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| | | General Teacher Resources | Home » » » William Lowndes Yancey and the Coming of the Civil War (Civil War America) | | | | | | | Description: | | In the first comprehensive biography of William Lowndes Yancey (1814-63), one of the leading secessionists of the Old South, Eric H. Walther examines the personality and political life of the uncompromising fire-eater.Born in Georgia but raised in the North by a fiercely abolitionist stepfather and an emotionally unstable mother, Yancey grew up believing that abolitionists were cruel, meddling, and hypocritical. His personal journey led him through a series of mentors who transformed his political views, and upon moving to frontier Alabama in his twenties, Yancey's penchant for rhetorical and physical violence was soon channeled into a crusade to protect slaveholders' rights. Yancey defied Northern Democrats at their national nominating convention in 1860, rending the party and setting the stage for secession after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Selected to introduce Jefferson Davis in Montgomery as the president-elect of the Confederacy, Yancey also served the Confederacy as a diplomat and a senator before his death in 1863, just short of his forty-ninth birthday. More than a portrait of an influential political figure before and during the Civil War, this study also presents a nuanced look at the roots of Southern honor, violence, and understandings of manhood as they developed in the nineteenth century. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Eric H. Walther | | Hardcover:
| 496 pages | | Publisher:
| The University of North Carolina Press | | Publication Date:
| June 30, 2006 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0807830275 | | Product Length:
| 9.52 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.44 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.46 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.89 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.2 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.4 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.5 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.95 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 3 reviews |
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4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Solid biographyOct 20, 2008
By O. Pflug
Along with Robert Barnwell Rhett, William L. Yancey was the leading radical supporter of the secession of the South during the years leading up to the American Civil War. Yancey ardently supported secession to no avail after the passage of the Compromise of 1850, but successfully led southern Democrats to reject the nomination of Stephen Douglas, due to his support of popular sovereignty in the territories, at the Democratic National Convention held in Charleston in 1860. The resulting breakup of the Democratic party led to the victory of Lincoln and the Republicans, which led the South to succeed. Yancey led his state of Alabama out of the Union and went on to lobby unsuccessfully for the Confederacy in Britain and France before serving in the Confederate Senate. He died in the summer of 1863. Although Yancey had a potent temper and was jailed for the manslaughter of a relative as a young man, he was not as vicious and petty as his fellow fire-eater Rhett. Yancey did not view Jefferson Davis as negatively as Rhett did, nor did he deliver as much venom at northern society as Rhett. However, Yancey was fully convinced of the righteousness of slavery and secession. Although committed to states rights he was less of an ideologue than some in this manor. Yancey had an interesting personal life, his stepfather was a northern abolitionist and he himself lived in the North before moving back to his native south. The author contends that Yancey's early political opposition to Nullification and his subsequent switch to supporting southern-rights positions was part of his search for a mentor to replace his lost father and his contempt for his stepfather. I have my doubts about some of the author's conclusions about Yancey's psychology, that are are given much detail in the book's introduction and conclusion, but the main biographical coverage is not marred by over-analysis of Yancey's childhood or family relationships, instead focusing on his political life. This book is a solid and definitive work on a man who has lacked a full professional biography.
 "Who is William L. Yancey?"Jul 21, 2011
By Alan F. Sewell
William L. Yancey came into the national spotlight so suddenly in the 1850s that people all over the country asked "Who is William L. Yancey?" Being a leading Secessionist his legacy did not endure and he is little-remembered today. But in his time he was so influential that it may not be an exaggeration to say that secession and civil war would not have taken place without him.
Yancey's critical link in the secession movement was to divide the Democrat Party during its 1860 Convention , thereby destroying the Democrats as a national party and insuring Abraham Lincoln's election. Yancey worked tirelessly to foment secession as a Congressman, state representative in Alabama, and newspaperman. During the election campaign of 1860 he attracted gigantic crowds of tens of thousands as he campaigned for the Southern Rights tickets.
I have known about William Yancey for decades but I did not understood him well until I read this book. The fascinating aspect of Yancey's life that I learned from this book was that his stepfather was a New England Abolitionist preacher. Yancey was raised in Troy, New York and was educated among Yankees. His first political stands were for strident nationalism. He was infuriated by South Carolina's early attempts to nullify federal authority in the 1830s.
I learned that Yancey was not an ignorant or provincial man. He was as much at home speaking in New York City as in Alabama. However, Yancey returned South in his 20s and there become a Secessionist as he transformed his views from nationalism to an extreme states-rights view that the states were sovereign nations. He came to regard even the Confederate States as an illegitimate government that trampled upon state sovereignty.
This book is a fascinating account of the complexities of Yancey's life. It helped me to understand the larger political forces in the North and South that transformed Yancey from a Unionist to a "Fire Eating Secessionist." The book brings to life the spirit of the times in which Yancey lived as well as providing a thorough and very entertaining story of his personal and public life.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and broadening my understanding of William Yancey and the events that convinced him to lead the South out of the Union.
I have also written a novel Fire in the Heartlandthat mentions Yancey's role in instigating secession and civil war.
2 of 7 found the following review helpful:
Fine biographyMar 20, 2007
By Philip Leetch
I got through this study of a hardline Secessionist in just a few days as it is so very interesting and well put together. There's lots of good American history to read and this certainly deserves to go on lists of excellent up-to-date works.
Chapel Hill produces books that are a pleasure to hold
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