Battle Cry of Freedom

source : cite:mcpherson₂₀₀₃

General notes

• Prior to the [[Civil War]], [[wage labor]] had not fully developed in the [[United States]] just yet. Northern factories had worked on developing it, however. It was not very popular, as it was seen as being antithetical to the freedom that the United States was supposed to be about. You cannot be free and have to depend on someone for a wage in order to live
• [[Thomas Jefferson]] was hostile to wage labor and favored [[yeoman]] ideals
• Leading up to the Civil War, the tension between [[capitalism]] and [[slavery]] only grew. These were mutually exclusive and antagonistic economic forces
• [[Slavery]] impeded the growth of [[capitalism]]
• The [[Dred Scott case]] was a direct contributor to the start of the civil war

Chapter notes

7. The Revolution of 1860

• The fugitive slave law and the events of the 1850s made nonviolence not viable for slave abolitionists
• [[John Brown]] urged [[Frederick Douglass]] to join him on his abolitionlist rebellion
• John Brown’s [[raid on Harper’s Ferry]] lasted only 36 hours, and John Brown was executed
• Brown’s raid was emblematic of the growing tensions between north and south
• [[Henry David Thoreau]] called [[John Brown]] a “crucified hero”

8. The Counterrevolution of 1861

• [[South Carolina]] was the first to vote to secede from the Union.

  There is nothing in all the dark caves of human passion so cruel and deadly as the hatred the South Carolinians profess for the Yankees.

• Secession was popular in the South by ~3:1

• There were multiple opinions about the nature of secession in the South: cooperationists, ultimatumists, and conditional unionists

  • Cooperationists wanted to secede with the South in solidarity
  • Ultimatumists wanted to create a convention to draw up a list of demands from the [[Lincoln]] administration. If the ultimatum was refused, the South would leave

• Conditional unionists wanted to give Lincoln a chance to show that he could be a moderate president

• Many in the South were eager (“joyously”) to secede and did not expect there to be much violence

• Some saw secession as a [[revolution]], going so far as to sing “The Southern Marseillaise”, and taking on the reputation of figures from the [[French Revolution]]

• The planters argued that the [[yeoman]] whites should rally with the [[planter class]] on the grounds that “freedom is not possible without slavery”

• Others argued that it was the Black Republicans who were the revolutionaries, and the leaders of the [[Confederacy]] argued that they were “saving themselves from a revolution.” As the author says, this is the talk of [[counterrevolution]]

• Northern friendly Democrats (most notably [[James Buchanan]]) blamed the Republicans and other abolitionist-friendly northerners for the south deceding

• Leading up to Lincoln’s inauguration, he felt he could hold the Union together, even as the cotton states were in the act of seceding

9. Facing Both Ways: The Upper South’s Dilemma