Southern Home Front

This week's readings captured the complexity of life on the southern home front during the Civil War and its impact on the outcome of the war.  It raised the often overlooked implications of war being fought on home soil such as outside occupation, mistreatment of civilians by enemy troops, and decreased morale of the soldiers due to worries of family mistreatment by the enemy.  It also offered a look at the fact that the Confederate politicians were not in lock step with one another, and because one of the causes of the rebellion was "states' rights," the individual states naturally clung to their right to have independent voice.

Week 7 Posts

In President Lincoln's first Inaugural Address, he waxes lawyerly as he makes his case for why the Union can not be broken.  He suggested that both universal law and the Constitution disallow the dissolution of the Union and furthermore that the Union even predates the Constitution itself.  Though Lincoln is adamant on his stance of Union perpetuity, he concedes much when he speaks of federal enforcement of this ideal.  He states that he will not use force to enforce unless absolutely necessary and  gives the greatest concession when he states that he would not force the acceptance of federal officers if the south found it to be undesirable to submit to their authority.

Lincoln wastes no time getting straight to the topic of secession in his address, which expresses the significant importance which he felt this issue would have upon his presidency.

Why Are We Fighting?

This week's readings explored the important question, "Why are we fighting?"  As the goal of the war shifted to one of appeasement of abolitionist ideals, Union soldiers questioned whether they were willing to risk their lives for the freedom of slaves.  Within the Union army, there were soldiers on both sides of the ideology.  Some took up the abolitionist cause and thought it a noble to offer their lives in defense of security liberty for the slave.  On the other hand, some resented the notion of fighting for the freedom of an inferior people.

Also explored was the notion that mere regional affiliation, did not necessarily connote regional allegiance.  There were some Union soldiers who thought the south was justified in resisting the tyranny of the government and therefore they were skeptical of their role in opposing the Confederates.

Week 4 Post

This week's readings in Charles Dew's "Apostles of Disunion" and the McPherson and Hogue textbook presented striking evidence of the future confederate states' reason for secession.  Contrary to the postwar writings of southern leaders and historians claiming the defense of states rights as the reason for secession, the actual causes were threatened white supremacy and the desire to protect the institution of slavery.  Speeches from commissioners of confederate states spoken to audiences in undecided southern states were presented in the texts which showed repeated calls for secession for the sake of maintaining racial order and slavery.

The Election of Lincoln Leads to Secession

For some, the election of President Lincoln in 1860 was marked with celebration but for many southern states it was marked with the unprecedented act of secession.  Conventions were called first in S. Carolina, followed quickly by many other southern states to discuss leaving the Union.  By February 1861, seven states had voted to secede from the Union.  The newly formed Confederate States of America, chose Jefferson Davis as their president.  Though Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stevens remarked in a speech that the secession was about maintaining the superiority of whites above the negro race, many leading Confederates including Jefferson Davis claimed that their cause was about maintaining states' sovereignty.  As President Buchanan still had 4 months remaining in office, he did little to deal with the secession of southern states, but viewed it as an incident which happened in response to Lincoln's election and therefore an issue for Lincoln deal with.

Free State, Slave State Tension

The Compromise of 1850 and Fugitive Slave Act emboldened the south and further polarized the views of northern abolitionists and southern slave holders.  It also served to draw more sympathy and outcry from opponents of slavery due to the realities of free blacks being kidnapped into slavery.  During this mid-nineteenth century period, one can see the country bending toward conflict tension needing to be settled for one side or the other.  The Dred Scott case, drew attention to many questions about slavery and exposed many of the difficulties inherent in a nation made up of free and slave states and territories.  This tension set the stage for the Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Pre-Civil War Context

As America's north underwent industrialization, surpassing the innovations and productivity of Great Britain, the south lagged behind.  Many attributed this to the presence of slave labor rather than wage-labor.  By the mid-nineteenth century, abolitionists and antislavery advocates brought their causes to the fore of their politics, pressuring for the complete abolishment of slavery or the denial of further advancement of slavery into other territories admitted to the union.  In addition to the south's economic dependence on slave labor, many southerners (slave-owning, and non slave-owning) favored slavery due to beliefs of racial superiority or as an attempt to ensure continued racial subjugation.  Sentiment grew in the north, especially amongst the New England Protestants, that slavery was a moral sin against God, and a symbol of an unrefined, uneducated, backward society.  The politics of slavery continued to brew great controversies and power struggles during the 1840's and 1850's.