Unionist Sentiment in Shelton Laurel

When it came to the question of union or secession, the mountaineers that had unionist feelings did so in large part because of a division in their local past between rich and poor. Upper classes for the most part supported seceding because they felt a threat to their riches if slavery was lost. The Unionists were poor, did not own slaves and therefore did not feel that threat. But a key point to be made here is made by Mr. Paludan in his book, "Unionism was not founded on racial egalitarianism but a resentment of slaveholders, a resentment that in many cases took on class lines" (59). There was this feeling of a rich man's war and a poor man's fight.

Another reason for Unionist sentiment in the mountains had to do with the heritage of the people that lived there. Many of the folks who lived in Shelton Laurel had forefathers that had fought for American independence. This heritage fostered nationalism and thus pro-union feelings. This is an example of an historical force that caused Unionism. It had nothing to do with the local area that they lived in, or their local past.

The origins of Unionism in the Shelton Laurel area came from a combination of factors. It was mainly fostered because of their past experience in the local area: class hostility and the desire to continue with the status quo and not be bothered, but to continue with their traditions. The people there who were Unionist's were not about to fight for what they saw as an aristocracy. The historical force that caused Unionist sentiment was the heritage of the people, their ancestors had fought to give them freedom, to make this Union that the secessionist's were trying to pull apart. Mr. Paludan demonstrates by this that there is a very real difference between the "past" of a region and historical forces that might affect that area. In one sentence he sums up the difference between the two: the past is "a way of keeping us in touch with our own humanity, of making us aware of those things we try to shelter from the onslaught of history, those impersonal forces that control us and rush to shatter the living regularities that we long to keep alive" (xiii).

Works Cited Paludan, Phillip S. Victims: A True Story of the Civil War Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1992.

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