William W. Freehling, The Reintegration of American History: Slavery and the Civil War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
SYNOPSIS:
Freehling's essays in this volume emphasize the geographic split in the South between the Lower South, the Middle South, and
the Border South. He defines the Middle South as Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas, and the Border South
as Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. Freehling considers slavery in the nineteenth century increasingly nonviable
in the Middle and Border regions, arguing that slaves were being sold to the Lower South in what he calls a "slave drain."
(181)
EXCERPT:
"With slavery swiftly concentrating southward and slowly fading northward, different social attitudes and political priorities
developed. Lower South slaveholders came to call slavery a probably perpetual blessing, while Border South masters persistently
called the institution a hopefully temporary evil. So too Lower South political warriors cared more about perpetuating slavery
that the Union, while Border South leaders would compromise on slavery in order to save the Union." (182-183)
RELATIONSHIP:
We disagree with Freehling's general thesis of Middle South slippage in its commitment to slavery and his geographical determinism.
Instead, we emphasize slavery's adaptability in Virginia and the way social and economic institutions took shape around it.
Points of Analysis to this Historiography:
"The visible differences that slavery made in the arrangement of the landscape were apparent to many observers, but Northerners
and Southerners interpreted them differently. Northerners focused on land value per acre and Southerners on the dollar value
of their crops."
Citation: Key = H055
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