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Plain Folk in a Rich Man's War: Class and Dissent in Confederate Georgia
written by DAVID WILLIAMS, TERESA C. WILLIAMS, R. DAVID CARLSON
Studio : University Press of Florida
by University Press of Florida
Publisher : University Press of Florida
Released : 2002-12-26
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9780813025704
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 1 review)
List Price : $59.95
Our Price : $31.74
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Product Description |
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This compelling and engaging book sheds new light on how planter self-interest, government indifference, and the very nature of southern society produced a rising tide of dissent and disaffection among Georgia's plain folk during the Civil War. The authors make extensive use of local newspapers, court records, manuscript collections, and other firsthand accounts to tell a story of latent class resentment that emerged full force under wartime pressures and undermined southern support for the Confederacy. More directly than any previous historians, the authors make clear the connections between the causes of class resentment and their impact. Planters produced far too much cotton and avoided the draft at will. Speculators hoarded scarce goods and brought on spiraling inflation. Government officials turned a blind eye to the infractions of the rich, and were often bribed to do so. Women left to go hungry took matters into their own hands, stealing livestock in rural areas and rioting for food in every major city in Georgia. The hardships of families back home weighed heavily on soldiers in the field, contributing to rampant desertion. Deserters banded together, sometimes with draft dodgers and blacks escaping enslavement, to defend themselves or to go on the offensive against Confederate authorities. Some whites even planned and participated in slave resistance, a joining of forces that previous historians have long dismissed as highly improbable. So violent did Georgia's inner civil war become that one resident commented, "We are fighting each other harder than we ever fought the enemy." This work stresses more forcefully than any before it that plain folk in the Deep South were farfrom united behind the Confederate war effort. That lack of unity, brought on largely by class resentment, helped to ensure that the Confederacy's cause would, in the end, be lost. |
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A Powerful Eye Opener of the real Confederate Georgia |
Having read this book for one of my favorite history classes in college, I can say that it was indeed an eye opener. Anyone who reads this book will never look at the Confederacy the same way. It tells the story of what was going on behind the scenes in Confederate Georgia. Most importantly, it shatters many myths that most people, especially southerners, take for granted about the Confederacy. It is shocking to know, as "Plain Folk" points out, that the people of Georgia did not want to leave the Union; those in the Georgia legislator, comprised of the powerful landowners, simply defied the popular vote and broke away, severing all ties with the Union. Moreover, what Williams, et al have proven is that the elite of Georgia broke away from the U.S. in an attempt to keep control in their hands, i.e. they did not want any challenges from the poor white and slave economy that they controlled without question.
I cannot recommend this book enough. It dispels the legend around a "heroic South" that was fighting for truth, justice and honor. As this book proves, true honor lay with the poor women who took matters in their own hands to make sure their families did not starve. Honor lay with those soldiers who risked their lives to get back home and help their wives and children. There was no honor with the elite planter class, those who the war benefitted the most, yet they were the least willing to fight. If you are interested in Civil War military history, read this book first. The authors examine the reasons why the Confederacy was doomed to fail, even before the first shot was fired. |
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