What do you think?
Rate this book
Rebels in the Making: The Secession Crisis and the Birth of the Confederacy
Regardless of whether they owned slaves, Southern whites lived in a world defined by slavery. As shown by their blaming British and Northern slave traders for saddling them with slavery, most were uncomfortable with the institution. While many wanted it ended, most were content to leave that up to God. All that changed with the election of Abraham Lincoln.
Rebels in the Making is a narrative-driven history of how and why secession occurred. In this work, senior Civil War historian William L. Barney narrates the explosion of the sectional conflict into secession and civil war. Carefully examining the events in all fifteen slave states and distinguishing the political circumstances in each, he argues that this was not a mass democratic movement but one led from above.
The work begins with the deepening strains within Southern society as the slave economy matured in the mid-nineteenth century and Southern ideologues struggled to convert whites to the orthodoxy of slavery as a positive good. It then focuses on the years of 1860-1861 when the sectional conflict led to the break-up of the Union. As foreshadowed by the fracturing of the Democratic Party over the issue of federal protection for slavery in the territories, the election of 1860 set the stage for secession. Exploiting fears of slave insurrections, anxieties over crops ravaged by a long drought, and the perceived moral degradation of submitting to the rule of an antislavery Republican, secessionists launched a movement in South Carolina that spread across the South in a frenzied atmosphere described as the great excitement. After examining why Congress was unable to reach a compromise on the core issue of slavery's expansion, the study shows why secession swept over the Lower South in January of 1861 but stalled in the Upper South. The driving impetus for secession is shown to have come from the middling ranks of the slaveholders who saw their aspirations of planter status blocked and denigrated by the Republicans. A separate chapter on the formation of the Confederate government in February of 1861 reveals how moderates and former conservatives pushed aside the original secessionists to assume positions of leadership. The final chapter centers on the crisis over Fort Sumter, the resolution of which by Lincoln precipitated a second wave of secession in the Upper South.
Rebels in the Making shows that secession was not a unified movement, but has its own proponents and patterns in each of the slave states. It draws together the voices of planters, non-slaveholders, women, the enslaved, journalists, and politicians. This is the definitive study of the seminal moment in Southern history that culminated in the Civil War.
Rebels in the Making is a narrative-driven history of how and why secession occurred. In this work, senior Civil War historian William L. Barney narrates the explosion of the sectional conflict into secession and civil war. Carefully examining the events in all fifteen slave states and distinguishing the political circumstances in each, he argues that this was not a mass democratic movement but one led from above.
The work begins with the deepening strains within Southern society as the slave economy matured in the mid-nineteenth century and Southern ideologues struggled to convert whites to the orthodoxy of slavery as a positive good. It then focuses on the years of 1860-1861 when the sectional conflict led to the break-up of the Union. As foreshadowed by the fracturing of the Democratic Party over the issue of federal protection for slavery in the territories, the election of 1860 set the stage for secession. Exploiting fears of slave insurrections, anxieties over crops ravaged by a long drought, and the perceived moral degradation of submitting to the rule of an antislavery Republican, secessionists launched a movement in South Carolina that spread across the South in a frenzied atmosphere described as the great excitement. After examining why Congress was unable to reach a compromise on the core issue of slavery's expansion, the study shows why secession swept over the Lower South in January of 1861 but stalled in the Upper South. The driving impetus for secession is shown to have come from the middling ranks of the slaveholders who saw their aspirations of planter status blocked and denigrated by the Republicans. A separate chapter on the formation of the Confederate government in February of 1861 reveals how moderates and former conservatives pushed aside the original secessionists to assume positions of leadership. The final chapter centers on the crisis over Fort Sumter, the resolution of which by Lincoln precipitated a second wave of secession in the Upper South.
Rebels in the Making shows that secession was not a unified movement, but has its own proponents and patterns in each of the slave states. It draws together the voices of planters, non-slaveholders, women, the enslaved, journalists, and politicians. This is the definitive study of the seminal moment in Southern history that culminated in the Civil War.
392 pages, Hardcover
First published August 3, 2020
6 people are currently reading
81 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 16, 2023
Rebels In The Making: The Secession Crisis And The Birth Of The Confederacy, by William L. Barnes
For those of us who have read about the causes of the American Civil War--and numerous other conflicts--there is a strong air of the Greek tragedy about the way that sleepwalking statesmen stumble into a blind conflict that ends up destroying all of their hopes and ambitions. There is something infuriating about the way one sees people act in such a way that they destroy their civilization in the grip of foolish justifications and unrealistic expectations of quick and easy victory. This particular book focuses on the behavior of the people of the South, with occasional glimpses and the look of the behavior of people in the North--most notably Lincoln and congressional Republicans--though among the greatest strengths of this book is the way it weaves an impressive array of documentary sources from a diverse group of people into a coherent narrative history about a complex time where fear and pride drove secessionists into a fatal error that could have been and was recognized by some at the time but which ultimately proved irresistible to people who were determined to rule or ruin the United States.
