The British Gentry, the Southern Planter, and the Northern Family Farmer : Agriculture and Sectional Antagonism in North America / James L. Huston.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Huston, James L., 1947-

Contributor:

Project Muse, Content Provider.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Regional economics--United States.

Regional economics.

Slavery--Economic aspects--United States--History.

Slavery.

Labor--United States--History.

Labor.

Farmers--United States--History.

Farmers.

Family farms--United States--History.

Family farms.

Plantation owners--Southern States--History.

Plantation owners.

Plantations--Economic aspects--Southern States--History.

Plantations.

Farms, Size of--United States.

Farms, Size of.

Agriculture--Economic aspects--United States--History.

Agriculture.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Causes.

United States.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Drawing on the history of the British gentry to explain the contrasting sentiments of American small farmers and plantation owners, James L. Huston's expansive analysis offers a new understanding of the socioeconomic factors that fueled sectionalism and ignited the American Civil War. This groundbreaking study of agriculture's role in the war defies long-held notions that northern industrialization and urbanization led to clashes between North and South. Rather, Huston argues that the ideological chasm between plantation owners in the South and family farmers in the North led to the political eruption of 1854-56 and the birth of a sectionalized party system. Huston shows that over 70 percent of the northern population-by far the dominant economic and social element-had close ties to agriculture. More invested in egalitarianism and personal competency than in capitalism, small farmers in the North operated under a free labor ideology that emphasized the ideals of independence and mastery over oneself. The ideology of the plantation, by contrast, reflected the conservative ethos of the British aristocracy, which was the product of immense landed inequality and the assertion of mastery over others. By examining the dominant populations in northern and southern congressional districts, Huston reveals that economic interests pitted the plantation South against the small-farm North. The northern shift toward Republicanism depended on farmers, not industrialists: While Democrats won the majority of northern farm congressional districts from 1842 to 1853, they suffered a major defection of these districts from 1854 to 1856, to the antislavery organizations that would soon coalesce into the Republican Party. Utilizing extensive historical research and close examination of the voting patterns in congressional districts across the country, James Huston provides a remarkable new context for the origins of the Civil War.

Contents:

Preface

PART I. THE ENGLISH AND BRITISH AGRICULTURAL STANDARD, 1300-1800

The English Civil War and the birth of the free labor ideology

The standard : British agriculture, 1660-1870

PART II. NORTHERN FAMILY FARMING AND THE SOUTHERN PLANTATION COMPLEX

English husbandry on another continent : North American farming, 1607-1815

Dimensions of antebellum northern farming

The actors on the northern farm and their quest for competency

The plantation assault on the Southern yeoman

Inspiring fear : the plantation, the British gentry, and mastery of others

PART III. AGRICULTURE AND SECTIONAL ANTAGONISMS

The agricultural basis of the free labor ideology in the United States

Davids versus Goliaths : the sectional controversy as a fight between agricultural regions

Epilogue

Appendix A : Calculation of acreage owned by slaveholders and nonslaveholders

Appendix B : Counties used for comparison.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780807159200

0807159204

9780807159194

0807159190

OCLC:

905282602