Civil War

Let’s spend some time talking about the Civil War, shall we?

From the outset, we should probably establish some rather basic ground rules. First, you need to understand some things about me, and about my areas of research:

• I am a Southern historian. This means, simply, that I tend to focus my research on the geographic area of the South. So for example, when we talk about America in the War of 1812, I’m more likely to focus on how the war affected the South, and the position of the south relative to the War of 1812. This doesn’t mean I believe the North to be irrelevant or unimportant; rather, I am simply more interested in what was going on in the South.
• I’m very likely, to the point of annoyance, going to remind you that there was (and often, is) not a monolithic American approach to things. While the U.S. does have a common history and while it has continually developed its own unique culture out of that history, there are very specific regional differences. In the nineteenth-century those differences were more pronounced, and so I’m likely to not let you forget them.
• I am a Yankee by birth, and I was trained in the North. My love for Southern history has grown out of a personal passion and interest, one that is not based in my own particular heritage. My family has been North of the Mason-Dixon since before Polk was president.
• As I’ve noted before, I do not believe that race, class, or gender determine our destiny, or are solely responsible for shaping our national history. This is not to say that race, class, and gender are irrelevant; but rather that I don’t feel the compulsion to bow at their altar in the manner that many professional historians do.
• I tend to take the motives of human beings at face value, unless the evidence is overwhelmingly compelling to the contrary. For example, if someone claims that they joined the Union army because they hate slavery, I believe them, even if they left behind a pregnant girlfriend, or had committed a crime. Had they done both of those and also journaled about how they dreamed of owning a plantation, however, I might take a second look at motive. Again the evidence has to be compelling.
• I’m not big on hidden conspiracies. While I believe it may have been easier to pull off conspiracy in the nineteenth century than it is in the Information Age, I am of the view that most conspiracies are, ultimately, undone. Conspirators rarely remain silent forever, especially once the spotlight is on them; they want to be able to deflect that attention onto someone else.

That should be sufficient to begin, I think. From here we can continue onto the actual historical questions.

Tagged as: American Civil War, history