Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis

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UNC Press Books, Jul 2, 2014 - History - 531 pages
Daniel Crofts examines Unionists in three pivotal southern states--Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee--and shows why the outbreak of the war enabled the Confederacy to gain the allegiance of these essential, if ambivalent, governments.

"Crofts's study focuses on Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, but it includes analyses of the North and Deep South as well. As a result, his volume presents the views of all parties to the sectional conflict and offers a vivid portrait of the interaction between them.--American Historical Review

"Refocuses our attention on an important but surprisingly neglected group--the Unionists of the upper South during the secession crisis, who have been too readily ignored by other historians.--Journal of Southern History

From inside the book

Contents

Prologue
1
1 Unionist Profiles
8
2 Political Parties in the Late Antebellum Upper South
37
3 The Political Origins of Upper South Unionism
66
4 Unionists on the Defensive
90
5 The Unionist Argument
104
6 The Unionist Offensive
130
7 Measuring the Unionist Insurgency
164
11 Reversal of the HandsOff Policy
289
12 The Unionists Fort Sumter and the Proclamation for Seventyfive Thousand Troops
308
Southern Unionists after the Proclamation
334
Rethinking the Secession Crisis
353
Multiple RegressionParty Slavery and Secession
361
Ecological RegressionEstimating Voter Behavior
367
Statistics Secession and the Historians
376
Notes
383

8 The Unionists and Compromise
195
9 The Unionists the Republican Party and PresidentElect Lincoln
215
10 The Unionists and President LincolnThe March 1861 Rapprochement
254
Bibliographical Essay
457
Index
481
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About the author (2014)

Daniel W. Crofts is professor of history at Trenton State College.

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