A01=Robert F. Durden
Author_Robert F. Durden
Category=NHK
Category=NHTQ
Category=NHTR
Category=NHTS
Category=NHWF
Category=NHWR3
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Product details
- ISBN 9780807125571
- Weight: 458g
- Dimensions: 152 x 232mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2000
- Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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That the Confederacy in its waning days frantically turned to the idea of arming slaves has long been known by all close students of the Civil War. Yet the more explosive, if unexamined, issue before the southern people and leaders in this last great crisis was whether or not the South itself should initiate a program of emancipation as part of a plan to recruit black soldiers. Jefferson Davis and other leaders, including Robert E. Lee, attempted to force the South to face the desperate alternative of sacrificing one of its war aims- the preservation of slavery- in order to achieve the other- an independent southern nation.
In The Gray and the Black, Robert F. Durden reconstructs this intensely passionate debate that cuts to the heart of what the war was about for the South. Throughout his narrative, Durden lets the participants speak for themselves- in journal extracts, newspaper articles, letters, and speeches. These documents and Durden's perceptive commentary demonstrate with sad finality that, when faced with this ultimate choice, southerners, with certain fascinating exceptions, could not bring themselves to abandon the ""peculiar institution.
In The Gray and the Black, Robert F. Durden reconstructs this intensely passionate debate that cuts to the heart of what the war was about for the South. Throughout his narrative, Durden lets the participants speak for themselves- in journal extracts, newspaper articles, letters, and speeches. These documents and Durden's perceptive commentary demonstrate with sad finality that, when faced with this ultimate choice, southerners, with certain fascinating exceptions, could not bring themselves to abandon the ""peculiar institution.
Robert F. Durden is professor of history emeritus at Duke University. President of the Southern Historical Association in 1983- 84, he is the author of many books, including The Climax of Populism: The Election of 1896 and The Self-Inflicted Wound: Southern Politics in the Nineteenth Century.
