Another masterpiece by Freehling. ( )

William Freehling’s “The road to disunion: Secessionists triumphant 1854-1861” is volume II of his examination southern secessionist politics. Today’s “common sense” leads us to believe that the south was unified behind one set of beliefs, Freehling’s well researched work shows just how fractured the south was on everything from slavery to economics and the proper form of government. I like to think I know something about American history, I did have a general knowledge of the events covered in the first volume but not the in depth knowledge Freehling provided. Except for the Kansas-Nebraska Act most of the information in this volume was new to me.

The Slave Power had more threats than the “Underground Railroad” and slave insurrections. In fact, after a brief panic, the lack of action by slaves after Brown’s raid reassured many that they had nothing to fear except an individual slave being misled by abolitionists to commit murder inside their “family”. The deep south’s concern about the Underground Railroad was that it discouraged slaveholders in the boarder states and could, would, eventually lead those states down the road to emancipation. As the deep south saw it, their biggest threats came not from the north but from other southerners. Southern preachers who preached that slaves had to be treated as fellow Christians, who had to be allowed to read the Word of God ,and could not have their families broken up simply to pay off the master’s debt. This was seen by slave-masters as a direct threat to their absolute authority. Prosperous northern farmers, looking for cheap land, purchased southern land not suited for use by large slave-holding plantations. This influx of Yankee opinions, opinions with enough wealth vote even in the restrictive south, highlighted another Slave Power fear. Non-slave-holding southern whites. The high price of slaves barred most southern whites from ever becoming a slaveholder. Northern style capitalism and other ideas threatened the loyalty of non-slave holding whites to the will of “their betters”.

Almost half of the book covers the year leading to war, from the Democratic Convention in Charleston to the bombardment of Fort Sumter on to Wheeling’s secession from Virginia. The depth of Freeling’s research is best shown here. I would say that the last half reads like a novel except that, while the detail is there, the poetry is not. In the seven years between publication of volume I and II Freehling’s writing style improved noticeably, he now makes his points instead of badgering them as in volume I. Freeling’s writing has improved but it is still the writing of an academic. The change in his writing style is impressive, it allowed me to read this book in half the time I spent with the first.

In spite of the fact that Freelhing recaps the events from the first book I have to recommend reading both volumes. The detail missing in the recaps is worth the extra effort. I recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about the causes of the US Civil War, often in the participants own, occasionally surprising, words. ( )

Reviews are available at http://elektratig.blogspot.com/2007/04/road-to-disunion-ii-secessionists.html and http://elektratig.blogspot.com/2009/07/road-to-road-to-gettysburg-10-favorite.ht... ( )