Event Type: Branch

Takes Place: 8th April 2025

Time: 7.30 pm

Venue: Ealing Green Church, W5 5QT

Description: The phrase “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight” has been used by some commentators, both contemporaries and historians, to characterise the Confederate war effort during the U.S. Civil War. What they mean by this turn of phrase is that the war foisted excessive and unfair burdens on lower-class whites while their wealthier neighbours dodged service and sometimes profited at the expense of poorer folk. It also implies that the fundamental objective of the Confederacy – the defence and maintenance of the institution of slavery – was something poorer whites had little investment in. Drawing on the research and arguments of my forthcoming book on the wartime experience of South Carolina, this talk revisits the question of class and the Confederate cause and seeks a more nuanced perspective; I argue that class hierarchy and frustration were central, inescapable parts of the world in which lower-class whites lived but, equally, they did not construe the Confederacy as representing the interests of selfish elites at the expense of their own.

How to book: Booking is not required but those registering in advance on Eventbrite should be eligible to receive a recording of the talk after the event (subject to lecturer's permission)

Price: HA members and students free. Visitors £5

Tel: 020 8579 2174

Email: philipgwoods@outlook.com

Website: https://ealinghistory.org.uk/

Organiser: Dr Philip Woods. Secretary

Lecturer: Dr Patrick Doyle, Lecturer in United States History, Royal Holloway, University of London

Region: London

Branch: Ealing