What Is Ballinger's Role In The Civil War

Phillips writes that the defining characteristic of a ‘Southerner’ is a feeling of white racial solidarity which casts all other social considerations in the shade; it is the “cardinal test of a Southerner.” When Phillips touches upon the subject of non-slaveholding whites, he emphasizes their zeal for the primacy of white civilization as an end unto itself. He relates two contemporary accounts of non-slaveholders, one a tinner and the other an overseer, to demonstrate this fervor but pointedly devalues their economic attachments to slavery, writing, “Both of them, and a million of their non-slaveholding like, had a still stronger social prompting: the white men’s ways must prevail; the Negroes must be kept innocuous.” Phillips rejects out of hand the sway of overt pecuniary motives against the weight of racial ones and this rejection is so absolute in part because “it is otherwise impossible to account

The railroad played a key role in the economic development of San Antonio after the Civil War. The railroad encouraged the development of cattle trade and brought tourist to the city. Newspaper accounts inflamed residents, spreading rumors that Mexicans had armed themselves. In August 1894, Blacks attacked Mexicans at Beeville, Texas. Mexicans were brought there to drive down wages of blacks and to create a labor surplus. The federal government encouraged this antagonism by stationing black soldiers in Mexican areas. The history of Texas being known as a state of violence, brought terror toward the Mexicans since they didn’t have the same protection under the law. On the other hand, in South Texas, Mexicans outnumbered the North American, latter controlled politics and the land. Mexicans did not accept North American rules and they hardly felt like liberated people. They called them greasers and denied them the opportunity to acquire property, to exercise political control over their own lives, and to maintain their rights within the society. Mexicans in the country banded together along lines of race and class taking direct action in the response to the political chicanery of foreigners. It was a class struggle against the rich and powerful establishment.

There has been many historians and theorists who have tackled colonial slavery. One of them is Ira Berlin whose book Many Thousands Gone is his take on slavery diversity in American history and how slavery is at the epicenter of economic production, amongst other things. He separates the book into three generations: charter, plantation and revolutionary, across four geographic areas: Chesapeake, New England, the Lower country and the lower Mississippi valley. In this paper, I will discuss the differences between the charter and plantation generations, the changes in work and living conditions, resistance, free blacks and changes in manumission.

While many have described the civil war as simply the war between the States, Bruce Levine in his book “Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of Civil War” has put together an 80 year survey from around 1773 the pre-revolutionary era to the Civil War with well documented evidence of the social, cultural and political idealisms of our once divided nation. This book review will emphasize points on each of the book’s chapters which are put chronologically and particularly comparing the southern slave labor system to the free labor system in the north. Levine’s thesis statement on page four of his book reads as follows, “What impelled so many-rich, middling, and poor; white and black; native-born and immigrant- to risk and sacrifice so much? To answer such questions, this book reexamines the antebellum political history in the light of the broader economic, social, cultural, and ideological developments that shaped the lives of the American people”. (p. 4) Clearly the author of the book has researched numerous historical papers and has placed them in the direction his thesis will be provided with hard evidence from the founding fathers’ letters, written memos and of course the laws put into the United States constitution.

Ira Berlin (author of many thousands gone) starts this book off (in the prologue) by recalling a dispute some years ago over “who freed the slaves?” in the Civil War South. He was interviewed on Washington's public radio station about the meaning of “The Emancipation Proclamation”. He also addressed other familiar themes of the great document origin’s nature of the Civil War changing, the growing Black labor and the union's army’s dependence on it, the Evermore intensifying opposition to slavery in the North, and the interaction of military necessity an abolitionist idealism. He rehearsed the long established debate over the role of Abraham Lincoln, the radicals in Congress, abolitionists in the North, the Union army in the field, and slaves on the slaves on the plantations of the South in the destruction of slavery and in the authorship of legal freedom. During this debate he restated his position that “slaves played a critical role in securing their own freedom”.

John Brown’s beliefs about slavery and activities to destroy it hardly represented the mainstream of northern society in the years leading up to the Civil War. This rather unique man, however, took a leading role in propelling the nation toward secession and conflict. Many events influenced Brown’s views on slavery from an early age. When he was older, his strong anti-slavery feelings had grown, and he became an extreme abolitionist. His raid on Harpers Ferry was one of the first monumental events leading up to the civil war.

Randolph B. Campbell's An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas provides in an in depth look at the slavery existence in the state of Texas. He provides the factors that explain the establishment and growth of slavery. Campbell also explains the economic and legal institution of Texas, and explores the physical and psychological effects of both slaves and their masters prior to the Civil War, during, and after emancipation. Campbell provides clear detail of slavery's impact on Texas slaveholders and society, and how the Civil war affected slavery prior to its destruction.

The Civil War is known as a turning point in America, the road to ending slavery, while first turning a nation against each other.

During the 19th century, so known “peculiar institution” of slavery dominated labor systems of the American South, also dominated most production in the US and led to a boost of the economy of the New Republic. By the 1850 's, US had become a country segregated into two regional identities, known as the Slave South and the Free North. While the South maintained a pro-slavery identity that supported and protected the expansion of slavery westward, the North largely held abolitionist views and opposed the slavery’s westward expansion. Until the 1850 's the nation uncertainly balanced the slavery subject between the two opponents. However, the acquisition of the Louisiana territories in 1803 by the Jefferson administration doubled the size of the US and the victory in the Mexican-American War extended the territory to the Pacific which quadrupled the area of the US. Ultimately, the territorial expansion led to the spread of slavery. In this essay, I will describe some of the reasons for the expansion of slavery including its influence in national politics, and consequences such as political debates and crises of 1850’s.

