For Slavery and Union

For Slavery and Union PDF Author: Patrick A. Lewis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813177519
Category : Kentucky
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Benjamin F. Buckner (1836--1901) faced a dire choice as the flames of Civil War threatened his native Kentucky. As an ambitious Bluegrass aristocrat, he was sympathetic to fellow slave owners, but was also convinced that the Peculiar Institution could not survive a war for Southern independence. Buckner joined the Twentieth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry in 1861 as a Union soldier. President Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 ultimately destroyed Buckner's faith in his cause, however, and he resigned his commission. This book uses Buckner's story to illuminate the origins and perspectives of Kentucky's conservative proslavery Unionists, and explain why this group eventually became a key force in repressing social and political change during the Reconstruction era and beyond. Free from the constraints imposed on the former Confederate states, men like Buckner joined with other proslavery forces to work in the interest of the New South's brand of economic growth and racial control.

For Slavery and Union

For Slavery and Union PDF Author: Patrick A. Lewis
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780813177519
Category : Kentucky
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Get Book Here

Book Description
Benjamin F. Buckner (1836--1901) faced a dire choice as the flames of Civil War threatened his native Kentucky. As an ambitious Bluegrass aristocrat, he was sympathetic to fellow slave owners, but was also convinced that the Peculiar Institution could not survive a war for Southern independence. Buckner joined the Twentieth Kentucky Volunteer Infantry in 1861 as a Union soldier. President Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 ultimately destroyed Buckner's faith in his cause, however, and he resigned his commission. This book uses Buckner's story to illuminate the origins and perspectives of Kentucky's conservative proslavery Unionists, and explain why this group eventually became a key force in repressing social and political change during the Reconstruction era and beyond. Free from the constraints imposed on the former Confederate states, men like Buckner joined with other proslavery forces to work in the interest of the New South's brand of economic growth and racial control.

A Slaveholders' Union

A Slaveholders' Union PDF Author: George William Van Cleve
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226846695
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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Book Description
After its early introduction into the English colonies in North America, slavery in the United States lasted as a legal institution until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865. But increasingly during the contested politics of the early republic, abolitionists cried out that the Constitution itself was a slaveowners’ document, produced to protect and further their rights. A Slaveholders’ Union furthers this unsettling claim by demonstrating once and for all that slavery was indeed an essential part of the foundation of the nascent republic. In this powerful book, George William Van Cleve demonstrates that the Constitution was pro-slavery in its politics, its economics, and its law. He convincingly shows that the Constitutional provisions protecting slavery were much more than mere “political” compromises—they were integral to the principles of the new nation. By the late 1780s, a majority of Americans wanted to create a strong federal republic that would be capable of expanding into a continental empire. In order for America to become an empire on such a scale, Van Cleve argues, the Southern states had to be willing partners in the endeavor, and the cost of their allegiance was the deliberate long-term protection of slavery by America’s leaders through the nation’s early expansion. Reconsidering the role played by the gradual abolition of slavery in the North, Van Cleve also shows that abolition there was much less progressive in its origins—and had much less influence on slavery’s expansion—than previously thought. Deftly interweaving historical and political analyses, A Slaveholders’ Union will likely become the definitive explanation of slavery’s persistence and growth—and of its influence on American constitutional development—from the Revolutionary War through the Missouri Compromise of 1821.

The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery PDF Author: Eric Foner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039308082X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
“A masterwork [by] the preeminent historian of the Civil War era.”—Boston Globe Selected as a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, this landmark work gives us a definitive account of Lincoln's lifelong engagement with the nation's critical issue: American slavery. A master historian, Eric Foner draws Lincoln and the broader history of the period into perfect balance. We see Lincoln, a pragmatic politician grounded in principle, deftly navigating the dynamic politics of antislavery, secession, and civil war. Lincoln's greatness emerges from his capacity for moral and political growth.

Douglass and Lincoln

Douglass and Lincoln PDF Author: Stephen Kendrick
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0802718469
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Although Abraham Lincoln deeply opposed the institution of slavery, he saw the Civil War at its onset as being Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln had only three meetings, but their exchanges profoundly influenced the course of slavery and the outcome of the Civil War.primarily about preserving the Union. Frederick Douglass, himself a former slave, by contrast saw the War's mission to be the total and permanent abolition of slavery. And yet, these giants of the nineteenth century, despite their different outlooks, found common ground, in large part through their three historic meetings. In elegant prose and with unusual insights, Paul and Stephen Kendrick chronicle the parallel lives of Douglass and Lincoln as a means of presenting a fresh, unique picture of two men who, in their differences, eventually challenged each other to greatness and altered the course of the nation.

