Overview

In an examination of the effects of the Civil War on the rural Southern home front, Mark V. Wetherington looks closely at the experiences of white plain folk --mostly yeoman farmers and craftspeople--in the wiregrass region of southern Georgia before, during, and after the war. Although previous scholars have argued that common people in the South fought the battles of the region's elites, Wetherington contends that the plain folk in this Georgia region fought for their own self-interest. Plain folk, whose communities were outside areas in which slaves were the majority of the population, feared black emancipation would allow former slaves to move from cotton plantations to subsistence areas like their piney woods communities. Thus, they favored secession, defended their way of life by fighting in the Confederate army, and kept the antebellum patriarchy intact in their home communities. Unable by late 1864 to sustain a two-front war in Virginia and at home, surviving veterans took their fight to the local political arena, where they used paramilitary tactics and ritual violence to defeat freedpeople and their white Republican allies, preserving a white patriarchy that relied on ex-Confederate officers for a new generation of leadership.

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9781469603650

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A gracefully written, scholarly work that will appeal to specialists as well as casual readers of southern or Civil War history. . . . It is insightful work that deserves close attention. -- H-South An authoritative analysis of one remote section of rural Georgia. . . . For those scholars and general readers more interested in the intricacies of the Confederate home front than in the dryness of battlefield tactics, Plain Folk's Fight is a must-read. -- H-CivWar Enriches knowledge of the Confederate South. -- Journal of Southern History Impressive research supports Wetherington's refreshing reconsideration of common southerners' perceptions of the war and Reconstruction. His book is certain to attract attention from Civil War scholars and will prove entertaining for the interested public. . . . Highly Recommended. -- Choice Wetherington's analysis is nuanced, and his scope is wide, ranging from politics and economics to religion and the cultural effects of battle casualties. . . . A necessary addition to Civil War historians' libraries. -- Journal of American History

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