Slavery in the United States is once again a topic of contention as politicians and interest groups argue about and explore the possibility of reparations. The subject is clearly not exhausted, and a state-by-state approach fills a critical reference niche. This book is the first comparative summary of the southern slave states from Colonial times to Reconstruction. The history of slavery in each state is a story based on the unique events in that jurisdiction, and is a chronicle of the relationships and interactions between its blacks and whites. Each state chapter explores the genesis, growth and economics of slavery, the life of free and enslaved blacks, the legal codes that defined the institution and affected both whites and blacks, the black experience during the Civil War, and the freedmen's struggle during Emancipation and Reconstruction.
The commonalities and differences can be seen from state to state, and students and other interested readers will find fascinating accounts from ex-slaves that flesh out the fuller picture of slavery state- and country-wide. Included are timelines per state, photos, numerous tables for comparison, and appendixes on the numbers of slaveholders by state in 1860; dates of admission, secession, and readmission; and economic statistics. A bibliography and index complete the volume.

Slavery in the South: A State-by-State History

History

Jewett, Clayton E.

Allen, John O.

Americas

Greenwood

Historians examining the Confederacy have often assumed the existence of a monolithic South unified behind the politics and culture of slavery. In addition, they have argued for the emergence of a strong central state government in the Confederacy. In Texas in the Confederacy, Clayton E. Jewett challenges these assumptions by examining Texas politics, with an emphasis on the virtually neglected topic of the Texas legislature. In doing so, Jewett shows that an examination of state legislative activity during this period is essential to understanding Texas’s relationship with the Indian tribes, the states in the Trans-Mississippi Department, and the Confederate government.Jewett explores the role of leadership and how statesmen understood and handled the apparent contradictions between the national interests of war and the need to protect property and individual liberty. He reveals that the dissemination of political power lay in the state legislature, where politicians united in an effort to protect commercial interests beyond the institution of slavery. This course of action resulted not only from Texas’s development of an identity separate from that of other southern states, but also from Confederate neglect of Texas. This in turn served to undermine the formation of central state authority and directly contributed to the defeat of a southern nation and the war effort.By advancing the historiographical line of inquiry surrounding the critical issues of secession, military enlistment, cotton trading, economic production, and legislative support for state institutions, Texas in the Confederacy addresses the perennial question of why the South lost the Civil War. It also provides an essential step in changing the direction of inquiry toward a deeper understanding of nationhood and how the South functioned during the Civil War.

Texas in the Confederacy: An Experiment in Nation Building (Volume 1) (Shades of Blue and Gray)

University of Missouri

Texas in the Confederacy: An Experiment in Nation Building (SHADES OF BLUE & GRAY)

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