Patrick O'Hare-Week 5

1.  Benjamin, Judah P. 1863. Message concerning the African Slave Trade, intercepted by Union forces.

• This letter details Benjamin’s explanation of the Confederacy’s opposition to the international slave trade. It is an online resource, easily accessed, and gives insight into the diplomatic and domestic process of the CSA.

2.  Pember, Phoebe Yates. 1959. A Southern woman's story life in Confederate Richmond. Including unpublished letters written from the Chimborazo Hospital. Jackson, Tenn: McCowat-Mercer Press.

• This serial memoir, originally published after the war in the magazine Cosmopolite and available online, shows the life of a Jewish American woman and nurse during the Civil War.

3.  Benjamin, Judah P. 1860. Speech in the United States Senate on Democracy.

• This speech is a categorical condemnation of moderate Democrats in the North and a reaction to John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry. An online resource, it presents disunion in government and allows for analysis of Benjamin’s mindset before secession.

4.  Solomon, Clara, and Elliott Ashkenazi. 1995. The Civil War diary of Clara Solomon: growing up in New Orleans, 1861-1862. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.

• A teenager from New Orleans, Solomon’s diary could be useful in gaining the perspective of a Jewish family on the rise of the Confederacy and their relationship to it. This resource is at Stanford.

5.  Bliss, Philemon. 1858. Speech in the United States House of Representatives.

• Representative Bliss speaks on the immorality of slavery and the relevance of Judeo-Christian morality to answer the question of secession. An online resource, it represents contemporary attitudes toward religious history.

6.  Benjamin, Judah P. 1860. Speech on secession in the Senate.

• This speech, online through Stanford, shows Benjamin’s firm belief, particularly after Lincoln’s election, in secession’s validity.

7.  Benjamin, Judah P. 1859. Speech on the acquisition of Cuba in the Senate.

• Benjamin’s speech, online through Stanford, shows American imperialism at work even when the Union itself was beginning to fall apart. It is a reminder of the United States’ grand dreams of itself as an empire throughout the internal debates and strife.

8.  Lincoln, Abraham, Alexander H. Stephens, and John J. Crittenden. 1909. Some Lincoln correspondence with southern leaders before the outbreak of the civil war, from the collection of Judd Stewart.

• These letters, including correspondence between Lincoln, John Crittenden, and Alexander H. Stephens, present a climate of civility between men who drastically disagreed. Online through Stanford, these would serve to create a backdrop of political discourse against which men like Benjamin and Abraham Myers.

9. Jefferson Davis Correspondence 1850-1860.

• These letters, located at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, could be useful in determining the character of Jefferson Davis and what his relationship to Benjamin may have been. Their location makes research slightly more difficult, and so I will see what other sources I can find that are closer.

10.  Spiegel, Marcus M., Frank L. Byrne, and Jean Powers Soman. 1985. Your true Marcus: the Civil War letters of a Jewish colonel. [Kent, Ohio]: Kent State University Press.

• Letters of a Jewish American officer could be particularly useful in showing a unique perspective of someone deeply involved in warfare but not necessarily gaining much power because of the war, as Benjamin may have. This resource is at Stanford. 

Source for class: http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/Sabin?dd=0&locID=stan90222&d1=SABCB08262100&srchtp=a&c=1&an=SABCB08262100&df=f&d2=1&docNum=CY3801205904&h2=1&af=RN&d6=1&d3=1&ste=10&stp=Author&d4=0.33&d5=d6&ae=CY101205904

This is #6, Judah Benjamin's speech in favor of secession.

(Just the first 2-3 pages)

Wishlist:

            Most sources I would put on my “wishlist” are primary resources that are located in collections at libraries in the Southern United States. There are several collections of the letters and papers of Judah P. Benjamin (Confederate Secretary of State) throughout the South, including one collection of around 3000 items at the University of Virginia. Also helpful would be Robert Rosen’s collection of primary sources concerning Jewish Confederates (collected during the writing of his book) at the College of Charleston. There are collections of letters to and from Jefferson Davis and his cabinet, but they are primarily in North Carolina, Louisiana, and other Southern States.