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.
Excellent anecdote JT. I can see it happening in that the tarheels had little respect for South Carolina to begin with and, in the west, even less for all the flatlanders. I'm just wondering how that man let so many pass before he took his stand.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Strangely enough that was still much the attitude in the 1960s and later. I was born in the mountains and lived in Raleigh and Charlotte until 1978 when I moved to Tennessee. There was a 'superior' attitude by tarheels toward their southern neighbors, deserved or not.
If one did an economic analysis of slavery in 1860, Virginia would continue to have a surplus of slaves, in the foreseeable future, and needed "export markets". This not only meant selling slaves in the deep South, it meant a continuing market in the territories.
That was a major fear of Virginian elites. That Lincoln, with Congressional assistance, could ban or decrease the slave market in the territories. While Congress and the President couldn't directly affect slavery in the Southern states, it could seriously jeopardize its economy in the territories.
The Southern states were no longer the power in the Congress of earlier years, and the increase of anti-slavery attitude in the Congress was anticipated.
The great flaw of the Confederacy was, not only was it totally unprepared for war, it lacked industry to expand and adequately meet the needs of war. It never overcame the logistics problems of supplying a war economy, adequately.
The Civil War was great for the United States economy. It produced economic giants that even 140 years later, their names are familiar to many Americans, as are many generals.
Perhaps the greatest hurdle for the Confederate states was the completion of the railroads in order for industrialization to have a foothold. The AOT couldn't find a continuous rail, for instance, from Mississippi to Georgia in 1865. That came within five years, though the scorched fields and missing workers put a pause in southern zeal. Much has changed in the past 150 years. If we could just keep the yanks at home, the pace would slow to a comfortable rate, but I don't see that happening. Taxes going up again!
Yeomanry. Loyal Southerners. Come to Your Country's Call!
To put down TREASON and REBELLION and hand down to our Children, unimpaired, the Rich Legacy of the Glorious Union achieved and sealed with the blood of our forefathers.
DO NOT CAST YOUR LOT WITH THE REBELS. The secessionists, the flatlanders, the planters, the so-called gentlemen whose fine daughters do not acknowledge your existence would have you fight their RICH MAN'S WAR. If you join their rebel army it will be a POOR MAN'S FIGHT.
James B. Bell, a farmer who owned no slaves, was typical of an Alabama unionist. He blamed secession on large "Negroholders." In a letter to his pro-confederate son in Mississippi on April 21, 1861, he wrote. "All they [slave holders] want is to git you pupt up and go fight for there infurnal negroes and after you do there fighting you may kiss there hine parts for o [all] they care."
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"It was a very peculiar time." - Franklin D. Cossitt
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