When you think of the South during the civil war, you almost automatically think of the confederate states of america and the southern secession from the united states. But in reality, secession was not unanimous throughout the south and there are even some well known figures that disagreed on seceding from the united states. These people who did not support secession were called Southern Loyalists. And while they usually aren't mentioned a lot in history and if so, very briefly. They are still important to the history to the civil war.
One example of there being a disagreement on southern secession is evident in the politics in the south. In the book Civil War Unionists and the Political Culture of Loyalty in Alabama by Margaret M. Storey,…show more content… In the book Southern Loyalists in the Civil War: The Southern Claims Commission by Gary B. Mills, Mills states that many southerners that weren't rich enough to own slaves thought that the war was a rich man’s war but a poor man's fight, and while many white southerners fought because of their honor for the confederacy, there was a sentiment with some whites that this war wasnt about the good of the people, but the good of a select rich few, while other whites said that this went against their heritage and the fact that their families fought in The Revolutionary War - the war that founded this county. Also this book cites that “ In some areas of the south, an actual majority of the citizens hoped to preserve the union cause. A number of north Alabamians openly opposed secession and and argued for secession from the new confederate states to form free states of winston and nickajack...these areas continued to be ‘hotbeds of union activity’ throughout the war.” (Mills p. 8). This is an example of how there were pockets in the south that supported the union and not only in a political or in military sense but also as a community and their effort to try and stop the south and the path it was going
