The Road to Disunion: Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854:
- ISBN-10
- 0199840326
- ISBN-13
- 9780199840328
- Series
- The Road to Disunion
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 656
- Language
- English
- Published
- 1991-12-05
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Author
- William W. Freehling
Description
Far from a monolithic block of diehard slave states, the South in the eight decades before the Civil War was, in William Freehling's words, "a world so lushly various as to be a storyteller's dream." It was a world where Deep South cotton planters clashed with South Carolina rice growers, where the egalitarian spirit sweeping the North seeped down through border states already uncertain about slavery, where even sections of the same state (for instance, coastal and mountain Virginia) divided bitterly on key issues. It was the world of Jefferson Davis, John C. Calhoun, Andrew Jackson, and Thomas Jefferson, and also of Gullah Jack, Nat Turner, and Frederick Douglass. Now, in the first volume of his long awaited, monumental study of the South's road to disunion, historian William Freehling offers a sweeping political and social history of the antebellum South from 1776 to 1854. All the dramatic events leading to secession are here: the Missouri Compromise, the Nullification Controversy, the Gag Rule ("the Pearl Harbor of the slavery controversy"), the Annexation of Texas, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Freehling vividly recounts each crisis, illuminating complex issues and sketching colorful portraits of major figures. Along the way, he reveals the surprising extent to which slavery influenced national politics before 1850, and he provides important reinterpretations of American republicanism, Jeffersonian states' rights, Jacksonian democracy, and the causes of the American Civil War. But for all Freehling's brilliant insight into American antebellum politics, Secessionists at Bay is at bottom the saga of the rich social tapestry of the pre-war South. He takes us to old Charleston, Natchez, and Nashville, to the big house of a typical plantation, and we feel anew the tensions between the slaveowner and his family, the poor whites and the planters, the established South and the newer South, and especially between the slave and his master, "Cuffee" and "Massa." Freehling brings the Old South back to life in all its color, cruelty, and diversity. It is a memorable portrait, certain to be a key analysis of this crucial era in American history.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2008-10-01
- 624 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
-
- 2008-10-01
- 605 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press
-
- 2008-10-01
- 624 pages
- Ebook
- Oxford University Press
-
- 1991-12-05
- 656 pages
- Paperback
- Oxford University Press
Similar books
-
The Road to Disunion: Secessionists triumphant, 1854-1861
By William W. FreehlingVol. 1 is a sweeping political and social history of the antebellum South from 1776 to 1854.
-
Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, 1816-1836
By William W. FreehlingFresh analysis revises many previous theories on origins & significance of the nullification controversy.
-
Disunion!: The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859
By Elizabeth R. VaronHarrison commanded 234 electoral votes to Van Buren's 60 and won 19 of the 26 states. In his lengthy inaugural address, Harrison articulated his mandate to preserve the ''cordial, confiding, fraternal union.
-
The South Vs. The South: How Anti-Confederate Southerners Shaped the Course of the Civil War
By William W. FreehlingConcise and provocative, The South Vs. the South will forever change the way we view the Civil War.
-
Becoming Lincoln
By William W. FreehlingThe book concludes with a substantial epilogue in which Freehling turns to Lincoln’s wartime presidency to assess how the preceding fifty-one years of experience shaped the Great Emancipator’s final four years.
-
The South's Forgotten Fire-Eater: David Hubbard and North Alabama's Long Road to Disunion
By Chris McIlwain... Dahlen, From Conciliation to Conquest: The Sack of Athens and the Court-Martial of Colonel John B. Turchin (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006). 100 (Greensboro) Alabama Beacon, April 3, 1863, 2; Huntsville Advocate, ...
-
The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War
By Joanne B. Freeman"One of the best history books I've read in the last few years." —Chris Hayes The previously untold story of the violence in Congress that helped spark the Civil War In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of ...
-
Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War
By Charles B. DewIn a powerful new afterword to this anniversary edition, Dew situates the book in relation to these recent controversies and factors in the role of vast financial interests tied to the internal slave trade in pushing Virginia and other ...
-
New York Times: Disunion: Modern Historians Revisit and Reconsider the Civil War from Lincoln's Election to the Emancipation Proclamation
By The New York TimesPortraits, contemporary etchings, and detailed maps round out the book. This edition includes 15 additional articles, more than 70 new photos, and downloadable audio recordings.
-
Showdown in Virginia: The 1861 Convention and the Fate of the Union
By William W. Freehling, Craig M. SimpsonThis is a collection of speeches by men for whom everything was at risk. Some saw independence and even war as glory; others predicted ruin and devastation.