Invisible Southerners: Ethnicity in the Civil War (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780820327570)

Most Southerners who fought in the Civil War were native born, white, and Confederate. However, thousands with other ethnic backgrounds also took a stand--and not always for the South. Invisible Southerners recounts the wartime experiences of the region's German Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans. As Anne J. Bailey looks at how such outsiders responded to demands on their loyalties, she recaptures the atmosphere of suspicion and prosecession, proslavery sentiment in which they strove to understand, and be understood by, their neighbors.

Divisions within groups complicated circumstances even after members had cast their lot with the Union or Confederacy. Europe's slavery-free legacy swayed many German Americans against the South. Even so, one pro-Union German soldier could still look askance at another, because he was perhaps from a different province in the Old Country or of a different religious sect. Creeks and Cherokees faced wartime questions made thornier by tribal rifts based on wealth, racial mixture, and bitter memories of their forced transport to the Indian Territory decades earlier. The decision was easiest for former slaves, says Bailey, but the consequences more dire. They joined the Union Army in search of freedom and a new life--often to be persecuted by Yankee soldiers and, if captured, punished severely by Rebels.

Author: Anne J. Bailey
ISBN-10: 0820327573
ISBN-13: 9780820327570
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2006
Pages: 112
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.61lbs
Size: 8.72h x 6.06w x 0.52d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 02/01/2007 pg. 77