By J. Mills Thornton
More than three decades after its initial publication, J.
Mills Thornton's Politics and Power in a Slave Society remains the
definitive study of political culture in antebellum Alabama. Controversial when
it first appeared, the book argues against a view of prewar Alabama as an
aristocratic society governed by a planter elite. Instead, Thornton claims that
Alabama was an aggressively democratic state, and that this very egalitarianism
set the stage for secession.
White Alabamians had first-hand experiences with slavery,
and these encounters warned them to guard against the imposition of economic or
social reforms that might limit their equality. Playing upon their fears, the
leaders of the southern rights movement warned that national consolidation presented
the danger that fanatic northern reformers would force alien values upon
Alabama and its residents. These threats gained traction when national reforms
of the 1850s gave state government a more active role in the everyday life of
Alabama citizens; and ambitious young politicians were able to carry the state
into secession in 1861.
ISBN 978-0807159149, Louisiana State University Press, ©
2015, Paperback, 492 pages, Maps, Graphs, Footnotes, Bibliographic Note &
Index. $35.00. To purchase a copy of this book click HERE.
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