuck
My understanding is that those white people who were not wealthy received minimal education, and that was only if they were lucky enough to live near a town or city. Children could be sent to fee schools or charity schools, but many people were too proud to use either of these options.
I'm curious about the Southern education system at that time because it appears that Planters controlled the governmental revenues that could have financed public education, but they didn't. As a result, it must have been very difficult for the average rural person to receive even the slightest education.
The dominating slave holding class didn't see a need to create the means to produce cheap consumer goods for ordinary people so no infrastructure was built to move goods from production sites to the country. Since wealthy planters acquired what they wanted or needed by importing from Europe or the North, this would leave many white farmers deprived of necessary items had they been available. Perhaps these are the impoverished people that Sherman spoke of during his march to the South?
I can't wait for the new thread to start. But in the meantime I have a problem. I am not receiving ANY emails from civilwartalk.com...nada, zilch. I haven't changed any settings and I haven't blocked sender on this either.
Also I put in a bunch of stuff on Oddities of War last night and I can see them plainly on the thread, but I didn't get emails about them and they don't show up in "my recent posts" under my profile either.
Can anyone tell me what has happened, and am I the only one having this problem?
THIS enquiring mind wants to know.
__________________ Thea
No one has permission to use any material from any of my posts on any CWT forum, the archives, or any other forum without my express written permission.
All of your posts showed up last night (at least on my end) and I haven't had any problems receiving or sending posts today...hopefully your problem is resolved by now.
I understand what you are saying. Some of the more isolated families would send their kids into town to stay with relatives or friends when they were needed less on the farms. School was far different then, not running a 9 month system, but some schools were run by the farming seasons. Yes there were numbers that could only sign a X and not even recognize it when asked to, but still, there were ways to get some schooling, for most, if not all.
By this time in the war, everyone was getting to be impoverished. Little to no imported items they needed, just to live. And then the food supplies in some areas were wiped out, not so much by the Yanks but their own soldiers. Wheeler burned a lot of crops and even destroyed barns, houses, etc as they retreated in front of Sherman.
There was a movement before the war to get the monied people of the south to invest in factories to help cut the need for imports and keep more money there. Help it to grow. But it was rebuked almost everywhere. Know why there were as many cottom mills in SC as there were? It was because the land had become so overused it was becoming worthless for anything else. Some of thw wealthier plantation owners of Miss. and La. actually moved there from SC, as the soil weakened. This movement started in the early 30's.
To show how dependent they were on the North and Europe, the southern people bought many of their water buckets from the north, as outside a few people making their own, there was no industry to keep them supplied.
I could never understand why, when they kept complaining that the North was draining their money North, the South didn't start manufacturing some, if not a lot, of what they imported. Or even buy more 'domestic' products from the north, thus bypassing the duties they paid on European imports.
I guess once you get your head into the clouds, its almost impossible to see you own feet again.
Chuck in Il.
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Linear Mode
