American Mobbing, 1828-1861 Toward Civil War

by Grimsted, David

• ISBN13: 9780195172812
• ISBN10: 0195172817
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-09-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This history of mob violence in antebellum America explores the two distinct reactions such violence produced. In the South, widespread rioting quelled both the public and private questioning of slavery; in the North, milder, more controlled riots generally encouraged sympathy for the anti-slavery movement. Grimsted shows that in these opposing reactions we can clearly see traces of the social division that ultimately led to the Civil War.

Table of Contents

PART I. THE NORTH: FLEEING SLAVERY, TRYING VIOLENCE
Chapter 1 1835: Year of Violent Indecision	3	(30)
Chapter 2 Riots Hatching Resistance: Against Abolitionists and in Aid of Fugitive Slaves	33	(52)
PART II. THE SOUTH: ASSERTING MASTERY, TERRORIZING DOUBT
Chapter 3 The Peculiar Institution of Southern Violence	85	(29)
Chapter 4 White Fears: Silencing Questions	114	(21)
Chapter 5 Black Fears: Mastering Dark Realities	135	(46)
PART III. THE NATION: POLITICAL AFFRAYS AND FRAYING
Chapter 6 Times That Tried Men's Bodies: The Manly Sport of American Politics	181	(18)
Chapter 7 The Mobs of the Second Party System	199	(19)
Chapter 8 Trying to Forget Slavery: Nativism and New Riots	218	(28)
Chapter 9 Bleeding Majoritarianism: The Sectional Mob Systems Meet, Mingle, and Mangle	246
Epilogue: Vintage Violence 266
Notes	283	(74)
Index	357