Welcome to
the Most important Round Table, in the Most important small town,
at the Most important Battlefield,
in the Most important Country
in the World.
Joe Mieczkowski, Past President
Thursday, October 23rd @ 7:00pm - The Fifth Border State
Presented by Scott A. MacKenzie
About the program:
The formation of West Virginia has been one of the most taken for granted subjects in Civil War history. For over 160 years, historians argued that internal differences between eastern and western Virginia compelled the latter to resist the state’s declaration of secession in 1861. The Lincoln Administration formed the new state two years later. Scott A. MacKenzie’s book challenges this thesis. In The Fifth Border State, he argues that West Virginia formed from the same reason that Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri remained in the Union: it better protected slavery than secession. He discovered that the need to maintain slavery outweighed any inherent differences before the war. Lincoln’s appeasement of border state Unionists, moreover, compelled him to recognize the new state movement. It proved to be a wise investment. The rise of radical Unionists willing to support his plan to eliminate slavery from the borderlands, combined with Black self-emancipation, made West Virginia the most enthusiastic supporter of his war policies. Lincoln happily granted statehood on June 20, 1863. Conservative Unionists, combined with returning Confederates, threatened the new state upon Union victory. Their 1872 constitution still governs the Mountain State. Historians should, MacKenzie concludes, no longer take West Virginia for granted and must instead see it as a significant moment in the history of the Civil War.
About our Speaker:
Scott A. MacKenzie obtain his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg in 1995, his Master of Arts in History, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta in 2007, before obtaining his Ph.D. in United States History from Auburn University in 2014. He has been a teaching Assistant at both the University of Calgary, as well as Auburn University and was a Summer Research Fellow at the George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War, Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV. In 2023 Scott published “The Fifth Border State: Slavery, Emancipation, and the Formation of West Virginia, 1829-1872”, and is currently working on “Union Ally: Canada and the American Civil War Era”. Scott as well, has published numerous articles pertaining to Canada and its involvement in the American Civil War.
Meetings held between September and May begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Adams County Historical Society.
During the Summer we meet on the battlefield.Please check our further meeting page for our summer excursions. These are not live streamed.
You can view September's Meeting at the link below:
https://fb.me/e/3rJQyL7XI?mibextid=wwXIfr
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