The Men of Secession and Civil War, 1859-1861This compelling, highly readable book focuses on the men who shaped the events that led to secession and the Civil War. Secessionists tore at the bonds that bound Americans to one another and their government as they maligned Northerners and found sinister intent in federal policy. But equally as adamant on the opposite side were the determined abolitionists and others in the North who sought to hold the Union together. Tariffs, the loss of political power, and the antislavery movement were all taking their toll on the South, but it took specific individuals and groups to bring to action the causes they believed in and thus to alter the course of history. The Men of Secession and Civil War, 1859-1861 traces the period from John Brown's 1859 Harper's Ferry raid to the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter and the subse-quent secession of the Upper South states in April 1861. The cast of characters in this book includes abolitionists John Brown and Salmon P. Chase; President Abraham Lincoln; U.S. Senator Stephen Douglas; Andrew Johnson, whom Lincoln named his vice president in 1864; secessionists Jefferson Davis, Roger Taney, and Barnwell Rhett; John Breckenridge, the 1860 presidential nominee of the Southern Democratic Party; and Tennessee Senator John Bell. The Men of Secession and Civil War is a useful volume for Civil War courses. |
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abolitionist Abraham Lincoln advocates Alabama Alexander Stephens American antislavery attack Barnwell Rhett Bell Breckinridge Buchanan candidate Charleston Chase Civil Cobb Compromise of 1850 Confederacy Confederate Congress congressional constitution convention cooperationists cotton Court Crisis Deep South defend delegates Democratic Party disunion Dred Scott Edmund Ruffin fear fire-eaters Fitzhugh Fort Sumter Georgia governor Harpers Ferry hopes James Jefferson Davis John Brown Kansas Keitt Kentucky labor legislation legislature Lincoln's election Louis Wigfall Louisiana State University Mississippi Missouri Compromise Montgomery Northern party's peace planters platform political popular president presidential proslavery protect Quitman quoted in ibid radicals rejected Republican Roger Taney Ruffin Salmon Chase seceded secession secession's secessionists sectional Senate Seward slave code slaveholding slaveowning slavery slavery's South Carolina Southern state's Stephen Douglas Sumter Taney Tennessee territories Texas tion Toombs Tucker Union unionists University Press upper South victory Virginia vote voters Walther Whig William Yancey yeomen York