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War of Another Kind: A Southern Community in the Great Rebellion
In this book Durrill describes in graphic detail the disintegration, during the Civil War, of Southern plantation society in a North Carolina coastal county. He details struggles among planters, slaves, yeoman farmers, and landless white laborers, as well as a guerrilla war and a clash
between two armies that, in the end, destroyed all that remained of the county's social structure. He examines the failure of a planter-yeoman alliance, and discusses how yeoman farmers and landless white laborers allied themselves against planters, but to no avail. He also shows how slaves, when
refugeed upcountry, tried unsuccessfully to reestablish their prerogatives--a subsistence, as well as protection from violence--owed them as a minimal condition of their servitude.
between two armies that, in the end, destroyed all that remained of the county's social structure. He examines the failure of a planter-yeoman alliance, and discusses how yeoman farmers and landless white laborers allied themselves against planters, but to no avail. He also shows how slaves, when
refugeed upcountry, tried unsuccessfully to reestablish their prerogatives--a subsistence, as well as protection from violence--owed them as a minimal condition of their servitude.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published February 22, 1990
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May 16, 2021
The details of this work are the most important components while some of the arguments are not. Washington County is a good case study of how the local people viewed the war. With glimpses at secessionists, unionists and the enslaved community it offers lots in the way of detail. The upcountry flight of large plantation owners and their enslaved people alone is worth the read.
Missing is any mention of James Cathcart Johnson who continued to try and organize a plantation in the county during the war. Johnson is a Unionist planter that might disrupt or counterweight at least the main arguments of the author. Johnson’s father was Samuel Johnson who has labored hard to bring NC into the Union in the 1780’s and James could not “by word or deed” do anything to refute his fathers actions.
Niggling things trouble the reader - geography is often wrong. East Lake is not on the border of Washington County it is on the eastern side of the Alligator River (Tyrrell County during the war but Dare County after 1870).
These are but quibbles- the almost gossip level entry into the county and the actions of the people involved more than counters such things.
To understand the multi-faceted nature of the region during the war is something the book does managed. And that’s a good thing.
Missing is any mention of James Cathcart Johnson who continued to try and organize a plantation in the county during the war. Johnson is a Unionist planter that might disrupt or counterweight at least the main arguments of the author. Johnson’s father was Samuel Johnson who has labored hard to bring NC into the Union in the 1780’s and James could not “by word or deed” do anything to refute his fathers actions.
Niggling things trouble the reader - geography is often wrong. East Lake is not on the border of Washington County it is on the eastern side of the Alligator River (Tyrrell County during the war but Dare County after 1870).
These are but quibbles- the almost gossip level entry into the county and the actions of the people involved more than counters such things.
To understand the multi-faceted nature of the region during the war is something the book does managed. And that’s a good thing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review