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A Peoples history of the Civil War; excerpt
mouse
Member Posts: 3,624
by David Williams. Rich Man's War. In the South, many common whites like Hinton Rowan Helper began to see themselves as impoverished by the dominant slave system. Slaves themselves like Frederick
Douglas were becoming increasingly resistant and more difficult to control. By 1860 most slaveholders worried that although Abraham Lincoln publicly opposed only slavery's expansion, not its continued existence, his election might give encouragement to dissenters and resisters, making control all the more difficult. Slaveholders were sure that with Lincoln in the White House, slaves would be even more prone "to insubordination, to poisoning, arson, pillage and murder." As for nonslaveholders, one planter asked nervously; "If the poor whites realized that slavery kept them poor, would they not vote it down?" Some feared that there might soon be 'an Abolition party in the South, of Southern men." Another frankly admitted, 'I mistrust our own people more then I fear all the efforts of the Abolitionists." such fears led slaveholders to conclude that slavery's future would be more secure outside the Union than in it.
Up North, efforts of elites to channel economic and social discontent into the electoral process were beginning to fail as well. The anti-renter movement, an armed rebellion of tenant farmers in the Hudson River Valley, exemplified rural discontent. In urban areas, strikes by laboring men and women were increasingly common. Organizations like the Workingmen's Party in Lynn, Massachusetts, even threatened to wrest political control from the hands of elites. During the early months of the secession crisis, working folk continued to show more interest in struggling against northern industrialists than against southern disunionists. In Jan 1861, as cotton states were seceding one by one, New York's Rochester Union wrote; 'We hear a great deal of talk among the ardent platform Republicans about coercing the secessionists of the south by means of Northern soldiers, but the indications are that the fighting is
done mostly with the tongue."
Despite reluctance among the common folk, industrialists pressured Lincoln to hold the cotton states in the Union--by compromise if possibleforce if necessary. The North provoked the first shots.
It goes on to point out that the northern elite we're owed lots of
money by the south...they feared cotton prices rising and not
getting paid. The Southern elite who controlled the power wanted
out of their debts, and the chance to keep slavery intact, thus
keep the poor white man poor, and to raise the price of cotton
with secession.
Anyone else read this book? Public school really sucks.
Douglas were becoming increasingly resistant and more difficult to control. By 1860 most slaveholders worried that although Abraham Lincoln publicly opposed only slavery's expansion, not its continued existence, his election might give encouragement to dissenters and resisters, making control all the more difficult. Slaveholders were sure that with Lincoln in the White House, slaves would be even more prone "to insubordination, to poisoning, arson, pillage and murder." As for nonslaveholders, one planter asked nervously; "If the poor whites realized that slavery kept them poor, would they not vote it down?" Some feared that there might soon be 'an Abolition party in the South, of Southern men." Another frankly admitted, 'I mistrust our own people more then I fear all the efforts of the Abolitionists." such fears led slaveholders to conclude that slavery's future would be more secure outside the Union than in it.
Up North, efforts of elites to channel economic and social discontent into the electoral process were beginning to fail as well. The anti-renter movement, an armed rebellion of tenant farmers in the Hudson River Valley, exemplified rural discontent. In urban areas, strikes by laboring men and women were increasingly common. Organizations like the Workingmen's Party in Lynn, Massachusetts, even threatened to wrest political control from the hands of elites. During the early months of the secession crisis, working folk continued to show more interest in struggling against northern industrialists than against southern disunionists. In Jan 1861, as cotton states were seceding one by one, New York's Rochester Union wrote; 'We hear a great deal of talk among the ardent platform Republicans about coercing the secessionists of the south by means of Northern soldiers, but the indications are that the fighting is
done mostly with the tongue."
Despite reluctance among the common folk, industrialists pressured Lincoln to hold the cotton states in the Union--by compromise if possibleforce if necessary. The North provoked the first shots.
