W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 5-2011 It Took a War: The End of Slavery in West Virginia Mark Guerci College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Guerci, Mark, "It Took a War: The End of Slavery in West Virginia" (2011). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 381. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/381 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. 0 It Took a War: The End of Slavery in West Virginia A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in History from the College of William and Mary by Mark Guerci Accepted for (Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors) Scott Nelson, Director Melvin Ely Clyde Haulman Williamsburg, VA April 14, 2011 1 Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………2 Chapter I: It Takes But a Very Few Slaves…………………………………………...13 Chapter II: A House Divided, Pressured, and Radicalized………………………..…35 Chapter III: The Natural Consequences of a State of War…………………………..56 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….72 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..74 Maps…………………………………..………………………………………………….79 2 Introduction For many of Waitman Willey‘s constituents, the urgency was palpable. As frustration in the first year of the Civil War turned Northern opinion toward more drastic war measures, Virginians west of the Allegheny Mountains saw an opportunity to free themselves from a government in Richmond dominated by eastern slaveholders.