Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia, and: A Perfect War of Politics: Parties, Politicians, and Democracy in Louisiana, 1824–1861 (review)

In the past few years a number of historians have reexamined the nature of Southern society, culture, and politics, using new perspectives to attack the old, but ever-fascinating problem of secession. Often moving beyond the traditional boundaries of party politics, they have sought and emphasized the deeper sources of secessionism. In this tradition, William Link offers this new study of Virginia and argues that the key to understanding disunion lies in the changing nature of slavery in the 1850s.

In the Old Dominion the nature of slavery and, in particular, the master-slave relationship changed dramatically in the last decade before secession. "Dynamic market forces" upset the state's traditional economy, prompting slaveowners to find new ways to use their valuable labor. Many planters hired out their slaves to work in cities, factories, shops, and even mines, which meant large numbers of unsupervised workers; others survived by selling slaves to the Southwest. The paternalist system that masters believed was the foundation of their slave society crumbled, resulting in a "decomposing master-slave relationship" (51). White Virginians believed (whether or not it was true) that during the decade more slaves ran away, more "mysterious fires" gutted mansions and businesses, and more slaves were likely to assault or poison their masters, supervisors, or overseers. Slaves, whites had to admit, were not happy.

These changes in slavery, of course, coincided with a more aggressive abolitionist movement and the formation and rapid growth of the Republican Party. The outside threats seemed that much more frightening as Virginia masters faced their increasingly unruly and unsupervised slave population. In short, Link places slaves themselves at the center of sectional politics. "Slaves' rejection of their bondage helped to create a particular sectional dynamic: it was their resistance that fueled slaveholder anxiety, and slaveholder anxieties fostered the political crisis" (9). The crucial point, in other words, was that Virginia voters reacted to the Republican Party within the context of their understanding of a newly vulnerable, seemingly unstable, slave system. Unlike the Deep South states, however, Virginia did not rush to secede after Lincoln's election. The state's regional diversity and viable opposition party slowed the secessionist movement. Non-slaveholding voters in northwestern Virginia, in particular, harbored long-standing resentment of eastern planters' political power; the tenuous hold of slavery west of the Blue Ridge Mountains added to the state's fractured political history. Disunionists, then, could not count on overwhelming popular support for their cause. John Bell carried the state in 1860, and the 1861 special convention initially contained a solid majority of moderates and "conditional Unionists." Only with the threat of invasion did the majority of Virginians embrace secession.

Link's analysis is clear and thought-provoking. He has brought together material from previous studies of Virginia and the South—much of the narrative, especially in broad strokes, will be familiar to students of antebellum politics and slavery—and fashioned a compelling argument that does, indeed, place slaves at the center of political sectionalism. Partly it seems a matter of emphasis. Previous historians, of course, have noted the congruence of internal and external factors in the 1850s that raised Southern fears for the future safety of slavery under a Republican administration. Link has made explicit, to a greater degree than ever before, a connection between conditions within Virginia slavery and the developing political crisis.

The changed nature of Virginia slavery also limits the argument, to an extent, which is something the author is careful to acknowledge. He presents Virginia as a border state, given its unusually large percentage of free African Americans and unsupervised or hired slaves. Furthermore, much evidence for the evolving...