Apostles of Disunion ─ Southern Secession Commissioners and the Causes of the Civil War

This historical study of a collection of primary source materials analyzes the rhetoric used by Southern secession commissioners’ speeches and public letters written to justify secession, racial segregation, racism, and white supremacy, and the impact of these messages the secession commissioners carried across the South in late 1860 and early 1861. The study focuses in particular on several documents, such as Stephen F. Hale’s letter to the governor of Kentucky. This 15th anniversary edition contains an afterword reflecting on the Obama administration, racist attacks such as the massacre by Dylann Roof in 2015, and police killings of unarmed blacks. The new afterword also considers the role of the secessionists’ speeches and letters in continuing to prove that the Civil War was fought primarily over race. Annotation ©2017 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Charles B. Dew is Ephraim Williams Professor of American History at Williams College and the author of The Making of a Racist: A Southerner Reflects on Family, History, and the Slave Trade (Virginia) and Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge, selected as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.