Freedom's Crescent: The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley PDF
Preview Freedom's Crescent: The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley
’ FREEDOM S CRESCENT The Lower Mississippi Valley is more than just a distinct geographical regionoftheUnitedStates;itwascentraltotheoutcomeoftheCivilWar and the destruction of slavery in the American South. Beginning with Lincoln’s1860presidentialelectionandconcludingwiththefinalratifi- cationoftheThirteenthAmendmentin1865,Freedom’sCrescentexplores the four states of this region that seceded and joined the Confederacy: Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. By weaving into a coherent narrative the major military campaigns that enveloped the region,thedailydisintegrationofslaveryinthecountryside,andpolitical developments across the four states and in Washington DC, John C. Rodrigue identifies the Lower Mississippi Valley as the epicenter of emancipationintheSouth.Asweepingexaminationofoneofthewar’s mostimportanttheaters,thisbookhighlightstheintegralrolethisregion playedintransformingUnitedStateshistory. JohnC.RodrigueistheLawrenceandTheresaSalamenoProfessorinthe DepartmentofHistoryatStonehillCollege.HisbookReconstructioninthe CaneFieldsreceivedtheKemperandLeilaWilliamsPrizefromtheLouisiana Historical Association. He is also a co-editor of one of the volumes of Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867. In 2016– 2017,heservedasthePresidentoftheLouisianaHistoricalAssociation. Published online by Cambridge University Press CAMBRIDGE STUDIES ON THE AMERICAN SOUTH SeriesEditors: MarkM.Smith,UniversityofSouthCarolina,Columbia PeterCoclanis,UniversityofNorthCarolinaatChapelHill EditorEmeritus: DavidMoltke-Hansen Interdisciplinary in its scope and intent, this series builds upon and extendsCambridgeUniversityPress’slongstandingcommitmenttostud- ies on the American South. The series offers the best new workon the South’sdistinctiveinstitutional,social,economic,andculturalhistoryand also features works in a national, comparative, and transnational perspective. TitlesintheSeries JohnC.Rodrigue,Freedom’sCrescent:TheCivilWarandtheDestruction ofSlaveryintheLowerMississippiValley ElijahGaddis,GruesomeLookingObjects:ANewHistoryofLynchingand EverydayThings DamianAlanPargas,FreedomSeekers:FugitiveSlavesinNorthAmerica, 1800–1860 SebastianN.Page,BlackResettlementandtheAmericanCivilWar HaydenR.Smith,Carolina’sGoldenFields:InlandRiceCultivationinthe SouthCarolinaLowcountry,1670–1860 WilsonJeremiahMoses,ThomasJefferson:AModernPrometheus Joan E. Cashin, War Stuff: The Struggle for Human and Environmental ResourcesintheAmericanCivilWar DavidStefanDoddington,ContestingSlaveMasculinityintheAmerican South Lawrence T.McDonnell, Performing Disunion: TheComing of theCivil WarinCharleston,SouthCarolina EnricoDalLago,CivilWarandAgrarianUnrest:TheConfederateSouth andSouthernItaly DanielJ.Vivian,ANewPlantationWorld:SportingEstatesintheSouth CarolinaLowCountry,1900–1940 Eugene D. Genovese, ed. Douglas Ambrose, The Sweetness of Life: SouthernPlantersatHome DonaldG.Mathews,AttheAltarofLynching:BurningSamHoseinthe AmericanSouth Keri Leigh Merritt, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the AntebellumSouth Published online by Cambridge University Press KatherineRyeJewell,DollarsforDixie:BusinessandtheTransformation ofConservatismintheTwentiethCentury Sarah Gardner, Reviewing the South: The Literary Marketplace and the SouthernRenaissance,1920–1941 William Thomas Okie, The Georgia Peach: Culture, Agriculture, and EnvironmentintheAmericanSouth KarlosK.Hill,BeyondtheRope:TheImpactofLynchingonBlackCulture andMemory William A. Link and James J. Broomall, eds., Rethinking American Emancipation:LegaciesofSlaveryandtheQuestforBlackFreedom James Van Horn Melton, Religion, Community, and Slavery on the ColonialSouthernFrontier Damian Alan Pargas, Slavery and Forced Migration in the Antebellum South CraigFriendandLorriGlover,eds.,DeathandtheAmericanSouth Barton A. Myers, Rebels against the Confederacy: North Carolina’s Unionists LouisA.FerlegerandJohnD.Metz,CultivatingSuccessintheSouth:Farm HouseholdsinPostbellumGeorgia LukeE.Harlow,Religion,Race,andtheMakingofConfederateKentucky, 1830–1880 Susanna MicheleLee,Claiming the Union:Citizenship in thePost–Civil WarSouth KathleenM.Hilliard,Masters,Slaves,andExchange:Power’sPurchasein theOldSouth