"Apostles of Disunion," by Charles Dew discusses the cause of the South's secession that led to the Civil War by examining the work of southern secession commissioners, urging fellow Southerners to follow their lead and secede from the Union. .
Ignored by historians or dismissed as minor figures behind the motives of disunion, Dew is convinced that speeches and letters from the southern commissioners reveal a lot about the secession and pending Civil War during the winter of 1860-1861. Charles Dew's ancestors fought for the Confederacy, and growing up, he was taught the only reason the South had seceded was for states' rights. Anyone who thought differently wasn't taken seriously, yet after years of scholarly training and becoming a historian, it was not until he studied the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies that he began to question this childhood fact. .
Did racism have anything to do with the cause of secession, and was white supremacy a critical element for which his ancestors fought for? He always knew that the institution of slavery was on the line when the Republican Party took hold of office, but was the secession commissioner's main message throughout the South geared towards racial inequality and justifiable segregation, and was this the reason that excited Southerners to go to war? The story that the commissioner's documents could tell, Dew believed, could hold the key to finding out if racism had anything to do with the South seceding.
Charles Dew discusses the fact that even though it's been 140 years after the beginning of the conflict, controversy still centers around what caused the secession of the seven original Southern states. By getting into the secessionist's mind, Dew claims, is to understand and explain their cause. Present-day controversies may shed light on the mind-set of Southerner's respect for their past. According to Dew, "the past is far from dead in the Southern reaches of the United States (7).
