Rich Man's War

Class, Caste, and Confederate Defeat in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley

Title Details

Pages: 328

Illustrations: 17 b&w photos

Trim size: 6.120in x 9.250in

Formats

Hardcover

Pub Date: 01/01/1999

ISBN: 9-780-8203-2033-5

List Price: $40.95

Subsidies and Partnerships

Published with the generous support of Historic Chattahoochee Commission

Rich Man's War

Class, Caste, and Confederate Defeat in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley

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  • Description
  • Reviews

In Rich Man's War historian David Williams focuses on the Civil War experience of people in the Chattahoochee River Valley of Georgia and Alabama to illustrate how the exploitation of enslaved blacks and poor whites by a planter oligarchy generated overwhelming class conflict across the South, eventually leading to Confederate defeat.

This conflict was so clearly highlighted by the perception that the Civil War was "a rich man's war and a poor man's fight" that growing numbers of oppressed whites and blacks openly rebelled against Confederate authority, undermining the fight for independence. After the war, however, the upper classes encouraged enmity between freedpeople and poor whites to prevent a class revolution. Trapped by racism and poverty, the poor remained in virtual economic slavery, still dominated by an almost unchanged planter elite.

The publication of this book was supported by the Historic Chattahoochee Commission.

Not simply an extended essay on the causes of Confederate defeat. It is also a detailed history of a southern region at war.

Journal of American History

A well-written account of an important region that significantly enriches a collective social portrait of Confederate home fronts across the diverse and complex wartime South.

North Carolina Historical Review

About the Author/Editor

DAVID WILLIAMS is a professor of history at Valdosta State University in Georgia.