In this Virginia History Blog on the onset of the Civil War, we examine the run-up to secession in “Year of Meteors” portending dire omens at the 1860 Presidential Election, and “Age of Strict Construction” showing the growth of federal power that Lincoln stood to inherit. “Fragile Fabric of Union” addresses the origins of the...
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In this Virginia History Blog, we look at elements of the Virginia Antebellum society. Progress in a slave society is examined in “Railroads in the Old South”. White male culture is explored in “Military Education and the Emerging Middle Class” and in Brothers of a Vow” about secret fraternal orders. The slaveholder’s perspective of slavery...
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In this Virginia History Blog on five titles related to Antebellum literature and thought, we begin by looking at “The Origins of Proslavery Christianity” that documents developments among Virginia’s white and black evangelicals from colonial times into the antebellum period. “Religion and the Making of Nat Turner’s Virginia” develops the conflicts within its white and...
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In this Virginia History Blog, we look at five titles on the Antebellum Civil War Era. “A Nation Without Borders” studies the international setting in an age of 19th century civil wars. “Luxurious Citizens” addresses the politics of consumption in the 1800s. “Owning Ideas” considers the development of intellectual property. Before “Dred Scott” analyzes American...
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In this five-part review of Civil War Era literature at the Virginia History Blog, we will take a look at period topics in politics, war commands, home front, economy, slavery and memory. Turning to slavery, we begin with “The Mind of the Master Class” describing the worldview of slave holders. “The Sounds of Slavery” treats...
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In this five-part review of Civil War Era literature at the Virginia History Blog, we will take a look at period topics in politics, war commands, home front, economy, slavery and memory. Turning to the economy, we begin with titles related to plantations and slavery, the emerging market economy, and the industrialization in Virginia that...
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In this Virginia History Blog, we feature four titles related to New Nation and Antebellum Virginia. “Jefferson and the Press” charts the professionalism and partisanship of period newspapers, “Murder at Montpelier” documents the introduction and persistence of Igbo culture among the Piedmont’s African-Virginians. “Proslavery and Sectional Thought” explains the development of organic social theory in...
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In this Virginia History Blog, we present a digest of five reviews related to Virginia in both the New Nation and Antebellum periods. Particularly New Nation time frame are “The Framer’s Coup” in making the Constitution, and “Ties That Bound”. Three journals recently reviewed “Ties That Bound” concerning First Ladies and slaves, and two books...
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The topic of Thomas Jefferson, slavery and Hemingses has been the subject of several scholarly works and popular histories in recent years. Here we look at six titles representing several points of view on the subject over the course of thirty years. The considerable sustained interest in the topic has enabled all to remain in...
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In this Virginia History Blog, we explore the developments leading antebellum Virginia to hold the largest free black population, with artisans free and slave, with slave hires for industrial work and construction on canals and railroads. Virginia 1820-1860 was a slave state with an emerging market economy, industrialization and substantial out-migration of whites and blacks....
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