Bitter Fruits of Bondage: The Demise of Slavery and the Collapse of the Confederacy, 1861-1865 (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by Michael W. Fitzgerald St. Olaf College Bitter Fruits of Bondage: The Demise of Slavery and the Collapse of the Confederacy, 1861–1865. By Armstead L. Robinson. (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2005. Pp. 293. Cloth, $34.95.) This is a difficult book to review, being published some decade after the author's untimely death after extensive posthumous editing. When Armstead Robinson's much-cited dissertation appeared, it was at the forefront of the social interpretation of the Confederate experience, but the historiography has moved on. Despite this, Robinson's forcefully-stated analysis of Confederate defeat deserves attention. [End Page 412] The book examines the home front in the—broadly defined—Mississippi Valley. The argument is that the Confederacy found it impossible to reconcile the social interests comprising it. Upcounty nonslaveholders were unenthusiastic secessionists at best, and as the sacrifices of war mounted, many became disaffected. Simultaneously, the secession crisis prompted unrest among the slaves, which induced jumpy slaveholders to withhold arms and men from the Davis government. As the crisis deepened, the slaveholder-dominated government turned toward a draft that exempted planters, with damaging results on morale. The invading armies were welcomed by legions of slaves and draft resisters, only too eager to assist with information and sometimes physical assistance. By 1863, massive disaffection made military collapse all but certain. "Died of Class Conflict" is Robinson's forthright epitaph for the Confederacy (283). This argument is familiar, and one problem with such a clear thesis is that it lends itself to ready oversimplification. Still, the case is laid out with considerable nuance. Robinson unearthed a good deal of underutilized evidence, including Smithsonian Institution weather tabulations to illustrate food production shortfalls; the author's evident industry somewhat explains the long intellectual gestation of the work. Particularly illuminating is the discussion of the aftermath of Vicksburg's surrender, in which Confederates forcibly reenlisted the former garrison in violation of their paroles. Thus fighting under a potential death sentence, which Confederate General Bragg unwisely announced on the eve of battle, these same soldiers spectacularly fled at Missionary Ridge. The episode is striking, and it nicely supports the book's broader themes. Moreover, Robinson is even-handed in his treatment of the Confederate government, even sympathetic to its task of holding the home front together. Jefferson Davis's repeated "personal intervention helped put a human face on a war effort beset by charges of insensitivity" toward the poor (95). For a scholar who helped define the field of black studies, this is an impressive feat of historical empathy toward the much maligned Confederate president. Robinson's position does illuminate a central theme: slavery made the home front unusually fragile, and it placed a superhuman task before the most dedicated Confederate leaders. As readers of this journal will be aware, the dominant tendency of late has been to emphasize the resilience of Confederate loyalties among whites. Historians like Gary Gallagher and William Blair come to mind. But this scholarship deals primarily with the eastern states, especially Virginia. Robinson's book should shift historians' attention to the West, where the Confederate forces instead experienced humiliation. Generals like Bragg, Pemberton, and Hood somehow didn't inspire the awe of Robert E. Lee. From this vantage point everything looks different: whole armies surrendered or disintegrated, and collapsing morale had much to do with [End Page 413] it. As someone who has mined many of these same primary sources for Alabama, the book's strongly argued interpretations seem faithful to the documents. Not that there are not things to criticize. One notices occasional geographic imprecisions, like putting Huntsville in northwest Alabama, or Chattanooga between Missionary Ridge and Chickamauga (139, 254). The text was patched together from chapters written over a span of decades, and in places the interpretation or terminology is problematic. For example, the "dual economy" idea is the basis of Robinson's analysis, and his repeated use of "non-commercial" to refer...