It goes on to point out that the northern elite we're owed lots of
money by the south...they feared cotton prices rising and not
getting paid. The Southern elite who controlled the power wanted
out of their debts, and the chance to keep slavery intact, thus
keep the poor white man poor, and to raise the price of cotton
with secession.
Anyone else read this book? Public school really sucks.
Comments
and i agree with you that what we have been taught in schools about the causes and results of your civil war is nothing short of discusting!!
when we were taught about it we were told it was all about lincoln wanting to free the slaves!!
kimi opened my eyes and educated me big time with some of his posts!
i can`t wait until my daughter comes home from school and says they are learning about the u.s. civil war![}:)] there`s no way in hell i`m going to allow any teacher to continue teaching the lies about it!
they didn't want blood shed. The votes in the South for
secession were controlled by the gun. Many States didn't
even have a ballot to vote the other way. Guys with guns
we're controlling the votes in other States. Many didn't
vote who didn't want secession because they feared for their
lives.
Anyone who wants a copy go to EdwardJ.Hamilton book club.
I got my copy for something like 6 bucks, regularly 29.
It makes me sick- the distortion of history.
whites to look down on the colored. In the 13 colonies interacial
marriage was not against the law. I'll have to read more on
the beginnings of the labor movement in this country. No
wonder the Rich Industrialists wanted to get their attention
off of it, they had slave labor. In the South it was give em'
a dog to kick, then they have someone to feel superior too.
I'd read of children working 16 hr days for pennies, but not
the living conditions of the people working in the cities. Also
have to look into the tenement farmers. It's the people who
brought progress not the government.
The regular guys in the North we're saying' let the South go,
they didn't want blood shed. The votes in the South for
secession were controlled by the gun. Many States didn't
even have a ballot to vote the other way. Guys with guns
we're controlling the votes in other States. Many didn't
vote who didn't want secession because they feared for their
lives.
Anyone who wants a copy go to EdwardJ.Hamilton book club.
I got my copy for something like 6 bucks, regularly 29.
It makes me sick- the distortion of history.
I've never heard that the votes in the south were controlled by the gun. Honestly, my first impression is that such an absurd blanket statement is a bald faced lie and should alert the reader to the credibility of any such other "stereotypical" remarks. I do belive that about half of the states had the people vote on whether their state should seceed from the union or not. Texans voted overwhelmingly to get out.
in Walker County expressed the same sentiment. "Ww are not of the opinion that the election of any man in accordance with the prescribed forms of the Constitution is sufficient cause to disrupt the ties which bind us to the Union." In Harris County the newspaper
editor stated frimly that 'we are a Union loving people here, and will never forsake the old 'Star Spangled Banner." To stress the point he printed the names of 175 local men, all pledged to 'preserve the honor and rights of the South in the Union.
Mechanicsin Frederick County, Virginia, met to denounce the "folly and sinister selfishness of the demagogues of the South." Workers in Portsmouth were equally stirred;"We look upon any attempt to break up this Government or dissolve this Union as an attack upon the rights of the people of the whole country." A Convention of
laborers in Nashville, Tennessee, declared their "undying love for the Union."and called secession efforts "treason...by designing and mad politicians." At Lake Jackson Church near Tallahassee, Florida, there assembled a crowd of 400"whose heart beat time to the music
of the Union." In the Confederacy's future Virginia capital, Union supporters organized a mass meeting of the "working men of Richmond" and called on the government to put secession down. All across the South, thousands of worried plain folk did their best to head off secession. Three fourths of southern whites held no slaves and tended to believe, as one of Geogia's plain folk put it, "that this fuss was all for the benefit of the wealthy."
Alfred P.Aldrich, a South Carolin legislator and staunch secessionist, acknowledged that most southern plain folk opposed disunion, 'but," he asked, "whoever waited for the common people
when a great move was to be made?"--"We must make the move and force them to follow."Also Senator Toombs of Georgia said " Give me the
Sword!" he blustered, "but if you do not place it in my hands, before God I will take it!"In Mississippi's Panola County, vigilantes gave notice to punish all and every person who may...prove themselves untrue to the South.In Tallahatchie County, a secessionist gang of "Minute Men" lynched seven local unionists. In Florida, secessionists formed armed bands of "Regulators" who ambushed Union men by night."
