This second revised blog on “Secession comes to Virginia” begins with a review of the “Roots of Secession” in slave-holding Virginia. “Road to Disunion” investigates the divisions among Southerners. “Apostles of Disunion” describes the appeals of the Deep South commissioners to border state secessionist conventions, “Showdown in Virginia” relates the delegate debate in convention, and “Reluctant Confederates” demonstrates the strength of the Unionists and the desertion of their “states’ rights” membership who would not support coercion to save the Union.
See also Secession Comes to Virginia part one.
These books are all used in bibliographies found in peer-reviewed surveys of Virginia history of scholarly merit. Additional insights are used from articles in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of American History.
For book reviews at The Virginia Historian.com in this historical period addressing other topics, see the webpage for Antebellum, Civil War, Reconstruction. General surveys of Virginia History can be found at Virginia History Surveys. Other Virginia history divided by topics and time periods can be found at the webpage Books and Reviews.
Roots of Secession
William A. Link wrote Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia in 2003. It is now available in paperback. Master-slave relations and slave owner anxieties of the 1850s lay the groundwork for secession in Virginia. Crimes against masters, including theft and overseer murder, runaways, increased slave independence with industrial hiring out, and the threat of John Brown’s raid, and northern Abolitionists along with “Black Republicans” all reinforced anxiety about destabilized slavery as an institution in Virginia.
The contentious Constitutional Convention of 1850-51 led easterners to believe western Virginians were secretly abolitionists. In 1852, Governor Joseph Johnson commuted the death sentence of slave Jordan Hatcher, convicted of murdering his overseer. Western Unionists and the eastern conditional Unionists could still stave off secession after the 1859 John Brown Raid, Lincoln’s 1860 election and Fort Sumter, but the center gave way in the face of Lincoln’s proclamation in April 1861 calling for troops to restore federal property confiscated by southern secessionists. Learn more to buy “Roots of Secession” here for your bookshelf.
Ralph A. Wooster wrote Politicians, Planters and Plain Folk: Court House and State House in the Upper South, 1850-1860 in 1975. It is out of print but is available online used. Learn more to buy “Politicians, Planters and Plain Folk” here for your bookshelf.
Lynda J. Morgan wrote Emancipation in Virginia’s Tobacco Belt, 1850-1870 in 1992. It is out of print but available used online. Learn more to buy “Emancipation in Virginia’s Tobacco Belt” here for your bookshelf.
Road to Disunion
William W. Freehling wrote The Road to Disunion: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861 in 1990 and reprinted in 2008. It is available on Kindle and online new and used. Secessionists overcame the static wishes of a “vast majority of southern whites” by hard work, circumstance and luck. They used the telegraph, railroads and steam presses. Unapologetic about slavery, they insisted on establishing slaveholding states as closed societies, sealed off from any prospective dissembling from Lincoln Administration postal or revenue appointments within each state.
The focus is on the divisions among the South, Lower, Middle and Upper South, and the sharp divisions within border states such as Virginia. Southern disunity extended to topics of Bleeding Kansas, the Dred Scott decision, Hinton Helper’s anti-slavery pamphlet, John Brown’s Raid and Lincolns election. Learn more to buy “Road to Disunion” here for your bookshelf.
Apostles of Disunion
Charles B. Dew wrote Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War in 2001. It is now available in paperback. During the Secessionist Winter of 1860-61, a group of proto-Confederates were sent to border states as Lower South state commissioners to advocate for the disunionist cause and the creation of a Southern Republic. They were all carefully chosen for their close connections to each state where they were assigned, including Whigs and Democrats, fire-eaters and conditional unionists. But regardless of their background, they all preached that the Lincoln administration was an assault on exclusive Southern white control of racial slavery. It threatened racial equality, slave insurrection and amalgamation.
Their advocacy and the echoes of their arguments during several state secessionist conventions demonstrate that the secessionist movement and the creation of the Confederacy hinged on perpetuating African American slavery and white supremacy. Both Jefferson Davis and his Vice President Alexander H. Stephenson referred to the principle frequently in their public speeches while in office, though after the Civil War neither man linked secession and slavery, and Lost Cause partisans ignored it. Learn more to buy “Apostles of Disunion” here for your bookshelf.
Ralph A. Wooster wrote The Southern Secession Conventions in 1962. It is out of print but may be available at your local central library or by interlibrary loan
Showdown in Virginia
William W. Freehling and Craig M. Simpson edited Showdown in Virginia: The 1861 Convention and the Fate of the Union in 2010. It is available on Kindle and online new and used. Some of the more insightful orations of the Virginia Secessionist Convention are featured in an abridged version of the Proceedings of the Virginia State Convention of 1861. They offer an insight into the larger controversies addressed among the delegates during the time of the Washington Peace Conference and Fort Sumter while Virginia teetered on the brink of secession following the first Unionist “no-go” vote.
The first part is initially dominated by Unionists, then Secessionists come to the fore. The second part elaborates the westerners concern over taxation favoring slaveholders, whether in or out of the Union. The third part focuses on the few tense days just before the final vote, when delegates debated former Governor Wise and his military action against federal property in Norfolk and Harper’s Ferry before a ratifying referendum on secession. Learn more to buy “Showdown in Virginia” here for your bookshelf.
Henry T. Shanks wrote The Secession Movement in Virginia, 1847-1861 in 1934, reprinted in 2010. It is out of print but available online new and used. It is said to be the most complete study on the issue. Learn more to buy “Secession Movement” here for your bookshelf.
Reluctant Confederates
Daniel W. Crofts wrote The Reluctant Confederates: Upper South Unionists in the Secession Crisis in 1989. It is now available on Kindle and in paperback. The Upper South including Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee all had fewer slaveholders and a vigorous two-party system, unlike the Deep South. That was the source of their Unionist strength in the face of the hysteria of the Secessionist Winter of 1860-1861. They needed a peaceful solution to the sectional crisis.
The first wave of political change was the push for immediate secession on the election of Lincoln, which carried seven Deep South states. The second wave was a strong Unionist counterattack led by former Whigs and loyal Democrats who consulted with Republicans on the possibility of a new Unionists party in the border states.
After Fort Sumter, Lincoln’s call for troops to restore federal property confiscated in the South led to states’ rights Unionists to become reluctant Confederates, and so the CSA gained over half its white population along with most of the food, livestock and industrial goods it would require to wage war for four years. Learn more to buy “Reluctant Confederates” here for your bookshelf.