Structurally speaking, this book is straightforward enough, consisting of an introduction, ten chapters, and a conclusion that take up a bit more than 300 pages of text. The author begins with a discussion of the uneasy position of planters in the South in the 1850s, with a discussion of the strains that increasing indebtedness and political pressure from the non-slaveowning class below put on those who considered themselves by wealth and divine providence fit for rulership over the South and indeed over the United States as a whole (1). This is followed by a chapter on the quest of the South to encourage others within and outside of the South to get right with slavery (2), a task which involved the work of Southern preachers. After that, the author examines the dangerous mood of the South as they waited for Lincoln to win in a complex four-candidate race that followed the breakup of the Democratic Party into sectional wings (3). After that, the author examines the economic and political crisis that followed the election of Lincoln (4), which put secessionists in a panicky mood as they feared increasing Yankee inroads into a vulnerable society. This was followed by South Carolina's precipitous drive towards rebellion (5), as well as a deadlocked state where on the state and national level there were struggles over the right approach to the crisis and efforts to find ways out of the divide (6). The failure of efforts on the part of Congress to provide meaningful guarantees to the deep South led deep South states to rebel one after one (7), a process that the author discusses now. This is followed by a discussion of the Upper South's refusal to leave (8), despite the fragility of their conditional Unionism. After this the author discusses the creation of the Confederacy by the conservative and moderate secessionists who sought to maintain social power against radicals (9), after which the author closes the book with the end of the waiting game with Lincoln's presidency and the move to war which took place at and after Fort Sumter (10), where the book concludes.
While this book is a very good one, it is by no means a perfect one. The faults of the book consist not so much in the sources that the author draws upon but in the sense of balance of the book. There is a marked bias towards writing about the south, but the author is not really in sympathy with the people of the South, and so at times the author's bias creeps into comments and editorializing that the author makes about those whose words she is quoting, but without really getting in their skin. The author presents the end of slavery as being something that was preordained and inevitable, and fails to grasp the nature of the biblical debate over the meaning of slavery in the Bible and how it is that the South could have been confronted with the implications of slavery in the Bible for their own society which were both different from the preaching of their own divines as well as antislavery ones. Similarly, the author presents a view of racial justice at the end that suggests that the horrors of the Civil War were only a down payment on what is owed to slaves (and possibly their descendants), which is several bridges too far when it comes to matters of justice. If this book can be read profitably by a historian on the Civil War, it is by no means a balanced or reasonable enough book to be the basis of one's view of the causes or the outbreak of the Civil War.
For those of us who have read about the causes of the American Civil War--and numerous other conflicts--there is a strong air of the Greek tragedy about the way that sleepwalking statesmen stumble into a blind conflict that ends up destroying all of their hopes and ambitions. There is something infuriating about the way one sees people act in such a way that they destroy their civilization in the grip of foolish justifications and unrealistic expectations of quick and easy victory. This particular book focuses on the behavior of the people of the South, with occasional glimpses and the look of the behavior of people in the North--most notably Lincoln and congressional Republicans--though among the greatest strengths of this book is the way it weaves an impressive array of documentary sources from a diverse group of people into a coherent narrative history about a complex time where fear and pride drove secessionists into a fatal error that could have been and was recognized by some at the time but which ultimately proved irresistible to people who were determined to rule or ruin the United States.
Structurally speaking, this book is straightforward enough, consisting of an introduction, ten chapters, and a conclusion that take up a bit more than 300 pages of text. The author begins with a discussion of the uneasy position of planters in the South in the 1850s, with a discussion of the strains that increasing indebtedness and political pressure from the non-slaveowning class below put on those who considered themselves by wealth and divine providence fit for rulership over the South and indeed over the United States as a whole (1). This is followed by a chapter on the quest of the South to encourage others within and outside of the South to get right with slavery (2), a task which involved the work of Southern preachers. After that, the author examines the dangerous mood of the South as they waited for Lincoln to win in a complex four-candidate race that followed the breakup of the Democratic Party into sectional wings (3). After that, the author examines the economic and political crisis that followed the election of Lincoln (4), which put secessionists in a panicky mood as they feared increasing Yankee inroads into a vulnerable society. This was followed by South Carolina's precipitous drive towards rebellion (5), as well as a deadlocked state where on the state and national level there were struggles over the right approach to the crisis and efforts to find ways out of the divide (6). The failure of efforts on the part of Congress to provide meaningful guarantees to the deep South led deep South states to rebel one after one (7), a process that the author discusses now. This is followed by a discussion of the Upper South's refusal to leave (8), despite the fragility of their conditional Unionism. After this the author discusses the creation of the Confederacy by the conservative and moderate secessionists who sought to maintain social power against radicals (9), after which the author closes the book with the end of the waiting game with Lincoln's presidency and the move to war which took place at and after Fort Sumter (10), where the book concludes.
