The violent and contested nature of freedom highlighted the adherence to the power structure and ideological inheritances of slavery. Freedpeople were relegated to the margins as whites reasserted their control over Reconstruction. Widespread Reconstruction violence climaxed with the Colfax Massacre and firmly cemented white power, vigilantism, and racial dominance within the regional culture. Based on extensive archival research, this thesis considers how politics, racial ideologies, and environmental and financial drivers impacted the nature of slavery, Confederate commitment, and the parameters of freedom in this region, and by extension, the nation. By contrast, on plantations along the Red River, both racial mastery and power endured after emancipation. In this thesis, the election of 1860, the Civil War, and emancipation are not viewed as fundamental breaks or compartmentalized epochs in southern history. Here, the long arcs of mastery, racial conditioning, and ideological continuities were deeply entrenched even as the nation underwent profound changes from 1820 to 1880. Racial bondage grounded the region’s economy and formed the heart of white identity and black exploitation. The Red River played a significant role in regional settlement and protecting this distorted racial dynamic. Continuity, not change, characterized the region. This work argues that when freedom arrived, this unbroken fidelity to mastery and to the inheritances and ideology of slavery gave rise to a visceral regime of violence. Racial bondage defined the region, and slaveholders’ commitment to mastery and Confederate doctrine continued after the Civil War. The alluvial soil provided wealth for the mobile, market-driven slaveholders but created a cold, brutal world for the commoditized slaves that cleared the land and cultivated cotton. ![]() Louisiana’s Red River region was shaped by and founded on the logic of racial power, the economics of slavery, and white supremacy. Winchester's various wartime occupations, however, undermined women's emotional justifications for war as contact with soldiers humanized the enemy and skewed the battle lines. These wartime identities centered on the legitimacy of a particular cause and the vilification of the "enemy," thereby creating a clear line between good and evil to help women cope with the death and destruction of war. While early in the war women's patriotism reflected their support of the military, as the war progressed women began defining themselves as either Unionists or Confederates in order to maintain a sense of self. This thesis argues that in order to cope with wartime hardships, women's concepts of patriotism changed as home front morale waned. Winchester's citizens divided status was further complicated by numerous occupations of the town by both armies. Although the majority of WInchester's women were Confederate supporters, a significant minority of the population remained loyal to the Union. ![]() ![]() The experiences of women in Winchester were unique because of Winchester's proximity to both the Union and Confederate capitals. This thesis examines the home front experiences of middle class white women living in Winchester, Virginia during the Civil War.
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