Voices from the Gathering Storm: The Coming of the American Civil WarVoices from the Gathering Storm explains the dramatic change in thinking about the nature and value of the American Union from 1846 to 1861 which impelled citizens from 11 southern states to declare independence and the remaining 22 states to fight the bloodiest war in the nation's history. This reader tells the story of seventeen Northerners and Southerners who lived through the critical fifteen years prior to the Civil War. In their letters and diaries, they describe in their own words what it was like to live during the sectional crisis and the coming of the war. Men like Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis thought deeply about issues of patriotism and states' rights, issues which remain of great importance today. Women and black Americans were also passionate in their beliefs. Harriet Beecher Stowe felt so strongly about slavery that she wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin. Frederick Douglass and Charlotte Forten Grimk, wrote of their abhorrence of slavery and the need to end that 'evil institution.' The lives of Southern women were also affected as they were forced to confront the issue of slavery and the Northern effort to end it. The voices of these men and women are heard in this new volume. At this time the North and South made decisions that resulted in two very different civilizations-the South embraced slavery and states' rights, while the North rejected the expansion of slavery and accepted the idea of an indivisible Union. These pre-Civil War years contain the key to understanding how the war came to be and also enable students to comprehend the modern North and South. Voices from the Gathering Storm is the only text that uses primary sources to illustrate the conflicts that divided the nation before the war. This use of primary sources allows students to enter more deeply into the lives of Northerners and Southerners and to understand and appreciate the way in which they responded to this tense period in American history. The author provides chapter introductions that connect the different excerpts so that readers will easily grasp the transitions that occurred in the 1840s and 1850s. |
From inside the book
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... peace . " Daniel Webster argued for the Union and the Constitution , pronouncing peaceful secession an impossibility . March 9. Notabilities of the day . Calhoun's speech and Webster's are both clear , strong , and statesmanlike efforts ...
... peace of the country and threaten the exist- ence of the Union . The views of thousands of citizens were gathered in the next year . In December 1860 , Crittenden had many resolutions to cite for his peace efforts in early 1861 ...
... Peace between those who though seperated have many reasons to feel towards each other more than the friendship common among nations . Our policy is as you say , peace , it is our sen- timent also , and surely it must be the interest of ...
Contents
A Growing Rivalry between the North | 1 |
The Compromise of 1850 | 31 |
The Fugitive Slave Controversy the Election of 1852 | 55 |
Copyright | |
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Voices from the Gathering Storm: The Coming of the American Civil War Glenn M. Linden Limited preview - 2001 |