Ari Helo, Thomas Jefferson’s Ethics and the Politics of Human Progress: TheMoralityofaSlaveholder Scott P. Marler, The Merchants’ Capital: New Orleans and the Political EconomyoftheNineteenth-CenturySouth Ras Michael Brown, African-Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina Lowcountry Johanna Nicol Shields, Freedom in a Slave Society: Stories from the AntebellumSouth BrianSteele,ThomasJeffersonandAmericanNationhood Christopher Michael Curtis, Jefferson’s Freeholders and the Politics of OwnershipintheOldDominion JonathanDanielWells,WomenWritersandJournalistsintheNineteenth- CenturySouth Peter McCandless, Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern Lowcountry Robert E. Bonner, Mastering America: Southern Slaveholders and the CrisisofAmericanNationhood Published online by Cambridge University Press Published online by Cambridge University Press ’ FREEDOM S CRESCENT The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley JOHN C. RODRIGUE StonehillCollege Published online by Cambridge University Press UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 103PenangRoad,#05–06/07,VisioncrestCommercial,Singapore238467 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108424097 DOI:10.1017/9781108539715 ©JohnC.Rodrigue2023 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2023 AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Rodrigue,JohnC.,author. Title:Freedom’screscent:theCivilWarandthedestructionofslaveryinthelower MississippiValley/JohnC.Rodrigue,StonehillCollege,Massachusetts. Othertitles:CivilWarandthedestructionofslaveryinthelowerMississippiValley Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress, 2023.|Series:CambridgestudiesontheAmericanSouth|Includesbibliographical referencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2022034272(print)|LCCN2022034273(ebook)|ISBN9781108424097 (hardback)|ISBN9781108539715(ebook) Subjects:LCSH:AfricanAmericans–History–1863–1877.|Freedpersons–UnitedStates– History–19thcentury.|Slaves–Emancipation–UnitedStates–History–19thcentury.| Reconstruction(U.S.history,1865–1877)–MississippiRiverValley.|AfricanAmericans– MississippiRiverValley–Socialconditions–19thcentury.|Slavery–MississippiRiver Valley–History–19thcentury.|MississippiRiverValley–History–CivilWar,1861–1865. Classification:LCCE185.2R632023(print)|LCCE185.2(ebook)|DDC973.7/14–dc23/ eng/20220823 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022034272 LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022034273 ISBN978-1-108-42409-7Hardback ISBN978-1-108-43934-3Paperback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Published online by Cambridge University Press toSylvia Published online by Cambridge University Press Itmaylooklikeboasting–butwhatItellyouistruth–Ibeganto reflecthowmagnificentathingitwastodieinsuchamanner,and howfoolishitwasinmetothinkofsopaltryaconsiderationasmy ownindividuallife,inviewofsowonderfulamanifestationofGod’s power.IdobelievethatIblushedwithshamewhenthisideacrossed mymind.AfteralittlewhileIbecamepossessedwiththekeenest curiosityaboutthewhirlitself.Ipositivelyfeltawishtoexploreits depths,evenatthesacrificeIwasgoingtomake;andmyprincipal griefwasthatIshouldneverbeabletotellmyoldcompanionson shoreaboutthemysteriesIshouldsee.These,nodoubt,were singularfanciestooccupyaman’smindinsuchextremity–and Ihaveoftenthoughtsince,thattherevolutionsoftheboataround thepoolmighthaverenderedmealittlelight-headed. EdgarAllanPoe,“ADescentintotheMaelström”(1841) Published online by Cambridge University Press CONTENTS ListofFigures pagexi Acknowledgments xii ListofAbbreviations xvi Introduction 1 Prologue:Life–andLabor–ontheMississippi 22 parti FromWarforUniontoMilitaryEmancipation, 1860–1862 1 “AnIndependentPower” 43 2 OfStampedesandFreePapers 65 3 “BrokenEggsCannotBeMended” 82 4 “TheUnsatisfactoryProspectBeforeThem” 100 partii: FromMilitaryEmancipationtoStateAbolition, 1863 5 “TheReturnoftheSecededStatestoThisUnionasSlave States” 115 6 “RepugnanttotheSpiritoftheAge” 132 7 “TheGreatestQuestionEverPresentedtoPractical Statesmanship” 145 8 “TheNameof‘Slavery’” 165 9 “RepudiatingtheEmancipationProclamation andReestablishingSlavery” 185 partiii: Abolition:StateandFederal,1864 10 “SlaveryIsIncompatiblewithaRepublicanForm ofGovernment” 223 ix Published online by Cambridge University Press
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