Calculating the Value of the Union

Calculating the Value of the Union PDF Author: James L. Huston
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 9780807828045
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
While slavery is often at the heart of debates over the causes of the Civil War, historians are not agreed on precisely what aspect of slavery-with its various social, economic, political, cultural, and moral ramifications-gave rise to the sectional rift.

Parties, Slavery, and the Union in Antebellum Georgia

Parties, Slavery, and the Union in Antebellum Georgia PDF Author: Anthony Gene Carey
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820340928
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
At the heart of Georgia's secession from the Union in 1861 were two ideological cornerstones--the protection of white men's liberty and the defense of African slavery--Anthony Gene Carey argues in this comprehensive, analytical narrative of the three decades leading up to the Civil War. In Georgia, broad consensus on political essentials restricted the range of state party differences and the scope of party debate, but Whigs and Democrats battled intensely over how best to protect Southern rights and institutions within the Union. The power and security that national party alliances promised attracted Georgians, but the compromises and accommodations that maintaining such alliances required also repelled them. By 1861, Carey finds, white men who were out of time, fearful of further compromise, and compelled to choose acted to preserve liberty and slavery by taking Georgia out of the Union. Secession, the ultimate expression of white unity, flowed logically from the values, attitudes, and antagonisms developed during three decades of political strife.

Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery

Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery PDF Author: Daniel W. Crofts
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469627329
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
In this landmark book, Daniel Crofts examines a little-known episode in the most celebrated aspect of Abraham Lincoln's life: his role as the "Great Emancipator." Lincoln always hated slavery, but he also believed it to be legal where it already existed, and he never imagined fighting a war to end it. In 1861, as part of a last-ditch effort to preserve the Union and prevent war, the new president even offered to accept a constitutional amendment that barred Congress from interfering with slavery in the slave states. Lincoln made this key overture in his first inaugural address. Crofts unearths the hidden history and political maneuvering behind the stillborn attempt to enact this amendment, the polar opposite of the actual Thirteenth Amendment of 1865 that ended slavery. This compelling book sheds light on an overlooked element of Lincoln's statecraft and presents a relentlessly honest portrayal of America's most admired president. Crofts rejects the view advanced by some Lincoln scholars that the wartime momentum toward emancipation originated well before the first shots were fired. Lincoln did indeed become the "Great Emancipator," but he had no such intention when he first took office. Only amid the crucible of combat did the war to save the Union become a war for freedom.

Lincoln’s Proclamation

Lincoln’s Proclamation PDF Author: William A. Blair
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807895415
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
The Emancipation Proclamation, widely remembered as the heroic act that ended slavery, in fact freed slaves only in states in the rebellious South. True emancipation was accomplished over a longer period and by several means. Essays by eight distinguished contributors consider aspects of the president's decision making, as well as events beyond Washington, offering new insights on the consequences and legacies of freedom, the engagement of black Americans in their liberation, and the issues of citizenship and rights that were not decided by Lincoln's document. The essays portray emancipation as a product of many hands, best understood by considering all the actors, the place, and the time. The contributors are William A. Blair, Richard Carwardine, Paul Finkelman, Louis Gerteis, Steven Hahn, Stephanie McCurry, Mark E. Neely Jr., Michael Vorenberg, and Karen Fisher Younger.

Freedom: Volume 1, Series 1: The Destruction of Slavery

Freedom: Volume 1, Series 1: The Destruction of Slavery PDF Author: Ira Berlin
Publisher: CUP Archive
ISBN: 9780521229791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 906

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Book Description
Contains primary source material.

A Union Indivisible

A Union Indivisible PDF Author: Michael D. Robinson
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469633795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
Many accounts of the secession crisis overlook the sharp political conflict that took place in the Border South states of Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri. Michael D. Robinson expands the scope of this crisis to show how the fate of the Border South, and with it the Union, desperately hung in the balance during the fateful months surrounding the clash at Fort Sumter. During this period, Border South politicians revealed the region's deep commitment to slavery, disputed whether or not to leave the Union, and schemed to win enough support to carry the day. Although these border states contained fewer enslaved people than the eleven states that seceded, white border Southerners chose to remain in the Union because they felt the decision best protected their peculiar institution. Robinson reveals anew how the choice for union was fraught with anguish and uncertainty, dividing families and producing years of bitter internecine violence. Letters, diaries, newspapers, and quantitative evidence illuminate how, in the absence of a compromise settlement, proslavery Unionists managed to defeat secession in the Border South.