02 November 2007

New Acquisitions

John McCardell, The Idea of a Southern Nation - Southern Nationalists and Southern Nationalism, 1830-1860 (1979)

Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before The Civil War (1995)
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoy the Foner, it's a good read. I haven't read McCardell, how does he treat the Nullification Crisis? Or does he include it? I have yet to come across any historian who has covered whether or not slaveowners envisioned using their slaves in mines. I imgine that if they had (say in AZ, UT, CO--all technically open to slavery following the Compromise of 1850) there may have been a significant effort to reinstate the international slave trade. Are you familiar with any such writings?

13 November, 2007 10:42
Grotius said...

On McCardell, I'll have to read it first. :)

Still slogging through some other stuff right now.

I have yet to come across any historian who has covered whether or not slaveowners envisioned using their slaves in mines.

McPherson in Battlecry of Freedom notes that some Southerners did envision such, but I can't recall if they slaveowners or not. Though since if my recollection is correct and at least some of them were politicians from the deep South then they probably were (given how often slaveownership and being a federal elected official went hand in hand in that area of the U.S.). One of the examples that they used was past slave regimes - like that of the Romans - who used slaves extensively in mining operations.

I imgine that if they had (say in AZ, UT, CO--all technically open to slavery following the Compromise of 1850) there may have been a significant effort to reinstate the international slave trade.

McPherson also notes that at least some elements of Southern politicians were in favor of that. Their point being that if slavery wasn't immoral why would the slave trade be? A lot of this was tied in with ideas of making Cuba and other Latin American colonies or nations part of an expanded United States. Of course I guess that also illustrates how skeptical many Southern elites might have been about the prospects of actually extending slavery past Texas into New Mexico, California, etc.

Also, though it has been a long time since I read it, David Potters' The Impending Crisis deals with a lot of these same issues. Its a great read and I probably should read it again some time.

14 November, 2007 11:42
VikingMoose said...

FYI: An Economic Approach to Analyzing Civil Wars by Stergios Skaperdas...

28 November, 2007 12:01

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