University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2019 Identity, Dissent, and the Roots of Georgia’s Middle Class, 1848-1865 Thomas Robinson University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Robinson, Thomas, "Identity, Dissent, and the Roots of Georgia’s Middle Class, 1848-1865" (2019). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1674. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1674 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. IDENTITY, DISSENT, AND THE ROOTS OF GEORGIA’S MIDDLE CLASS, 1848-1865 A Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Arch Dalrymple III Department of History The University of Mississippi by THOMAS W. ROBINSON December 2018 Copyright © 2018 by Thomas W. Robinson All rights reserved. ABSTRACT This dissertation, which focuses on Georgia from 1848 until 1865, argues that a middle class formed in the state during the antebellum period. By the time secession occurred, the class coalesced around an ideology based upon modernization, industrialization, reform, occupation, politics, and northern influence. These factors led the doctors, lawyers, merchants, ministers, shopkeepers, and artisans who made up Georgia’s middle class to view themselves as different than Georgians above or below them on the economic scale. The feeling was often mutual, as the rich viewed the middle class as a threat due to their income and education level while the poor were envious of the middle class. Many middle class occupations, especially merchants and shopkeepers, began to be seen as dangerous, greedy outliers in the southern community. The middle class, the negative view asserted, were more interested in money and did not harmonize in the otherwise virtuous, agrarian society. This study continues through the end of the Civil War and argues that the middle class in Georgia was a source of dissent and opposed secession and then the Confederacy. This is not to say that all middle class Georgians opposed secession or the war, but many middle class Georgians vehemently opposed secession and never accepted the Confederacy. Even if they did, many quickly turned their back once it was obvious the war was not going to be short and the Confederacy was taking away many civil liberties. These were not poor, mountain folk as many previous studies have identified those who dissented from the southern cause. Instead, these were successful, mostly urban men and women who felt the war would ruin them economically while at the same time the planters, who had become their political enemies, continued to dominate power in the state post-secession. All of these factors ii led many middle class Georgians to reject secession and the Confederacy. In turn, the antebellum middle class in Georgia laid the foundation for the post-war power structure and the rise of the southern middle class in the New South era. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A project of this type, which requires years of research and writing, is touched, guided, and helped by multiple people along the way. There are numerous people I wish to thank for helping see this project to completion. I would like to thank my committee members. Dr. John Neff, Dr. April Holm, and Dr. Anne Twitty of the University of Mississippi’s Arch Dalyrymple History Department have been helpful in providing feedback as I slowly worked my way through the writing process. They have also provided helpful career guidance and general pep talks. I also want to thank the fourth member of my committee, Dr. Robert Cummings, who served as an outside reader. I would like to thank a handful of mentors who were not on my committee, but still had an impact on this project. Dr. David Dillard of James Madison University was very helpful back when part of this dissertation was my Master’s thesis. Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens of Queens College has been a friend and mentor ever since I served as her teaching assistant at the University of Mississippi. She has provided words of encouragement as well as an example of hard work and dedication to her craft. Dr. Chiarella Esposito and Dr. Marc Lerner served as coordinators of the graduate students in History during my time at the University of Mississippi. I want to thank them both for assisting me with the maze of paperwork I encountered at times. I would also like to thank Dr. Jim Jones of Florida State University, who first told me I should pursue graduate school and has taught thousands of students at FSU and showed them the importance of history. iv Special thanks to the Arch Dalrymple III Department of History at the University of Mississippi, the Center for Civil War Research at the University of Mississippi, the Graduate School at the University of Mississippi, and the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University for all providing fellowships for research and writing. I also want to thank Auburn University Montgomery’s Southern Studies Conference and the St. George Tucker Society’s Brooks Forum for allowing me to present portions of this dissertation and providing invaluable feedback. The Brooks Forum also deserves praise for waiving registration fees and providing a travel stipend to allow my participation at that conference. I would like to thank friends who supported me along the way, likely too numerous to mention. Thanks to Andrew Davis for studying for comps with me and generally providing cheerful laughter. Thanks to Eli Baker and Sunny Baker for opening their house to me when we lived in the same apartment complex. They have been steadfast friends throughout this whole process. Thanks to Christine Rizzi and Justin Rogers, members of my cohort who have become friends and sounding boards. Thanks to Whit Barringer and Boyd Harris, who came in cohorts before me and provided valuable guidance on the system at UM and advice on navigating a PhD program. All of the above listed people, as well as several others I encountered at UM, have become, I hope, lifelong friends. Finally, I want to thank my family. My buddy John Galligan is not technically family, but we have been friends for so long he is basically my brother. He has provided an outlet for fun throughout this process. He brings levity to any situation. My parents have been supportive v throughout and are often my biggest cheerleaders. My sister, her husband, and my niece and nephew have also been supportive and often brag on me, even if my sister does not want to admit it. Too bad she and her husband went to Alabama and we’re now lifelong SEC West rivals. My in-laws have all been very supportive and encouraging and have also provided me with time to work by serving as babysitters or entertainment for my wife. Although both of my grandfathers are now deceased, I have to think they have guided me in this process as well as both provided me with my love of history. If not for them, I would have never embarked on this journey. Last, but certainly not least, I have to thank my wife Sarah Smitherman and our children Ava and Caroline. Ava was born in Virginia as I pursued my Master’s in History and Caroline was born in Mississippi as I pursued my PhD. That probably tells you all you need to know about the sacrifices Sarah made along this journey. We have moved, given up careers, and shaken up our lives for something that did not always look like it would pay off or come to fruition. I cannot even remember all the times Sarah took our children on trips without me so I could stay and work. I probably do not even know all of the sacrifices she has made along this journey. We lived apart for a year when I first went to UM and she gave up a promising teaching career at JMU to pursue this crazy dream with me. I will never be able to repay her patience and support but I hope this serves as proof to her and anyone else reading it that her help has not gone unnoticed. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………………. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………….. iv INTRODUCTION……………………………................................................... 1 I. THE GROWTH OF INDUSTRY IN GEORGIA, 1828-1850…….................... 27 II. PROFESSION…………………………………………………………………… 47 III. INDUSTRIALIZATION AND REFORM EFFORTS: MODERNIZATION IN MULTIPLE FORMS…………………………………………………………… 97 IV. URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICAL DISSENT…………………..... 155 V. NORTHERN INFLUENCE……………………………………………………. 187 VI. ANTI-SECESSIONISTS………………………………………………………. 209 VII. ANTI-CONFEDERATES……………………………………………………… 250 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………….. 304 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………. 315 VITA…………………………………………………………………………….. 335 vii INTRODUCTION Focusing on a group of white men and women with moderate income, engaged in professional and commercial occupations, this study draws on an array of sources to argue that a middle class formed in Georgia in the 1850s. Furthermore, this study argues that a significant number of these men and women dissented from elements of the culture of their state and region. Rather than regarding urbanization, industrialization, and the North with suspicion or trying to slavishly imitate planters, Georgia’s middle class embraced cultural and economic modernization, embodied by championing efforts to diversify the economy beyond agriculture, provide state-funded public education, and challenging traditional gender roles, to name but three. This had ramifications for the political arena, as many middling Georgians believed the progress and change they sought for their state was best achieved through collaborative economic pursuits between the North and South. Due to this, a majority of middle-class Georgians opposed secession and calls for southern nationalism and many opposed the Confederacy once war broke out between the sections.