This Vast Southern Empire : Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy

When the United States emerged as a world power in the years before the Civil War, the men who presided over the nation’s triumphant territorial and economic expansion were largely southern slaveholders. As presidents, cabinet officers, and diplomats, slaveholding leaders controlled the main levers of foreign policy inside an increasingly powerful American state. __This Vast Southern Empire__ explores the international vision and strategic operations of these southerners at the commanding heights of American politics. For proslavery leaders like John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis, the nineteenth-century world was torn between two hostile forces: a rising movement against bondage, and an Atlantic plantation system that was larger and more productive than ever before. In this great struggle, southern statesmen saw the United States as slavery’s most powerful champion. Overcoming traditional qualms about a strong central government, slaveholding leaders harnessed the power of the state to defend slavery abroad. During the antebellum years, they worked energetically to modernize the U.S. military, while steering American diplomacy to protect slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the Republic of Texas. As Matthew Karp demonstrates, these leaders were nationalists, not separatists. Their “vast southern empire” was not an independent South but the entire United States, and only the election of Abraham Lincoln broke their grip on national power. Fortified by years at the helm of U.S. foreign affairs, slaveholding elites formed their own Confederacy―not only as a desperate effort to preserve their property but as a confident bid to shape the future of the Atlantic world. Winner of the John H. Dunning Prize, American Historical AssociationWinner of the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign RelationsWinner of the James H. Broussard Best First Book Prize, Society for Historians of the Early American RepublicWinner of the North Jersey Civil War Round Table Book AwardFinalist for the Harriet Tubman Prize, Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic SlaveryWhen the United States emerged as a world power in the years before the Civil War, the men who presided over the nation's triumphant territorial and economic expansion were largely southern slaveholders. As presidents, cabinet officers, and diplomats, slaveholding leaders controlled the main levers of foreign policy inside an increasingly powerful American state. This Vast Southern Empire explores the international vision and strategic operations of these southerners at the commanding heights of American politics.“At the close of the Civil War, more than Southern independence and the bones of the dead lay amid the smoking ruins of the Confederacy. Also lost was the memory of the prewar decades, when Southern politicians and pro-slavery ambitions shaped the foreign policy of the United States in order to protect slavery at home and advance its interests abroad. With This Vast Southern Empire, Matthew Karp recovers that forgotten history and presents it in fascinating and often surprising detail.”—Fergus Bordewich, Wall Street Journal“Matthew Karp's illuminating book This Vast Southern Empire shows that the South was interested not only in gaining new slave territory but also in promoting slavery throughout the Western Hemisphere.”—David S. Reynolds, New York Review of Books When the United States emerged as a world power in the years before the Civil War, the men who presided over the nation’s triumphant territorial and economic expansion were largely southern slaveholders. As presidents, cabinet officers, and diplomats, slaveholding leaders controlled the main levers of foreign policy inside an increasingly powerful American state. This Vast Southern Empire explores the international vision and strategic operations of these southerners at the commanding heights of American politics. For proslavery leaders like John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis, the nineteenth-century world was torn between two hostile forces: a rising movement against bondage, and an Atlantic plantation system that was larger and more productive than ever before. In this great struggle, southern statesmen saw the United States as slavery’s most powerful champion. Overcoming traditional qualms about a strong central government, slaveholding leaders harnessed the power of the state to defend slavery abroad. During the antebellum years, they worked energetically to modernize the U.S. military, while steering American diplomacy to protect slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the Republic of Texas. As Matthew Karp demonstrates, these leaders were nationalists, not separatists. Their “vast southern empire” was not an independent South but the entire United States, and only the election of Abraham Lincoln broke their grip on national power. Fortified by years at the helm of U.S. foreign affairs, slaveholding elites formed their own Confederacy―not only as a desperate effort to preserve their property but as a confident bid to shape the future of the Atlantic world. ** When the United States emerged as a world power in the years before the Civil War, the men who presided over the nation s triumphant territorial and economic expansion were largely southern slaveholders. As presidents, cabinet officers, and diplomats, slaveholding leaders controlled the main levers of foreign policy inside an increasingly powerful American state. "This Vast Southern Empire "explores the international vision and strategic operations of these southerners at the commanding heights of American politics. For proslavery leaders like John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis, the nineteenth-century world was torn between two hostile forces: a rising movement against bondage, and an Atlantic plantation system that was larger and more productive than ever before. In this great struggle, southern statesmen saw the United States as slavery s most powerful champion. Overcoming traditional qualms about a strong central government, slaveholding leaders harnessed the power of the state to defend slavery abroad. During the antebellum years, they worked energetically to modernize the U.S. military, while steering American diplomacy to protect slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the Republic of Texas. As Matthew Karp demonstrates, these leaders were nationalists, not separatists. Their vast southern empire was not an independent South but the entire United States, and only the election of Abraham Lincoln broke their grip on national power. Fortified by years at the helm of U.S. foreign affairs, slaveholding elites formed their own Confederacy not only as a desperate effort to preserve their property but as a confident bid to shape the future of the Atlantic world." A New Portrait Of The Southern Slaveholders Who Occupied The Commanding Heights Of Antebellum Politics, This Book Explores The Intimate Relationship Between American Slavery And American Power. From John C. Calhoun To Jefferson Davis, The South's Leading Statesmen Understood The United States As The Chief Defender Of Bound Labor In An Atlantic World Still Teetering Between Slavery And Abolition. Overcoming Traditional Southern Scruples About Dangers Of Centralized Authority, Slaveholders Harnessed The Power Of The United States To Protect Vulnerable Slave Regimes Across The Hemisphere, From Texas To Brazil.-- Introduction: The World The Slaveholders Craved -- Confronting The Great Apostle Of Emancipation -- The Strongest Naval Power On Earth -- A Hemispheric Defense Of Slavery -- Slavery's Dominoes: Brazil And Texas -- The Young Hercules Of America -- King Cotton, Emperor Slavery -- Slaveholding Visions Of Modernity -- Foreign Policy Amid Domestic Crisis -- The Military South -- American Slavery, Global Power -- Epilogue: The Rod Of Empire. Matthew Karp. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.