New Perspectives on Race and Slavery in America: Essays in Honor of Kenneth M. Stampp
Slavery in Virginia, 1619-1660 / Robert McColley -- Denmark Vesey's peculiar reality / William W. Freehling -- The Republican Party and the slave power / William E. Gienapp -- Race and politics in the northern democracy, 1854-1860 / Stephen E. Maizlish -- The creation of Confederate loyalties / Reid Mitchell -- Blues falling down like hail / Leon F. Litwack -- Grant and the freedman / Arthur Zilversmit -- The present becomes the past / James Oakes -- Firm flexibility / John G. Sproat -- The soul is fled / Joel Williamson.
Perennial Questions Revisited
Robert E. May. John A. Quitman: Old South Crusader. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985. xviii + 465 pp. Thomas E. Schott. Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia: A Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. xx + 552 pp. Whatever the fascination of new-fangled nineteenth-century social history and however compelling, in particular, matters of gender have recently become, these two important studies reaffirm the enduring significance of slavery, secession and manhood. Moreover, they are critical assessments, not mere hagiographie memorials to the so-called "achievements" of their subjects. Although one is more successful than the other, both volumes are superbly designed and illustrated products of the Southern Biography Series at Louisiana State University. Each also enhances our knowledge on large and contentious issues, particularly the vexed problems of diversity and change over time in the antebellum South.
A Pioneer Protest: The New Orleans Street-Car Controversy of 1867
Orleans Negroes since they were first placed in service on the streets of the city in the 1820s., A few of the street railroad companies operated special cars for colored passengers. Other lines excluded them altogether. In rare instances Negroes were permitted to ride on the regular cars, much to the disgust of many of the white passengers. The sight of two "overdressed negro wenches" riding on a Dryades Street vehicle in 1861 prompted an outraged white woman to ask of the New Orleans Daily Crescent, "If the omnibusses are for negroes, why not say so ? If for white people, it is important that it should be known. " But with few exceptions, the New Orleans street cars remained strictly segregated throughout the ante-bellum period. The Negroes resented this practice bitterly, for it caused them considerable inconvenience and afforded them a constant reminder of their inferior station in society. Uncommonly free from the deferential demeanor exhibited by most ante-bellum Negroes south of the Ohio,2 the New Orleans