Midterm for Civil War w/ Domby - Secondary Sources

Stephanie Camp, “I Could Not Stay There”

This article deals with truancy, which was temporary periods of time where enslaved people ran into the woods in order to get reprieve from punishment.

Key reasons Camp cites for truants being mostly women?

family ties, social cost, lack of geographic knowledge

How did truants thrive?

Support from friends/kin networks

Rachel Shelden, “I Shall Not Forget…”

The role of judges in political culture of the 1850s.

What role did judges play in political culture leading up to the war?

Judges were very often interested in politics and participated actively, using cases as opportunities to get their name out there and canvas support.

Dew, Apostles of Disunion, key focus

Cause of secession based on the reports of secession commissioners

What are the three fears that Dew cites across all the examples?

Racial equality, race war, miscegenation.

Name one of the secession commissioners Dew pulls from?

William Harris, Fulton Anderson (both from MS), Henry Lewis Benning (GA), Alexander Hamilton Handy, etc.

John Brown was blamed for doing what by the Richmond Enquirer

advancing “the cause of Disunion more than any other event”

How was John Brown’s memory inconsistent with reality for Southern enslavers (Holden 94)?

They thought enslaved people stayed out of love, but they really stayed because it was obviously doomed.

When did some Southerners, like George Pickett’s wife LaSalle or William Cabell, write their stories about their enslaved people/life on their plantation?

After 1900

What does Paul Conrad say about teaching the Civil War

It must be taught within the context of American Indian history.

Why are American Indians important to the story of slavery according to Conrad?

Slavery did not always look like the chattel form, American Indians made for poor plantation slaves but valuable enslaved people to export, and cotton-fueled expansion was directly linked to kicking Indians out.

According to Ostler, what features marked US warfare against Indians in the post-war period?

Extreme brutality (often via killing civilians) and coercion that basically amounted to bringing death if compliance was not given.

How did Indian groups respond to American coercion and militarism?

They often navigated it differently, all in an effort to carve out better terms for themselves.

What religious group in North Carolina is the subject of Bynum’s “Occupied at Home,” which depicts Unionist resistance against the Confederates?

The Quakers.

From the Bynum reading, what threats loomed for Southern civilians during the war? Hint: Think of Adams Brewer, John Gatewood, and Lieutenant Pugh

Vigilantes, corrupt politicians, and repressive government rationing policies.

Urwin describes a war crime and racial atrocity in 1864 where?

Poison Springs, Arkansas

How do we know it was a war crime?

Most of the casualties were among the Black units, of which a disproportionate number were deaths and not injuries. Confederate reports indicate they drove over Black soldiers with wagons.

Who was responsible for most of the looting that was blamed for the brutality?

White Kansas troops.

What did Arkansas residents believe the product of the Emancipation Proclamation would be?

Race war.

What does Downs claim about how Americans viewed the term war?

War was more than just battle time

Why were war powers important?

They gave the United States authority to overthrow laws about slavery and pro-slavery politicians in the South to fully eliminate slavery

Explain the difference between Sherman’s offer of peace and Grant’s offer of surrender.

Sherman’s move toward peace would have allowed white Southerners to re-take positions of power, whereas Grant enabled the government to take a much more hardline stance.

What does GIS reveal about Lee’s vision at Gettysburg?

Longstreet likely did have good reason to be wary about marching on Little Round Top, Lee probably could not see the teeth of the Union forces at Gettysburg.

What does Glaatthaar’s study tell us about slaveowner participation in the war?

Soldiers and Lee’s army were 2-3x more likely to own slaves than the general Southern population. Slaveowning households were more likely to be represented among that army vs. the general population as well.

How common was substitution as practice in the war?

More uncommon than has been suggested. Less than .5% of the army of NoVa, and the practice was outlawed in late 1863 because of pressure from Lee.

What were some of the reasons that motivated poor whites to serve in the South?

Potential economic connections, economic competition with freedmen, protecting their home, etc.