ABOUT THIS BOOK

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

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Kenneth W. Noe is the Draughon Professor of Southern History at Auburn University and author of The Civil War in Appalachia.

REVIEWS

“A well-researched, insightful socio-economic history of the region for the period circa 1850 to 1865.”
—Journal of Economic History

“The importance of this book lies in both the breadth and the narrowness of its scope. It addresses an array of issues about economics, politics, and social structure that most other scholars have approached separately, and it focuses upon a section of Appalachia that is well-defined both by contemporary and current usage and which...has not previously received much attention from revisionists.”
—Appalachian Journal
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“By concentrating on a small region, a short chronological scope, and a certain form of industrialization, namely the earliest railroads of southwest Virginia, [Noe] is able to illustrate the slice such an innovation makes in the total cross-section of a society: its politics and culture as well as its economic outlook and achievement.”
—American Historical Review

“[Noe argues] that both slavery and secession sentiment were far more prevalent in the mountains of southwestern Virginia than usually thought. He contends that the railroad...tied the region to the state of Virginia and was a big factor in determining that the region would not become part of the new state of West Virginia.”
—CHOICE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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

Notes

Bibliography

Index