While this book is a very good one, it is by no means a perfect one. The faults of the book consist not so much in the sources that the author draws upon but in the sense of balance of the book. There is a marked bias towards writing about the south, but the author is not really in sympathy with the people of the South, and so at times the author's bias creeps into comments and editorializing that the author makes about those whose words she is quoting, but without really getting in their skin. The author presents the end of slavery as being something that was preordained and inevitable, and fails to grasp the nature of the biblical debate over the meaning of slavery in the Bible and how it is that the South could have been confronted with the implications of slavery in the Bible for their own society which were both different from the preaching of their own divines as well as antislavery ones. Similarly, the author presents a view of racial justice at the end that suggests that the horrors of the Civil War were only a down payment on what is owed to slaves (and possibly their descendants), which is several bridges too far when it comes to matters of justice. If this book can be read profitably by a historian on the Civil War, it is by no means a balanced or reasonable enough book to be the basis of one's view of the causes or the outbreak of the Civil War.
February 13, 2021
A compelling and interesting work.
A lot of books on the secession crisis focus on South Carolina, but Barney does a great job including the story of all the other states. He ably describes the role of slavery in the decisions to secede, the resistance of slaves during secession, the experience of southern women, the unpopularity of secession in certain regions of the South, and the caution of older slaveholders and the enthusiasm of younger ones. He stresses the divisions between states and the contingency of their decisions. Barney also covers how southern secessionists already began romanticizing their movement, claiming that slaves lived a happy life in the South.
Barney also examines the question of whether the secession movement enjoyed wide popular support. He shows how secessionists, in fact, tightly controlled southern institutions like state governments, churches and newspapers, and how that control allowed them to win over whites who owned no slaves. Many poorer southerners also joined the Confederate army due to the draft, rather than rushing to volunteer. The state elections that led to secession were carefully managed, choices were limited, and the opposition was intimidated. Once ordinances of secession were passed, secessionists refused to put them in front of the people in a popular vote (with the exception of Texas) As the war went on, the Confederacy’s governments would repress civil liberties. Most of the original secessionists were actually defeated in subsequent elections.
The narrative is well-organized and Barney covers a lot of complex issues without getting bogged down. Slavery often looms over the narrative as the war’s dominant issue, but there is little on the slaves’ actual experiences.
A solid and comprehensive work.
A lot of books on the secession crisis focus on South Carolina, but Barney does a great job including the story of all the other states. He ably describes the role of slavery in the decisions to secede, the resistance of slaves during secession, the experience of southern women, the unpopularity of secession in certain regions of the South, and the caution of older slaveholders and the enthusiasm of younger ones. He stresses the divisions between states and the contingency of their decisions. Barney also covers how southern secessionists already began romanticizing their movement, claiming that slaves lived a happy life in the South.
Barney also examines the question of whether the secession movement enjoyed wide popular support. He shows how secessionists, in fact, tightly controlled southern institutions like state governments, churches and newspapers, and how that control allowed them to win over whites who owned no slaves. Many poorer southerners also joined the Confederate army due to the draft, rather than rushing to volunteer. The state elections that led to secession were carefully managed, choices were limited, and the opposition was intimidated. Once ordinances of secession were passed, secessionists refused to put them in front of the people in a popular vote (with the exception of Texas) As the war went on, the Confederacy’s governments would repress civil liberties. Most of the original secessionists were actually defeated in subsequent elections.
The narrative is well-organized and Barney covers a lot of complex issues without getting bogged down. Slavery often looms over the narrative as the war’s dominant issue, but there is little on the slaves’ actual experiences.
A solid and comprehensive work.
January 7, 2021
Enjoyed it very much. The great number of 1st hand account excerpts made it feel more like a fictional novel and helped in telling the story of the time period.
August 5, 2024
This book is an excellent account and reminder of how the defense of slavery in the southern United States was the primary cause of the Civil War. The author gives a great topic by topic and state by state explanation of the process of secession and why it happened. Also important is the explanation of why slaveholders thought slavery was so important and how they (disgustingly) used Christianity to defend slavery.
The author claims his book is a revisionist account and he really shouldn't have to say that... We've always known slavery caused the Civil War.
The author claims his book is a revisionist account and he really shouldn't have to say that... We've always known slavery caused the Civil War.
January 22, 2026
i’m going to give it a 3.75 rounded to 4
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews