The Road to Disunion, Volume II : Secessionists Triumphant Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861: Secessionists Triumphant Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861It is one of the great questions of American history--why did the Southern states bolt from the Union and help precipitate the Civil War? Now, acclaimed historian William W. Freehling offers a new answer, in the final volume of his monumental history The Road to Disunion. Here is history in the grand manner, a powerful narrative peopled with dozens of memorable portraits, telling this important story with skill and relish. Freehling highlights all the key moments on the road to war, including the violence in Bleeding Kansas, Preston Brooks's beating of Charles Sumner in the Senate chambers, the Dred Scott Decision, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, and much more. As Freehling shows, the election of Abraham Lincoln sparked a political crisis, but at first most Southerners took a cautious approach, willing to wait and see what Lincoln would do--especially, whether he would take any antagonistic measures against the South. But at this moment, the extreme fringe in the South took charge, first in South Carolina and Mississippi, but then throughout the lower South, sounding the drum roll for secession. Indeed, The Road to Disunion is the first book to fully document how this decided minority of Southern hotspurs took hold of the secessionist issue and, aided by a series of fortuitous events, drove the South out of the Union. Freehling provides compelling profiles of the leaders of this movement--many of them members of the South Carolina elite. Throughout the narrative, he evokes a world of fascinating characters and places as he captures the drama of one of America's most important--and least understood--stories. The long-awaited sequel to the award-winning Secessionists at Bay, which was hailed as "the most important history of the Old South ever published," this volume concludes a major contribution to our understanding of the Civil War. A compelling, vivid portrait of the final years of the antebellum South, The Road to Disunion will stand as an important history of its subject. |
Contents
Yanceys Rage | 1 |
BETTER ECONOMIC TIMES GENERATE WORSE DEMOCRATIC DILEMMAS | 7 |
THE CLIMACTIC IDEOLOGICAL FRUSTRATIONS | 25 |
THE CLIMACTIC POLITICAL FRUSTRATIONS | 59 |
JOHN BROWN AND THREE OTHER MEN COINCIDENTALLY NAMED JOHN | 203 |
THE ELECTION OF 1860 | 269 |
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Common terms and phrases
abolitionists African agitation Alabama Alexander Stephens American antislavery Atchison Border South Buchanan Carolinians Charleston Christian Cobb compromise Congress congressional Cooperationists County Davis December decision delegates Democracy Democratic Party disunion disunionists Douglas election emancipation enslaved extremists federal Fitzhugh free blacks free labor fugitive slave Georgia Gourdin Governor Hammond Helper Henry House Howell Cobb Ibid inside Institute Hall James James Buchanan Jefferson John Brown Kansas Kansas-Nebraska Act Keitt Kentucky Lecompton legislature Lincoln lowcountry Lower South majority Maryland masters Memminger Mississippi Missouri National Democratic nonslaveholders North Northern Democrats November Orleans Papers percent political president Preston Brooks proslavery protection revolution Rhett Robert Robert Barnwell Rhett secede secession secessionists Separatists Slave Power slaveholders slavery slavery's South Carolina southern convention Southern Republican state’s state's rights Sumter territorial Texas Thornwell tion U.S. Senate ultimatum Union Unionists Upper South Virginia voters votes Whigs William William Lowndes Yancey William Porcher Miles Yancey Yankee