Southwest Virginia's railroad: modernization and the sectional crisis

Kenneth W. Noe

University of Illinois Press, 1994 - Transportation - 221 pages

This innovative look at antebellum Southwest Virginia disputes traditional Appalachian scholarship, which has maintained that industrialization in the area occurred after 1880. Kenneth Noe shows how mountain modernization began decades earlier, with a regional railroad that contributed to support for secession and the Confederacy. Combining an adept use of anecdote and detail with analysis of the written record, Noe shows that many supporters of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad viewed it as a political tool, believing it would spread slavery and unite the state. He focuses on the railroad's economic fruits - integration of the region into the tobacco kingdom, urbanization, a growth in industry, and the spread of slavery - and shows how these brought about political results. By 1860, the author argues, the railroad had indeed increased the region's dependence on slavery, deepened its immersion in the capitalist marketplace, and strengthened its ties to the state capital.

Contents

• The Railroad Is Completed to Bristol: 11
• The Railroad: 67
• Secession: 85

About the author

Kenneth W. Noe is Draughon Professor of History at Auburn University. He is author or editor of five books, including "Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle".

Bibliographic information

• Title: Southwest Virginia's railroad: modernization and the sectional crisis
• Author: Kenneth W. Noe
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1994
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Nov 7, 2007
• Length: 221 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Economic Conditions; History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877); Social Science / General; Transportation / Railroads / General; Transportation / Railroads / History