Canada and the American Civil War: Prelude to War [Anglais] [Broché]

Canada waited with anticipation and nervously watched the fledgling American juggernaut take its last climatic steps on a historic path...

In April 1861, troops of the new Confederate States of America opened fire on Union-occupied fort Sumter and launched a bloody four-year war that killed at least six hundred and twenty thousand men, including thousands of Canadians who fought in the War.

In accordance with Britain's foreign policy towards the War, Canada was officially neutral. This, however, did not prevent approximately fifty thousand Canadian-born soldiers from serving in both armies. Four Canadians attained the rank of brigadier-general and twenty-nine were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Throughout the War, Canadian public opinion was divided for various reasons, including religion, language, culture, economic class, and moral background. The Civil War was the culmination of the reciprocal, sometimes parallel, but often intertwining influence of both the United States and Canada on each other's historical, territorial, political, economic, and social development. Following the War - two new nations emerged.

PRELUDE TO WAR is the first in a series of books dealing with Canada and the American Civil War by Canadian author and historian Mark Vinet. It offers an in-depth study of the fiery issues that led to the War and dramatically unveils how both countries, as neighbors, dealt with the contentious issues of Sectionalism, Slavery, Slave Rebellions, Abolitionism, and the Underground Railroad.

Includes 26 Maps, Photographs, and Illustrations.

Historian and author Mark Vinet was born in 1964 near the city of Montreal in the province of Quebec, Canada. He shares a bicultural English and French ancestry and is fluently bilingual in both languages. He is founder of the North American Historical Institute and the Canada Civil War Association, which presents a series of lectures by Mark Vinet on Canada and the American Civil War. He is presently writing his second book entitled THE ROAD TO SECESSION: Canada and the American Civil War.

PROLOGUE

History is not black and white, nothing is. Rainbow colors mixed with subtle shades of gray permeate within and around most events, occurrences, eras and personal lives so that in order to fully understand history, one must piece together a delicate puzzle of facts and impressions into a multicolored mosaic that is at best in focus. The degree of focus depends on the ability of the generation looking back to properly digest an enormous amount of information covering a wide span of time. This premise surely applies to the American Civil War. This historical period should not be put into a vacuum and understood only via its four years of painful military conflict. Instead, it should be analyzed and viewed on a more comprehensive scale and in the context of a generation of time. Objectivity remains any historian’s ultimate but purely unattainable goal. No matter how hard one tries, life’s many experiences and influences inevitably and most often unconsciously lead all spectators! , reporters, and historians towards undeniable and universally natural, human subjective traits. With this in mind, I have nevertheless attempted in good faith to take it upon myself to explain events and attitudes as they were, and not as one might wish them to have been. Also, one should attempt to avoid the oversimplification of causes. Rarely is one event the direct cause of only, or simply, one other event. Situations and occurrences usually arise due to a variety and multitude of reasons that uncover and give the best and fullest understanding of what happened. It is thus with this open-minded prism-like attitude that one should look and search for the multiple causes that led to the American Civil War.

I have chosen to present the history of Canada and the American Civil War in a series of detailed books. The journey begins with this tome entitled Prelude to War that reviews the early pivotal causes that eventually led to War between the States. This work paints a canvass that illuminates the political, economic, and social landscapes of both countries up to the beginning of the tumultuous decade before the Civil War. Canadian influence and participation in important events, including the abolitionist movement, the slave trade, the institution of slavery, and the Underground Railroad are explored and in turn set the scene for a look at Canada on the eve of the great American struggle. In order to understand both Canada and the United States in 1850, I attempt to voyage back to earlier times and incidents that set in motion a series of events that help explain the Canadian and American relationship as neighbors prior to the Civil War. This fascinating historical journey! follows an unavoidable path of exciting episodes led by people who at times reached beyond their grasp to touch a key moment in time. The work sweeps across the grand issues of the day and concludes on the eve of the Compromise of 1850, and the Border War in Kansas – an ominous sign of things to come and the Civil War’s bloody preview. Enjoy the read, Mark Vinet