The Road to Disunion Secessionists at Bay, 1776-1854: Volume I

by Freehling, William W.

• ISBN13: 9780195072594
• ISBN10: 0195072596
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-12-05
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Far from a monolithic block of diehard slave states, the antebellum South 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, as Northern egalitarianisminfiltrated border states already bitterly divided 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 Annexation of Texas, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Vivid accounts of each crisis reveal the surprising extent to which slavery influenced national politics before 1850 and provide important reinterpretations of Americanrepublicanism, Jeffersonian states' rights, Jacksonian democracy, and the causes of the American Civil War. Freehling's brilliant historical insights illustrate a work of rich social observation. In the cities of the Antebellum South, in the big house of a typical plantation, we feel anew the tensions between the slaveowner and his family, poor whites and planters, the Old and New Souths, and mostpowerfully between slave and master. Freehling has evoked the Old South 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.

Author Biography

William Freehling is the Singletary Professor of the Humanities at the University of Kentucky. His first book, Prelude to Civil War, won both an Allan Nevins and a Bancroft Prize and is recognized as one of the most significant studies of the Civil War era published in the past three decades.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Prologue the Spirit of Montgomery	p. 3
a Swing Around the Southern Circle	p. 9
St. Louis to New Orleans	p. 13
New Orleans to Charleston to Baltimore to St. Louis	p. 25
Social Control in a Despots' Democracy	p. 37
Mastering Consenting White Folk	p. 39
the Domestic Charade, I: Massa's Act	p. 59
the Domestic Charade, Ii: Cuffee's Act	p. 77
Democrats as Lynchers	p. 98
Conditional Termination in the Early Upper South	p. 119
Conditional Termination in the Early Republic	p. 121
the Missouri Controversy	p. 144
Class Revolt in Virginia, I: Anti-Egalitarianism Attacked	p. 162
Class Revolt in Virginia, Ii: Slavery Besieged	p. 178
Not-So-Conditional Termination in the Northern Chesapeake	p. 197
Nondecisive Decision in South Carolina	p. 211
Origins of South Carolina Eccentricity, I: Economic and Political Foundations	p. 213
Origins of South Carolina Eccentricity, Ii: Cultural Foundations	p. 229
the First Confrontation Crisis, I: Calhoun Versus Jackson	p. 253
the First Confrontation Crisis, Ii: South Carolina Versus the South	p. 271
the Gag Rule and the Politics of """"Mere"""" Words	p. 287
the Reorganization of Southern Politics	p. 289
the Gag Rule, I: Mr. Hammond's Mysterious Motion	p. 308
the Gag Rule, Ii: Mr. Pinckney's Controversial Compromise	p. 322
the Gag Rule, III Mr. Johnson's Ironic Intransigence	p. 337
the Annexation of Texas	p. 353
Anti-Annexation as Manifest Destiny	p. 355
an Extremist's Zany Pilgrimage	p. 372
the Administration's Decision	p. 388
Southern Democrats' Decision	p. 402
the Electorate's Decision	p. 426
the Congressional Decision	p. 440
Crisis at Midcentury	p. 453
Loaded Words, Loathsome Collaborations	p. 455
Southern Convention, Without a South	p. 475
the Armistice of 1850	p. 487
the Paralysis of the Old Order	p. 511
the Kansas-Nebraska Act, I: Confrontation in Missouri""""	p. 536
the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Ii: Decision in Congress	p. 550
Abbreviations Used in Notes	p. 567
Notes	p. 569
Index	p. 627
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