The Fate of Their Country : Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War

Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to a misunderstood topic
Review: In The Fate of Their Country, Professor Holt skillfully and helpfully clarifies the vexed question of slavery extension, a controversy that played an important role in dividing North and South and setting the stage for war.

This is a relatively short book, and for a reason: Professor Holt wishes to acquaint a larger audience with some of the important issues that he has covered at greater length in some of his other work. Hence this accessible introduction.

What I find so interesting about the book is that it shows rather convincingly that debates over slavery extension were often not about slavery per se. The question of extending slavery into the territories became an issue of Southern honor: whether or not Southerners actually wanted to bring slaves into, say, New Mexico Territory (none were there by 1860), the issue became a matter of principle between sections of the country that had been so often at odds in the past.

The insistence upon slavery's extension into the territories was often a matter of saving face for the South rather than (necessarily) a matter of actually desiring to bring slaves there, particularly since neither North nor South seriously expected slavery to take root in most of the places over which they argued at such length.

Moreover, the subject of slavery extension came to symbolize all the differences between North and South, including controversies over the tariff, a homestead bill, internal improvement legislation, and the like.

Professor Holt is certainly not saying that slavery played no role whatever in the coming of the Civil War. But the issue has often been misunderstood, and it is Holt's aim to provide the reader with the evidence and the historical background he needs to understand the context in which slavery extension was debated. He concludes that irresponsible politicians, for their own narrow partisan advantage, all too often exploited the issue for demagogic purposes, with (ultimately) tragic consequences. A superb book.