The Road to Secession: A New Perspective on The Old South (review)

BOOK REVIEWS173 own views on the peculiar institution were mixed, if not actually antislavery . The fact that talk of expansion was abandoned almost at once after secession, and that the Monroe Doctrine was tossed aside by Confederate diplomats seeking to encourage European colonial aspirations in the Caribbean, appears at least to weaken the force of May's argument about the significance of the issue. When such ardent pro-expansion newspapers as the New Orleans Delta admitted in early 1861 that "temporary political necessities which had caused the South to desire acquisition of Cuba, as a slave state" had vanished with the creation of the new Confederacy, we may question how sincerely territorial additions were pursued in the 1850's, and how important it truly was to planters and their supporters. Professor May's study is, nevertheless, a valuable step toward our fuller understanding of the South and the disruption of the Union. Steven A. Channing University of Kentucky The Road to Secession: A New Perspective on The Old South. By William L. Barney. (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1972. Pp. xv, 235. $8.00.) This small, but exceedingly well written and thoughtful, volume is the third in a new series entitled "New Perspectives in American History." According to the dust jacket, books in the series are designed to "provide a brief, readable 'new look' at significant periods or themes in American history." Emphasis is placed upon synthesis and interpretation . Documentation is at a minimum; The Road to Secession contains no footnotes and only a selective bibliography. Books in the series are designed for use in the survey course, but judging by The Road to Secession they would serve upperclassmen and graduate students as well. Within the purposes of the series, Professor Barney succeeds quite admirably. Drawing heavily upon the work of Eugene Genovese, Steven Channing, Eric Foner, and other contemporary scholars as well as his own substantial research in the area of study, the author places emphasis upon the necessity of new lands for slave expansion. With a slave population increasing 27 per cent per decade from 1810 to 1860 ("a Malthusian time bomb") on one hand and abolitionist determination to contain slavery on the other, "white southerners began to feel a kind of racial claustrophobia" (p. 65). Little matter that the white population was increasing more rapidly or that the South of 1950 would still have a population density much less than that of 1850 Massachusetts , southerners were convinced that more land must be opened to slavery. Only through acquisition of additional territory could the diffusion of slaves be continued and the South avoid the problem of massive numbers of blacks confined to a closed area. The author stresses the role of young radicals in the secession move- 174CIVIL war history ment. Although older fire-eaters such as R. Barnwell Rhett, William L. Yancey, and Edmund Ruffin provided the leadership in the 1850's, it was the young planter-slaveholding farmer group that worked the hardest for Breckinridge in 1860 and secession in 1861. "Their major goal," writes Barney, "was not so much an independent South as secure one." They "spoke for a generation that demanded an end to the recriminations and moral condemnations provoked by the slavery question" (p. 165). They believed the South must take action to protect itself from economic and social disaster. Southern moderates and conservatives were unable to stem the tide. John Brown's raid, rumors of abolitionist activities in Texas, and the election of a Republican President pledged to halt the expansion of slavery played into the hands of the extremists. The fire-eaters' long desired goal of secession became a reality. Although the war that followed destroyed slavery, racial and class exploitation of blacks survived . Barney notes that "had Southerners been assured of this in 1860, much of the impetus for secession, especially among the masses, would have been drained" (p. 208). Ralph A. Wooster Lamar University A Touchstone for Greatness: Essays, Addresses and Occasional Pieces about Abraham Lincoln. By Roy P. Basler. (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1973. Pp. ix, 257. $9.50. ) The American Conscience: The Drama of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates . By Saul Sigelschiffer. (New York: Horizon Press, 1973. Pp. vii...