Civil War Issues in Philadelphia, 1856-1865

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Philadelphia, before the Confederate bombardment of Fort Sumter, was not simply a "Northern" city. Unlike proslavery Washington but also unlike antislavery Boston, Philadelphia lay in the "Northern border area, " where mixed sympathies led to divided loyalties and to frequent convulsions over the great issues that preceded the war. In Civil War Issues in Philadelphia, 1856-1865, author William Dusinberre examines three traditional interpretations of the war and shows how each has to be modified to fit Philadelphia's experience. In Part I he portrays the fundamental Philadelphia attitudes as they appeared in 1856 and the two main controversies--the fugitive slave question and the territorial issue--as they developed until 1858. Part II is devoted to the John Brown affair and the secession crisis. Part III analyzes wartime issues: the treatment of dissenters, the Negro question, and the recruitment of short-term soldiers when Confederate armies approached Pennsylvania. From this investigation emerges a vivid portrait of the North's second greatest city and its leading citizens--racist sympathizers with the South, cautious conciliators, firm conservatives, unconstrained anti-Southerners, outnumbered idealists--contending with the crisis of the Civil War periods.