A New History of the American South

Recounting the saga of the American South; the prehistory of the region, from its geographical features to its ancient peoples; the history of the chiefdoms that dominated the region before the Europeans; tracing the decimation of native populations.

Investigating the complex origins of slavery in Africa; how the Atlantic slave trade was initiated by the Portuguese; a system of vast economic gain; supplying labor for New World plantations; the intended functions of Britain's American colonies.

Examining Virginia's economic conditions before slavery; discontent among English indentured laborers; the rise of slavery in the British Caribbean; the factors that made slavery a business model in Virginia; how colonists rationalized slaveholding.

The apogee of the Atlantic slave trade; how enslaved people adapted to their plight; how Barbados planters spurred the colonization of the Carolinas; the founding of Georgia and how it became a slave society; the society of the planter elite.

How the events of the American Revolution affected the southern colonies and the enslaved; the implications of the new federal government and the Constitution for the southern states and slaveholders; Congress's actions against the slave system.

The massive changes that took place in the territories that became the American South; the wars the new nation fought with the British, Native American factions and escaped slaves; how multiple conflicts forged a new unity among white Southerners.

The dislocations, rebellion and surging population of the enslaved in the South; how Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi were settled; how cotton and sugar became defining commodities; the mechanics of the slave trade.

The role of religion in the cultures of southern society and slavery; how British Anglicanism was replaced by evangelical Christianity in the South; how the faith became a source of strength for the enslaved, but also reinforced the status quo.

The aborted South Carolina revolt led by the freed slave Denmark Vesey; the famous Nat Turner rebellion in Virginia; the ensuing Virginia debates on slavery; the brutal removal of Native Americans in the Southern states from their traditional lands.

The admission of Missouri to the Union as a slave state; the rise of abolitionism and antislavery societies; the violent backlash of anti-abolitionists; pro-slavery thought in the South; the context of pre-Civil War Southern intellectual life.

The settlement of Texas by Americans and the Mexican-American War; the debate over slavery in former Mexican lands becomes a blistering national drama; the impact of the railroad and telegraph on the South; the divisions between North and South.

American slavery becomes more diverse as it expands over a huge area; the trades engaged in by the enslaved; the complex mix of white and black cultures in the South; the mechanics of slave trading; how slaves work on plantations and farms.

The slave economy booms in the 1850s; the escalation of antagonism between North and South; the struggle within Kansas between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces; the actions of abolitionist John Brown; the Supreme Court case involving Dred Scott.

The presidential election of 1860 comprises the estrangement of North and South; the Southern actions of secession, which many in the South resist; the events surrounding Lincoln taking office; two key ways of thinking about the Civil War.

The events that lead to the opening shots of the Civil War; both sides' initial strategy for the conflict and the role of women in the war effort; the impact of the war on the Southern economy; misconceptions on both sides that fuel the war.

How slaves fare and adapt as the war progresses; the actions of freed blacks and their efforts to secure basic rights; the divisive national climate during the initial phase of Reconstruction; many Southerners deny the matters that the war decides.

The Freedmen's Bureau oversees the transition from slavery to a wage economy, amid resistance to attempts to remake the South; the passage of the 14th Amendment and the Reconstruction Act; Radical Reconstruction period; Southern Democratic control.

Structural changes transform the South following Reconstruction; the expansion of railroads connects Southern towns and cities, as well as North with South; the rise of country stores; the proliferation of new villages and towns across the South.

The advent of modern agriculture in the South; overcrowding, falling prices for crops and competition lead to terrible hardships for farmers; the charged era of Populism; farmers redress their problems in a struggle against monopoly capitalism.

The origins of legal separation between the races, a defining trait of the South; segregation regarding railroad travel; segregation then spreads to include numerous social gathering points; sexual contact between the races becomes a contested issue.

The climate of violence in the New South; economic and political turmoil; lynching becomes, for whites, a means of countering weak governments and terrorizing blacks into submission; constitutional disfranchisement of black voters; white supremacy.

The growth of religion in the late 19th-century South; the proliferation of religious revivals; the holiness movement, Pentecostalism and the Church of God; religious factions seek a more vital faith, challenge tradition and spread across the world.

The making of the New South unleashes extraordinary creative and artistic energies; the vibrant musical culture of the postbellum South; the African musical elements that converge in the birth of ragtime and jazz; blues, country music and gospel.

Life in the South as the 20th century begins; the work of Booker T. Washington; the impact on race relations of the Spanish-American War; the government sanction to segregation; Cult of the Confederacy; a place of ongoing movement and renewal.