Table Of Content’
FREEDOM S CRESCENT
The Lower Mississippi Valley is more than just a distinct geographical
regionoftheUnitedStates;itwascentraltotheoutcomeoftheCivilWar
and the destruction of slavery in the American South. Beginning with
Lincoln’s1860presidentialelectionandconcludingwiththefinalratifi-
cationoftheThirteenthAmendmentin1865,Freedom’sCrescentexplores
the four states of this region that seceded and joined the Confederacy:
Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. By weaving into a
coherent narrative the major military campaigns that enveloped the
region,thedailydisintegrationofslaveryinthecountryside,andpolitical
developments across the four states and in Washington DC, John C.
Rodrigue identifies the Lower Mississippi Valley as the epicenter of
emancipationintheSouth.Asweepingexaminationofoneofthewar’s
mostimportanttheaters,thisbookhighlightstheintegralrolethisregion
playedintransformingUnitedStateshistory.
JohnC.RodrigueistheLawrenceandTheresaSalamenoProfessorinthe
DepartmentofHistoryatStonehillCollege.HisbookReconstructioninthe
CaneFieldsreceivedtheKemperandLeilaWilliamsPrizefromtheLouisiana
Historical Association. He is also a co-editor of one of the volumes of
Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861–1867. In 2016–
2017,heservedasthePresidentoftheLouisianaHistoricalAssociation.
Published online by Cambridge University Press
CAMBRIDGE STUDIES ON THE AMERICAN
SOUTH
SeriesEditors:
MarkM.Smith,UniversityofSouthCarolina,Columbia
PeterCoclanis,UniversityofNorthCarolinaatChapelHill
EditorEmeritus:
DavidMoltke-Hansen
Interdisciplinary in its scope and intent, this series builds upon and
extendsCambridgeUniversityPress’slongstandingcommitmenttostud-
ies on the American South. The series offers the best new workon the
South’sdistinctiveinstitutional,social,economic,andculturalhistoryand
also features works in a national, comparative, and transnational
perspective.
TitlesintheSeries
JohnC.Rodrigue,Freedom’sCrescent:TheCivilWarandtheDestruction
ofSlaveryintheLowerMississippiValley
ElijahGaddis,GruesomeLookingObjects:ANewHistoryofLynchingand
EverydayThings
DamianAlanPargas,FreedomSeekers:FugitiveSlavesinNorthAmerica,
1800–1860
SebastianN.Page,BlackResettlementandtheAmericanCivilWar
HaydenR.Smith,Carolina’sGoldenFields:InlandRiceCultivationinthe
SouthCarolinaLowcountry,1670–1860
WilsonJeremiahMoses,ThomasJefferson:AModernPrometheus
Joan E. Cashin, War Stuff: The Struggle for Human and Environmental
ResourcesintheAmericanCivilWar
DavidStefanDoddington,ContestingSlaveMasculinityintheAmerican
South
Lawrence T.McDonnell, Performing Disunion: TheComing of theCivil
WarinCharleston,SouthCarolina
EnricoDalLago,CivilWarandAgrarianUnrest:TheConfederateSouth
andSouthernItaly
DanielJ.Vivian,ANewPlantationWorld:SportingEstatesintheSouth
CarolinaLowCountry,1900–1940
Eugene D. Genovese, ed. Douglas Ambrose, The Sweetness of Life:
SouthernPlantersatHome
DonaldG.Mathews,AttheAltarofLynching:BurningSamHoseinthe
AmericanSouth
Keri Leigh Merritt, Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the
AntebellumSouth
Published online by Cambridge University Press
KatherineRyeJewell,DollarsforDixie:BusinessandtheTransformation
ofConservatismintheTwentiethCentury
Sarah Gardner, Reviewing the South: The Literary Marketplace and the
SouthernRenaissance,1920–1941
William Thomas Okie, The Georgia Peach: Culture, Agriculture, and
EnvironmentintheAmericanSouth
KarlosK.Hill,BeyondtheRope:TheImpactofLynchingonBlackCulture
andMemory
William A. Link and James J. Broomall, eds., Rethinking American
Emancipation:LegaciesofSlaveryandtheQuestforBlackFreedom
James Van Horn Melton, Religion, Community, and Slavery on the
ColonialSouthernFrontier
Damian Alan Pargas, Slavery and Forced Migration in the Antebellum
South
CraigFriendandLorriGlover,eds.,DeathandtheAmericanSouth
Barton A. Myers, Rebels against the Confederacy: North Carolina’s
Unionists
LouisA.FerlegerandJohnD.Metz,CultivatingSuccessintheSouth:Farm
HouseholdsinPostbellumGeorgia
LukeE.Harlow,Religion,Race,andtheMakingofConfederateKentucky,
1830–1880
Susanna MicheleLee,Claiming the Union:Citizenship in thePost–Civil
WarSouth
KathleenM.Hilliard,Masters,Slaves,andExchange:Power’sPurchasein
theOldSouth
Ari Helo, Thomas Jefferson’s Ethics and the Politics of Human Progress:
TheMoralityofaSlaveholder
Scott P. Marler, The Merchants’ Capital: New Orleans and the Political
EconomyoftheNineteenth-CenturySouth
Ras Michael Brown, African-Atlantic Cultures and the South Carolina
Lowcountry
Johanna Nicol Shields, Freedom in a Slave Society: Stories from the
AntebellumSouth
BrianSteele,ThomasJeffersonandAmericanNationhood
Christopher Michael Curtis, Jefferson’s Freeholders and the Politics of
OwnershipintheOldDominion
JonathanDanielWells,WomenWritersandJournalistsintheNineteenth-
CenturySouth
Peter McCandless, Slavery, Disease, and Suffering in the Southern
Lowcountry
Robert E. Bonner, Mastering America: Southern Slaveholders and the
CrisisofAmericanNationhood
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Published online by Cambridge University Press
’
FREEDOM S CRESCENT
The Civil War and the Destruction of Slavery in the
Lower Mississippi Valley
JOHN C. RODRIGUE
StonehillCollege
Published online by Cambridge University Press
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www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108424097
DOI:10.1017/9781108539715
©JohnC.Rodrigue2023
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten
permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2023
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Rodrigue,JohnC.,author.
Title:Freedom’screscent:theCivilWarandthedestructionofslaveryinthelower
MississippiValley/JohnC.Rodrigue,StonehillCollege,Massachusetts.
Othertitles:CivilWarandthedestructionofslaveryinthelowerMississippiValley
Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,
2023.|Series:CambridgestudiesontheAmericanSouth|Includesbibliographical
referencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2022034272(print)|LCCN2022034273(ebook)|ISBN9781108424097
(hardback)|ISBN9781108539715(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:AfricanAmericans–History–1863–1877.|Freedpersons–UnitedStates–
History–19thcentury.|Slaves–Emancipation–UnitedStates–History–19thcentury.|
Reconstruction(U.S.history,1865–1877)–MississippiRiverValley.|AfricanAmericans–
MississippiRiverValley–Socialconditions–19thcentury.|Slavery–MississippiRiver
Valley–History–19thcentury.|MississippiRiverValley–History–CivilWar,1861–1865.
Classification:LCCE185.2R632023(print)|LCCE185.2(ebook)|DDC973.7/14–dc23/
eng/20220823
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022034272
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ISBN978-1-108-42409-7Hardback
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Published online by Cambridge University Press
toSylvia
Published online by Cambridge University Press
Itmaylooklikeboasting–butwhatItellyouistruth–Ibeganto
reflecthowmagnificentathingitwastodieinsuchamanner,and
howfoolishitwasinmetothinkofsopaltryaconsiderationasmy
ownindividuallife,inviewofsowonderfulamanifestationofGod’s
power.IdobelievethatIblushedwithshamewhenthisideacrossed
mymind.AfteralittlewhileIbecamepossessedwiththekeenest
curiosityaboutthewhirlitself.Ipositivelyfeltawishtoexploreits
depths,evenatthesacrificeIwasgoingtomake;andmyprincipal
griefwasthatIshouldneverbeabletotellmyoldcompanionson
shoreaboutthemysteriesIshouldsee.These,nodoubt,were
singularfanciestooccupyaman’smindinsuchextremity–and
Ihaveoftenthoughtsince,thattherevolutionsoftheboataround
thepoolmighthaverenderedmealittlelight-headed.
EdgarAllanPoe,“ADescentintotheMaelström”(1841)
Published online by Cambridge University Press
CONTENTS
ListofFigures pagexi
Acknowledgments xii
ListofAbbreviations xvi
Introduction 1
Prologue:Life–andLabor–ontheMississippi 22
parti
FromWarforUniontoMilitaryEmancipation,
1860–1862
1 “AnIndependentPower” 43
2 OfStampedesandFreePapers 65
3 “BrokenEggsCannotBeMended” 82
4 “TheUnsatisfactoryProspectBeforeThem” 100
partii:
FromMilitaryEmancipationtoStateAbolition,
1863
5 “TheReturnoftheSecededStatestoThisUnionasSlave
States” 115
6 “RepugnanttotheSpiritoftheAge” 132
7 “TheGreatestQuestionEverPresentedtoPractical
Statesmanship” 145
8 “TheNameof‘Slavery’” 165
9 “RepudiatingtheEmancipationProclamation
andReestablishingSlavery” 185
partiii:
Abolition:StateandFederal,1864
10 “SlaveryIsIncompatiblewithaRepublicanForm
ofGovernment” 223
ix
Published online by Cambridge University Press