So worried were secessionists leaders over the possibility of secession being voted down that theyused intimidation and violance in their efforts to control the ballot box wherever they could. Samuel Beaty, a farmer in Mississippi's Tippah County who was physically threatened because of his Union sentiments, dared not go to the polss, "It would," he said, "have been too dangerous."
Secessionists threatened to hang James Cloud, a crippled farmer in Jackson County, Alabama, after he spoke for the Union.In Mississippi
no ballots were printed for the Union ticket. In Texas two thirds of the voters opposed secession.
Kimi; My statement of the votes being controlled by the gun
was an exaggeration, althou satirist illustrators of the time
did show the polling booths with guys with guns at them. Intimidation, and outright lies by the state delegates was more
the norm. Lets just say that the South was very divided, that
the majority of delegates were under the control of the land/slave
owners, in comparison to the tenant farmer/nonslave holders.
excerpt; In November 1860, in the heart of Georgia's cotton belt, a large crowd of local citizens gathered at Crawfordville to declare; "We do not consider the election of Lincoln and Hamlin a sufficient cause for Disunion or Secession." A mass meeting
in Walker County expressed the same sentiment. "Ww are not of the opinion that the election of any man in accordance with the prescribed forms of the Constitution is sufficient cause to disrupt the ties which bind us to the Union." In Harris County the newspaper
editor stated frimly that 'we are a Union loving people here, and will never forsake the old 'Star Spangled Banner." To stress the point he printed the names of 175 local men, all pledged to 'preserve the honor and rights of the South in the Union.
Georgia held a vote and it was very close, but the majority of the people did elect to seceed.
Mechanicsin Frederick County, Virginia, met to denounce the "folly and sinister selfishness of the demagogues of the South." Workers in Portsmouth were equally stirred;"We look upon any attempt to break up this Government or dissolve this Union as an attack upon the rights of the people of the whole country." A Convention of
laborers in Nashville, Tennessee, declared their "undying love for the Union."and called secession efforts "treason...by designing and mad politicians." At Lake Jackson Church near Tallahassee, Florida, there assembled a crowd of 400"whose heart beat time to the music
of the Union." In the Confederacy's future Virginia capital, Union supporters organized a mass meeting of the "working men of Richmond" and called on the government to put secession down. All across the South, thousands of worried plain folk did their best to head off secession. Three fourths of southern whites held no slaves and tended to believe, as one of Geogia's plain folk put it, "that this fuss was all for the benefit of the wealthy."
Alfred P.Aldrich, a South Carolin legislator and staunch secessionist, acknowledged that most southern plain folk opposed disunion, 'but," he asked, "whoever waited for the common people
when a great move was to be made?"--"We must make the move and force them to follow."Also Senator Toombs of Georgia said " Give me the
Sword!" he blustered, "but if you do not place it in my hands, before God I will take it!"In Mississippi's Panola County, vigilantes gave notice to punish all and every person who may...prove themselves untrue to the South.In Tallahatchie County, a secessionist gang of "Minute Men" lynched seven local unionists. In Florida, secessionists formed armed bands of "Regulators" who ambushed Union men by night."
So worried were secessionists leaders over the possibility of secession being voted down that theyused intimidation and violance in their efforts to control the ballot box wherever they could. Samuel Beaty, a farmer in Mississippi's Tippah County who was physically threatened because of his Union sentiments, dared not go to the polss, "It would," he said, "have been too dangerous."
Secessionists threatened to hang James Cloud, a crippled farmer in Jackson County, Alabama, after he spoke for the Union.In Mississippi
no ballots were printed for the Union ticket. In Texas two thirds of the voters opposed secession. The foregoing remark is total hogwash, total!
