Review: The North Carolina Experience: An Interpretive and Documentary History

The North Carolina Experience: An Interpretive and Documentary History by Lindley S. Butler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The structure of this book is original: Each chapter has an introduction, broadly describing what happened during a certain time period. This is then followed by original letters and documents. 

This is a pretty effective way of going through North Carolina's history, at least for me. I was able to understand the general situation, and then read first-hand accounts of the goings-on (complete with original spelling, such as: "This towne is seated on ye river side, haveing ye clefts of ye river on ye one side..."). It does, however, seem to gloss over certain events for which there is little documentation. For example, the Tuscarora war is just mentioned several times in passing, remarking on how important it was, but it is never dealt with in detail. 

The parts about slavery, the civil war, reconstruction, and civil rights were enlightening. I can never help wondering what bias, if any, there is, given how current these issues still are. 

Some of my notes:

The treaty between the Cherokee and the United States (p. 21) was so blatantly not followed I am amazed. The treaty itself is almost equitable (the cherokee shall have a delegate to Congress, only the Cherokee who wish to leave need to. Those who leave will have all expenses covered, and a doctor shall accompany them, etc.) To think this was followed through with the trail of tears is mind-boggling. 

North Carolina never produced a farming economy comparable to the plantation system of lowcountry South Carolina or tidewater Virginia, so its relationship to slavery was ambivalent, and it pretty much joined the civil war out of solidarity with its Southern neighbors (is this true?). 

Nearly one-fourth of all conscripts in the southern army (21,348 men) came from North Carolina (p. 267)

Description of North Carolinians, 1865:

"Spindling of legs, round of shoulders, sunken of chest, lank of body, stooping of posture, narrow of face, retreating of forehead, thin of nose, small of chin, large of mouth, - this is the Native North Carolinian as one sees him outside the cities and large towns. [...]- the man who pays a tax and votes, but never runs for office; who was a private in the Rebel army, but never anything more; who hate the Yankees as a matter of course, but has no personal ill-will toward them; who believes in the Divine right of slavery, but is positive that a free negro cannot be made to work."

-Sidney Andrews (p.294)

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Review: Grant

Grant by Ron Chernow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. Ok, Grant is the most underrated president I've read about thus far (I'm reading in chronological order). I'm not saying he's the best, but just the most underrated. I knew he was a stellar general, but the only other things I new about him before were that he had a drinking problem and (I had assumed) was a failure as a president.

"Americans today know little about the terrorism that engulfed the South during Grant's presidency. It has been suppressed by a strange national amnesia. The Klan's ruthless reign is a dark, buried chapter in American history. The Civil War is far better known that its brutal aftermath." (P. 857)

I remember a TV show in the 80s called North and South, which discussed two fictional families, one from the North one from the South, during the civil war. It seems like they could have just discussed Grant's family. He married a Southern belle, in all senses of the word, and her father was a slave owning fervent southern democrat, while Grant's father was extremely anti-slavery. Of course, Grant didn't just fight in the civil war, but was the chief general, so his story is a lot more interesting than the TV show's.

I'm amazed at how quickly the North was ready to appease the South in order to make sure that their reintroduction back into the Union went smoothly. Lincoln didn't want any celebrations in the Northern camp after the treaty signed in Appomattox, he also allowed Confederate commanders to retain sidearms, the farmers to go back to work with their horses, and played Dixieland back at the capitol (saying "It's our country's song now"). All in all a sound strategy, probably, until Johnson went to his extremes I guess.

The sections talking about white mobs killing, lynching and massacring blacks and white republicans right after the war in the South are some of the most maddening things I've read.

On the other hand I was very interested to read about Akerman. A confederate soldier who then turned Republican, served under Grant, and was a whole-hearted defender of reconstruction.
I also sort of want to read more about Ferdinand Ward, the wall-streeter who swindled Grant out of his family's life savings. And apparently Ward's great-grandson has written a biography of him.

Interesting tidbits:
Grant was dead against violence. He said he never looked forward to battle, and apparently couldn't stand to see animals mistreated or hunted.
Grant acted as a go-between between China and Japan during the Ryukyu islands debacle, apparently helping both to come to a peaceable conclusion and avoid war (although Japan still took over the islands, which became Okinawa).

http://4201mass.blogspot.com/

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Review: Andrew Johnson: A Biography

Andrew Johnson: A Biography by Hans L. Trefousse
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My vote for the worst president ever. It's crazy to think a Civil Rights Bill came before him and he vetoed it, basically setting the country back 100 years (until the next President Johnson would sign the next Civil Rights Bill in the 1960s). So the South got to basically continue slavery (Black employees could be forced to work and were dragged back to their employer if they escaped).

Voted against the Smithsonian. Voted against salary increases for troops. Was pro-slavery but voted against many pro-slavery issues (including the 3/5 law), since his district of East Tennessee was mountainous and had very few slave-holders. He also voted against funding the railroad (at first) and against funding for a statue of George Washington.

He was also the only Southern Democrat politician to side with the Union, being dead against secession. After the war, many Northerners wanted to relegate the South to the status of territories (and not states). Lincoln's choice of Johnson as VP showed that he still supported statehood for the South.

Interesting how Eastern Tennessee remained more or less for the Union side throughout the war, and in fact almost became a separate state (like West Virginia split off from Virginia).

After having turned away from the Democrats to side with the Union, he basically sided with the Democrats after the war, granting statehood and amnesty to more or less everyone (stating that, due to states' rights, it was impossible to secede so they hadn't actually seceded). This made the unionists hate him, while the democrats still didn't trust him much.

The biography itself was excellent. I hope to read more by Trefousse.

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