During the 1840s, America saw increasingly attractive settlements forming between the North and the South. The government tried to keep the industrial north and the agricultural south happy, but eventually the issue of slavery became too big to handle, no matter how many treaties or compromises were formed. Slavery was a huge issue that unraveled throughout many years of American history and was one of the biggest contributors leading up to the Civil War (notes, Fall 2015). Many books have been written over the years about slavery and the brutality of the life that many people endured. In “A Slave No More”, David Blight tells the story about two men, John M. Washington (1838-1918) and Wallace Turnage (1846-1916), struggling during American slavery. Their escape to freedom happened during America’s bloodiest war among many political conflicts, which had been splitting the country apart for many decades. As Blight (2007) describes, “Throughout the Civil War, in thousands of different circumstances, under changing policies and redefinitions of their status, and in the face of social chaos…four million slaves helped to decide what time it would be in American History” (p. 5). Whether it was freedom from a master or overseer, freedom from living as both property and the object of another person’s will, or even freedom to make their own decisions and control their own life, slaves wanted a sense of independence. According to Blight (2007), “The war and the presence of Union armies

New York City’s abolition movement experienced increases and decreases throughout the antebellum era. One organization that became well renown was the New York Vigilance Committee. Under the leadership of David Ruggles, the organization became the most successful group in the city. The vigilance committee functioned as an organization that had “Most of its attention devoted to kidnapping cases” (Foner, 2015, 64). The vigilance committee did assist fugitives but it was “One branch of the committees work and not even ‘the major part” (Foner, 2015, 64). The group became successful due to Ruggle aiding fugitive slaves into New York. “The system of protecting fugitive slaves disastrously broke down,” largely due to chronic lack of funding (Foner, 2015, 169). Sydney Gay was an abolitionist lecturer and editor that influenced the movement. Gay wrote editorials in The Standard, where he endorsed “Defend[ing] fugitive slaves through the legal system”, which made “Local courts the sites of political contests over slavery” (Foner, 2015, 108). Gay came to the aid of fugitive slaves through both legal and illegal methods. Gay held importance because his office became “the major depot in New York City” (Foner, 2015, 172). Gay is the only figure that had “The most detailed account in existence of how the Underground Railroad operated in New York City” (Foner, 2015, 194). The movement arose during the 1800’s when committees and individuals became willing to assist slaves. The movement across the nation came to an end when Abraham Lincoln declared war on the south. The movement was critical

Following the Civil War came a period of regrowth and rebuilding known as Reconstruction. Reconstruction can be broken into different sections and types, one of which is Congressional, or Radical, Reconstruction. There are many scholarly debates about Congressional Reconstruction and its failures, successes, and its overall logistics. Another common debate concerning the Reconstruction period is its purpose and what the intentions of its instigators were. This paper will be discussing an article written by Frederick Douglass entitled Reconstruction. In this article Douglass discusses the Congressional session taking place in 1866. He calls upon the Congressmen to undo the "blunders" of the previous

In the book, “Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas” by Randolph Campbell, the reader is given an inside view of the abhorrent practice known as slavery in the state of Texas during the 1800’s. In the book, Campbell examines the legalities and the monetary aspects in the state of Texas during that time, as well as the causes to provide an explanation why and how slavery came to fruition as well as reasoning for the expansion. It provides the reader with an overall look at the effect that slavery had on both those who were abused and degraded by it and also the effect it had on the slave owners before, during and after the Civil War. This included the time period after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The purpose of depicting

In efforts to better understand the Civil War most historians examine the Sectional Crisis and the Compromise of 1850 in the decades leading up to the worst years in American History. Some historians prefer to focus on the underlying theme of the war, others tightly examine individual leaders, events, and political parties, connecting them all together like puzzle pieces to define the years prior to the war. Despite the contrasting views, it is clear to realize the constant prevailing issues of the Antebellum Period, the Sectional Crisis and the Compromise of 1850. In particular, the Compromise of 1850 is deceivingly taught as only establishing 3 pivotal elements: the status of slavery in future territories (popular sovereignty), California statehood, and the fugitive slave law. Granted these elements of the compromise provide a great amount of controversy long after their birth, but one element of the compromise perceives to fail in obtaining recognition. The Texas-New Mexico boundary resolution seems to find itself fading away from its relevancy to the civil war, shadowed by more prominent issues regarding the stability of the Union. Abandoning the traditional teaching of the compromise, the Texas-New Mexico border decision figuratively and literally changed the identity of Texas. This was the long awaited result caused by deep rooted social and political issues dating back to the Texas Revolution.

The Columbian University journalism professor Nicholas Lemann’s aim of writing this book is to look at the brutal campaign of fraud and violence during the mid-1870s that ultimately led to the restoration of conservative, white governments in some southern states. The author focuses on the reconstruction of Mississippi. He stirs memories of the murderous Southern resistance and to civil rights movements 90 years later. Lemann writes at an era when neo-Confederate sympathies have cropped up again in southern politics, and amid several reports of the suppression of the minority voting throughout the country. Mr. Lemann presents the last battle of the Civil War.