The Secession Conventions of the South. By Ralph A. Wooster. Princeton, New Jersey, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1962.

            Ralph A. Wooster sets out to examine the Session Conventions in the various Southern states to determine the similarity or differences in each experience in The Session Conventions of the South. Wooster believes that the state legislatures or conventions who met to decide the fate of their states were influenced by a variety of factors, including income, occupation, slaveholding status, and percentage of slave population. Wooster hopes that in examining the demographics of the conventions, he can understand the underlying reasons for secession.

            Wooster divides his work into three sections, one looking at the lower South and one at the upper South, and the final one considers the border states. The lower South contains the states of South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. In the lower South, Wooster find that the representative bodies were controlled by slaveholders to a great extent. The wealthy slaveholders in South Carolina were the first to declare secession and they sent representatives to the other states in the South in hopes of convincing them to also leave the Union. Other states, especially those in the West, did not place as much of an emphasis on slavery. In Texas, Sam Houston attempted to stop the convention from leaving the Union as he feared the consequences for his state. In Louisiana, the representatives seemed more inclined to declare secession simply to avoid being the lone Union state in the South. Despite the small differences, a picture of the average representative does emerge. He is middle aged, owns a small to moderate number of slaves, works as either a planter or a lawyer, and is in favor of secession.

            The upper South is far more interesting to Wooster. The states of Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina understood that their borders would most likely be invaded rapidly if they declare secession. Many of the upper South states looked to Virginia for leadership. Virginia long held a position of leadership in the South and even commanded national attention. For Virginia, the deciding factor most likely came years before in the form of John Browns raid on Harper’s Ferry. For Virginians the notion of remaining in the Union and possibly freeing the salves was much too dangerous. Once Virginia decided for secession, the other upper South states followed. Tennessee debated the issue to some length, but eventually joined the South in the Confederacy. The average representative of the upper South had much in common with the average representative from the lower South. The difference lay primarily in the number of slaves owned from state to state.

            The Great Borders, as Wooster terms it, held the states of Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, and  Delaware. The center of the Great Border was Kentucky, which was the birth place of both Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Like many others in the border states, the representatives of Kentucky supported the Union, but felt the need to defend slavery as a labor institution. The citizens of the border states considered slavery to be a state issue, and therefore outside the reach of the federal government. Missouri also contained a large number of moderates, who wished to see the Great Compromise continued. These border states showed the most individuality in their conventions and their decisions.

            Ultimately, Wooster concludes that certain demographics aspects of the representatives affected their decisions and some did not. The occupation had no significant impact on their attitudes towards secession or Unionism. Geography played a role in the decision to join the Confederacy or stay in the Union, but the most significant factor seems to be in relation to the slave population and the status of the representatives of slaveholders. The slaveholders of the South simply had more to lose in their minds by staying with the Union than they did by joining the Confederacy.

Misty Wilson                                                                                      Texas Christian University