Primary Sources October 23, 2008

This week, we showcase two primary sources covering the late Antebellum period. The first one is an excerpt from a book entitled The Gathering Storm, which was featured in J. William Harris' book Plain Folk and Gentry in a Slave Society. The excerpt talks about the effect slavery had on the Southern economy as a deterrent to growth. While Helper's text tries to stay away from criticizing non-slave holding whites, he still condemns slavery on the basis of its economy. 

The site the excerpt is post to, digitialhistory.com, offers many sources across American history, and is a very good website for searching for primary documents.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/documents/documents_p2.cfm?doc=25

http://docsouth.unc.edu/imls/retexas

The  second primary document was found by using a word search for U.S primary documents. One of the web sites that showed up was Documenting the American South. This web site is a reliable source because it is sponsored by the University of North Carolina. The document that was chosen dealt with Texas concerns with rejoining the Union. The person who wrote the document was R.J. Townes, and it was approved by Texas House of Representatives. Then the resolution was sent to Jeff Davis to be read. The House of Representatives of Texas wanted it to be clearly stated to the North. The southern states did succeed from the Union just to protect the institute of slavery. They dissolved their relationship with the Union to “preserve their freedom and their sovereignty to govern themselves as a free nation”. The House also wanted it to be known that they did not approve the North’s tactics of fighting the war. The North used criminals and outlaws to fill the ranks of their armies. Also, the North refused to trade prisoners during the war, and that the term “Yankee” will always be looked down upon with disrespect in the South. Texas wanted the war to be over and have a time of peace between the states, but they wanted to keep their independent from the North. It is stated in the document that “if the horrors of the war could be swept from their memories that their past experiences in the Union would still keep them form a re-union with the North”.

It is clearly seen in the resolution that Texas is still does not like the North. Texas is upset with the outcome of the war, and does not want to rejoin with the North. Texas disapproved the way the North fought the war, and thought they used barbaric tactics. They believe that the North will press their views on the South, and they will louse their independence they once had. Texas still wants to keep the institute of slavery alive. But, they know that this is not possible.