Kimi; My statement of the votes being controlled by the gun
was an exaggeration, althou satirist illustrators of the time
did show the polling booths with guys with guns at them. Intimidation, and outright lies by the state delegates was more
the norm. Lets just say that the South was very divided, that
the majority of delegates were under the control of the land/slave
owners, in comparison to the tenant farmer/nonslave holders.
Your statement really was an exaggeration, a blatant one. My people lived in Tippah County, Mississippi, and they fought in Lee's Army of Northern, Virginia. My father's maternal grandfather killed Yankees in four of the five bloodiest battles of the war, to include, Getttysburg and Chickamauga. He and his brothers after the war was not anyone to fool with either, and these people did not own slaves. My father's grandfather had lived in Tippah County in the 1830s and 1840s, but when the war broke out he was in Louisiana. He killed his share of Yanks, too. He did not own any slaves, and he was one bad dude to anyone that crossed him after the war too...which was the same case with a great many, or most of the Confederate soldiers. The North was divided on the war too.
On February 23, 1861, Texas went to the polls and voted for or against secession. The results for the state as a whole were 46,153 for and 14,747 against. Of the 122 counties casting votes only eighteen cast majorities against secession. Only eleven others cast as much as 40 percent of their vote against. Not surprisingly, almost all of these twenty-nine counties were located in the two areas where the campaign had been the most open and the Unionist leadership had high status and good organization. With a touch of drama the secession of the state became official on March 2, Texas Independence Day.
Mouse: More points about the small number of counties that did vote to stay in the union: One, Notice that these counties were in clusters, and that those in central Texas were where the German settlements were. Friction between the Texas settlers and the German folks ran high long after the war was over. And, those settlements along the Red River were heavily populated with people coming down from the north, plus a lot of these people were from Eastern Tennessee who settled there. East Tennessee was split about evenly on the war too. There are reasons why these counties voted to stay in the Union. Most of Texas at this time was settled by people who had come across the deep south.
http://www.texasalmanac.com/politics/secession.html
Yet, in spite of all, the vote was close even in several of the cotton States. The Georgia people wanted new safeguards for slavery, but did not at first desire secession. Alexander H. Stephens, who headed the anti-secession movement, declared that Georgia was won over to take the fatal step at last only by the cry, "Better terms can be made out of the Union than in it." Even then the first vote for secession stood only 165 to 130. In Louisiana the popular vote for convention delegates was 20,000 for secession and 17,000 against.
But the conspirators, ignoring all restraint, without a shadow of legality, assembled a revolutionary State convention, and on February 1st passed an ordinance of secession, with a provision submitting it to a popular vote. Houston, pursuing his side intrigue, approved a joint resolution of the State Legislature (February 4th) to legalize the convention, but accompanied his approval with a protest that it should have no effect except to elicit public decision on the single question of adherence to the Union. When in due time an alleged vote (taken on February 23d) ratifying the ordinance was submitted to him, he refused to recognize further acts of the convention; whereupon the enraged convention (March 16th) declared his office vacant, and empowered the lieutenant-governor to seize the executive authority.
Meanwhile General Twiggs, commanding the Federal troops in Texas, by treasonable connivance, on February 18th surrendered the military posts and property to a hasty collection of about a regiment of rebels in arms, purporting to act by authority of the convention, and set the various scattered detachments of the army in motion to evacuate the State. Before this had taken place, the newly inaugurated Lincoln administration sent a messenger to Houston, who was still reputed by public rumor to be loyal, and offered to concentrate a strong body of the United States troops under the new commander, Colonel Waite, form an entrenched camp, and sustain his authority as governor. Houston, however (March 29th), refused the offer; and having neither the United States Government nor the people of Texas to lean upon, the conspirators relentlessly pushed him into an ignoble obscurity and transferred the State to the military domination of the Rebellion.
www.civilwarhome.com/secession.htm
tarlton.law.utexas.edu/constitutions/pdf/pdf1861/index1861.html look
under march 2, 1861