Proquest Dissertations
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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Artror, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI BECOMING BOURGEOIS: MERCHANT CULTURE IN THE ANTEBELLUM AND CONFEDERATE SOUTH DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Frank J. Byrne, M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 2000 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Mark Grimsley, Adviser Professor Warren R. Van Tine Professor Randolph A. Roth AiiviseT History Department Professor John C. Inscoe UMI Number: 9994845 Copyright 2001 by Byrne, Frank J. All rights reserved. UMI' UMI Microform 9994845 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Leaming Com pany 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines merchant families in the antebellum and Confederate South. Specifically it focuses upon what historians have come to call the "middling sort," that group falling between the mass of yeoman farmers and the planter class that dominated the political economy of the antebellum South. In addition to investigating the experiences of urban merchants, village storekeepers, and small-scale factors, this study is the first to examine the roles these merchants and their families played within the political economy and southern society at large. Through interpreting diaries, letters, newspapers, R.G. Dun & Company credit reports, and other sources, the dissertation reveals the peculiar strains of modem liberal capitalist and conservative thought that imbued the culture of southern merchants. Fundamentally these merchant families embraced the South but were not of the South. Exploring the values men and women in merchant families espoused not only offers new insight into southern history but helps deepen our understanding of the mutable ties between regional identity and the marketplace that prevailed in nineteenth-century America. These merchant families embraced the South but were not of the South. At a time when most southerners rarely traveled far firom their homes, merchants annually sallied forth on buying junkets to northern cities. While the majority of men and women enjoyed only limited formal instruction, merchant families often achieved a level of education rivaled by only the planter class. Most important, the southern merchant community ii promoted the kind of aggressive business practices that proponents of the "New South" would later claim as their own. They traded, haggled, and invested their wealth in a South where a planter elite created an agrarian society seemingly hostile to industry and urbanizatioiL Antebellum merchants functioned well within this slaveholding system but did not rely upon the "peculiar institution" for its success. The commercial classes maintained close ties with the North while embracing the religious and racial mores of the slave South. The outbreak of the Civil War temporarily altered relations within merchant homes and strengthened the business ideology that would serve these commercial families once hostilities ended. Merchants at once served in the Confederate army and viewed the conflict as a business opportunity. In the end, their antebellum commercial habits and the hardships of war offered merchant families excellent preparation for the world of the "New South." m ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I had the good fortune to meet several individuals while in graduate school who encouraged my love of history while at the same time challenging many of my assumptions about the past. Numan V. Bartley and Emory Thomas both proved to be wise teachers both in and out of the classroom. The members of my dissertation committee, Mark Grimsley, Warren R. Van Tine, Randolph A. Roth, and John C. Inscoe, have provided thoughtful analysis of my work and are responsible for much of the insight it may have. In particular, my adviser Mark Grimsley helped me complete this dissertation in the face of numerous obstacles and much personal drama. His scholarship and generosity offered me a refreshing example of what is best about the historical profession. Numerous colleagues, friends, and family helped me survive and occasionally thrive while in graduate school. Phil Adamo, Pat Breen, Lori Cline, Lesley Gordon, Dan Pappalardo, Charlotte Weber, Ken Wheeler, Wendy Wickham, and Greg Wilson helped me grow in intellect and character. Eugene Kadish, Ian Heisey, and Kermit Mangus once again showed me how often the friends you make as a child prove to be the truest over time. The unfailing love and support of my family, Frank L. Byrne, Marilyn Byrne, and Anne Boyles, can never be repaid and certainly not receive the acknowledgement it deserves in this work, that remains for the future. Finally, the best thing that happened to me while in graduate school was meeting my best friend and wife, Mary McCune. Her iv scholarship inspires me, her wit amuses me, her kindness humbles me, her intellect leaves me in awe, and her love makes me happy to be alive. I would have dedicated this work to her but she deserves better. VITA October 2, 1968 ............................... Bom — Ravenna, Ohio 1991................................................. B.A. History, Kent State University 1994................................................. M.A. History, University of Georgia 1994-2000....................................... Graduate Teaching Associate Department of History The Ohio State University 2000................................................ Instructor Department of History University of Akron PUBUCATIONS Research Publications 1. "Wartime Agitation and Postwar Repression: Reverend John A. Callan and the Columbus Strikes of 1918-1919," The Georgia Historical Quarterly (Summer 1997): 345-69. 2. "Rebellion and Retail: A Tale of Two Merchants in Confederate Atlanta," The Georgia Historical Quarterly 79 (Spring 1995): 30-56. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History Specialization: Antebellum and Civil War United States History Minor Fields: Colonial American History World History VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements ................................................................................. iv V ita.......................................................................................................... vi Chapters: Introduction.................................................................................. I 1. Merchant Culture and the Political Economy of the Old South ... 23 2. The Antebellum Merchant in Southern Society ............................ 56 3. The Merchant Family in the Antebellum South ............................ 100 4. Secession, Merchant-Soldiers and the Civil War, 1860-1863 ....... 158 5. “So We Go On,” Merchants and their Families in the Confederacy, 1861-1863 ..................................................... 184 6. The Merchant Family and the Fall of the Confederacy, 1864-1865 ...................................................................................... 225 Epilogue......................................................................................... 253 Bibliography............................................................................................... 259 vu INTRODUCTION In the summer of 1862 Jorantha Semmes wrote a letter expressing her war weariness to her husband Benedict Semmes, a Confederate officer. Responsible for the care of their five children in Federally-occupied Memphis, Tennessee, Semmes told her husband, "I am tired of this separation." His absence had left her bereft of "all gaiety of heart." Caring for the children helped occupy Jorantha's mind during the day but she missed her "better half’ at night when "it is so lonely."• Jorantha Semmes increasingly questioned the romantic militarism of the Civil War. Others, we know, shared this sentiment. Historians have noted that the trials of war eroded the patriotism of many southern women. Semmes's anxiety over the fate of her family and the Confederate cause seems to conform to this pattern.^ What distinguishes Semmes's writing firom that of other educated southern women is its commercial tone. The couple's