All Aboard: The Influence of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on Sectionalism and Statehood in West Virginia

The pivotal role played by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in the shaping of the state of West Virginia is critical to the examination of the intersection between business, community, and government, as the weight of the B&O on the fulcrum of sectionalism in West Virginia was a powerful influence on the political views of communities and state-makers. This influence of a growing American ideology of empire based on industrial expansion was waged by the B&O at the local, state, and national levels and was a current running beneath the multitude of reasons that West Virginians vowed to remain in the Union and separate from Virginia. The history of West Virginia's separation from Virginia has been examined by historians over the years, as the process that cleaved the state in two is unmatched in the history of the United States.¹ West Virginia historians have laid important groundwork on the broad sectional issues of political and social alliances, and have addressed the fact that West Virginians were less vested in the slave economy that characterized the Confederacy and were less frequently tied to family histories that shaped the Old Dominion.² While economic issues have been considered in each of these valuable studies, this article seeks to highlight the specific impact that the B&O exerted on the formation of West Virginia to highlight the way that industry, state-making, and empire building coalesced in the Civil War period.

By examining the influence of the B&O in Barbour and Taylor Counties, it is possible to understand that West Virginia sectionalism was not simply an issue of politics, but was influenced by regional economic opportunities and expanding industries. These two rural counties demonstrate that West Virginia's path to statehood was more complex than a demand for expanded voting rights or a desire to separate from a slaveholding planter elite, and was shaped by the railroad industry. This article seeks to broaden the history of West Virginia sectionalism through an analysis of how the B&O influenced support for the Union in counties where the B&O became a prominent force.³ The use of local histories and census data to compare two geographically linked counties are valuable in the analysis of ways that statehood and sectionalism were influenced and shifted throughout the Civil War era. West Virginia's path to statehood, much like the nation's path to Union, was never a one-way track, but more a nebulous web of economic, social, and political factors that shifted to meet the needs of a people. Allegiance to state and allegiance to nation are broad histories complicated by economic forces, and the experiences of Barbour and Taylor Counties are pertinent to the examination of the ways that allegiance is formed and nations expand.

The interior counties of Barbour and Taylor are the focus of this narrative, and employment patterns in the 1850 and 1860 censuses will be integral to the analysis of shifting ideologies.⁴ Because neither county touches a bordering state, the particularly strong influence of prosecession ideology of Virginia or pro-Union ideology of Ohio are removed from the immediate geography of this study. Both counties were largely dependent upon farming and farm labor as the dominant industry in 1850.⁵ The influence of the B&O caused demographic shifts with the increase of railroad jobs and employment ancillary to the railroad in Taylor County during this period. While the number of working men increased in both Barbour and Taylor County from 1850 to 1860, and while the total number of slaves in each county decreased, neither of the changes point to dramatic differences between the counties (fig. 1). When the lens is focused upon the nonfarming occupations performed by men in each county, the differences between the counties are striking.

Figure 1.

Comparison of Changes to Employment, Types of Occupations, and Total Slaves Owned in Barbour and Taylor Counties. Data sources: 1850 US Census and 1860 US Census for Barbour and Taylor...