Confederate Reckoning

A major argument throughout Confederate Reckoning is that the Confederacy was doomed by social and political factors as much as its military defeats. What were these factors, and how did they contribute to the Confederacy’s military failure?

Choose one of the primary sources that McCurry discusses at length, such as James D. B. DeBow’s The Interest in Slavery of the Southern Nonslaveholder (45), Sarah Thompson’s account of a Tennessee Unionist network (121-22), or the writings of the enslaved writer William Webb (226-27). Describe in your own words what you believe the source is saying. How does this source support McCurry’s overall arguments?

How were women, Black people, and working-class whites excluded from participation in Confederate “democracy”? How did these groups find avenues of political participation, and to what extent were their political fortunes intertwined?

Who were the “soldiers’ wives” (4)? How broadly was this social category construed, and how did it function as a source of political agency?

What is the significance of women’s food riots in McCurry’s thesis? What do the food riots and the reactions to them show about the experience of being a woman in the CSA?

McCurry argues that the US Civil War should also be seen as a “massive slave rebellion” (259). How does the Civil War fit into the broader history of rebellions among enslaved people, including the rebellion that gave rise to the modern state of Haiti?

Name and discuss three ways that enslaved people actively resisted the Confederacy and plantation owners during the US Civil War. How does McCurry’s description of such activities aim to intervene in accepted narratives of US history and the history of the Civil War?

Discuss the title of the book, Confederate Reckoning. What kinds of reckoning does McCurry identify in the book? Does she suggest that a new reckoning—a reckoning with forgotten histories—is needed?