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Southwest Virginia's Railroad

Southwest Virginia's Railroad

Modernization and the Sectional Crisis in the Civil War Era

by Kenneth W. Noe

232 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 x 0.80 in

Paperback
9780817350642
Published: September 2003

$24.95

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eBook
9780817392161
Published: September 2019

$24.95

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Description
Contents
Authors

A close study of one region of Appalachia that experienced economic vitality and strong sectionalism before the Civil War

This book examines the construction of the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad through southwest Virginia in the 1850s, before the Civil War began. The building and operation of the railroad reoriented the economy of the region toward staple crops and slave labor. Thus, during the secession crisis, southwest Virginia broke with northwestern Virginia and embraced the Confederacy. Ironically, however, it was the railroad that brought waves of Union raiders to the area during the war

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. "The Railroad is Completed to Bristol"

2. "The Most Favored Region for Agriculture": White Mountaineers and Commercial Agriculture

3. "Numerous Interesting Points on the Line": Towns, Tourism, and Industries

4. "A Source of Great Economy": The Railroad and Slavery

5. "No Other Chance for Us": Secession

6. "Our Land in Every Part Groaning": The Civil War Begins, 1861-62

7. "What Will Become of the Poor and Widows?": Deprivation and Defeat, 1862-65

Epilogue

Methodology