Mountain Masters: Slavery and the Sectional Crisis in Western North CarolinaAntebellum Southern Appalachia has long been seen as a classless and essentially slaveless region - one so alienated and isolated from other parts of the South that, with the onset of the Civil War, highlanders opposed both secession and Confederate war efforts. In a multifaceted challenge to these basic assumptions about Appalachian society in the mid-nineteenth century, John Inscoe reveals new variations on the diverse motives and rationales that drove Southerners, particularly in the Upper South, out of the Union. Mountain Masters vividly portrays the wealth, family connections, commercial activities, and governmental power of the slaveholding elite that controlled the social, economic, and political development of western North Carolina. In examining the role played by slavery in shaping the political consciousness of mountain residents, the book also provides fresh insights into the nature of southern class interaction, community structure, and master-slave relationships. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Common terms and phrases
agricultural antebellum Appalachian Ashe County Asheville Avery Blue Ridge Buncombe County Burke County Caldwell County candidates Carolina highlanders Carolina Historical Review Carolina mountains Chapel Hill Cherokee citizens Clingman communities Confederacy convention County's Cowles David Democrats district economic election Erwin farm farmers French Broad Graham Haywood Henderson County History internal improvements issue James Gwyn Jeffrey Kruman largest slaveholders livestock Macon County majority markets McDowell Morganton moun mountain counties mountain masters mountain residents NCDAH negroes nonslaveholding North Carolina Historical North Carolina's mountain Olmsted Papers of Vance Parties and Politics Patton percent Phifer plantation planter population railroad region Republican secede secession secessionist Second Party System Senate Siler slavery Speeches and Writings state's Swain Tennessee Thomas Clingman Thomas Lenoir Turnpike Union unionist Univ Valley vote voters Watauga western Carolinians western North Carolina Whig party Wilkes County William Holland Thomas Woodfin wrote Yancey County Zebulon
Bibliographic information
| Title | Mountain Masters: Slavery and the Sectional Crisis in Western North Carolina |
| Author | John C. Inscoe |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Univ. of Tennessee Press, 1996 |
| ISBN | 0870499335, 9780870499333 |
| Length | 348 pages |
| Subjects | › › › History / United States / State & Local / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |