Union or slavery: Metropolitan New York and the secession crisis.
Item
-
Title
-
Union or slavery: Metropolitan New York and the secession crisis.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9315495
-
identifier
-
9315495
-
Creator
-
Osborn, David.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Hans L. Trefousse
-
Date
-
1993
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
American Studies | History, United States
-
Abstract
-
This dissertation examines the response of metropolitan New York to the secession crisis of 1860-61. Early chapters cover material from the 1840s and 1850s necessary for an understanding of the reaction to rupture of the Union. An epilogue traces key themes of the secession period through the war years.;On the eve of the Civil War, metropolitan New York was the nation's leading urban center. A watershed of political action and opinion, the metropolis was disproportionately important in national affairs and sectional disputes. Home to one of the largest and most loyal Democratic constituencies in the North, New York also had some of the leading Republican spokesmen and organs in the country.;A major emphasis of this study is making sense of Northern reaction to secession. In discussing the response of the free states to disunion, most leading works on the Civil War characterize the climate of opinion as awkward and difficult to fathom. A careful study of attitudes in metropolitan New York, which contained significant and animated representations of most positions, sheds light on that subject.;As local history, a key concern is incorporating the city of Brooklyn and county of Queens into a history of the metropolitan area. To a considerable degree, the metropolis reacted to secession as a unit, but there were also important local distinctions.;Further, this study makes extensive use of public opinion. The gravity of a break in the Union broadened political dialogue beyond newspapers and elected officials. Many individuals and organizations which usually paid little attention to public events were moved to express opinions and take actions. An important result was the mobilization of a large Unionist constituency. It eclipsed the normally influential and representative Democratic press, which accepted Southern departure.;The central argument concerns the interplay between slavery and the Union. Given Gotham's Southern sympathies, there was potential during the era of schism for various forms of prosecession demonstrations. For an array of reasons, that capacity never significantly materialized. Foremost among these were the nature of withdrawal in the lower South and local assurances from moderate Republicans to conservatives that the Union, and not emancipation, was the issue of the hour.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
