Religion and Politics in Maryland on the Eve of the Civil War: The Letters of W. Wilkins Davis

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Awarded the Certificate of Commendation of the American Association for State and Local History In this collection of letters written by members of a prominent Maryland family on the eve of and during the Civil War, David Hein has found gold in the mine of his state’s historical society. This book immerses the reader in civilian life as civil war approached, fiercely as a wind-driven wildfire-civilian life personified by the family of Allen Bowie Davis, a prosperous farmer-legislator from Montgomery County, north of Washington, D.C. These letters capture the complexity of the Civil War in a state of abolitionists, pro-slavery unionists, anti-slavery southern sympathizers, and non-slaveholding secessionists. We see a pivotal Maryland through the eyes of adults and children, and we witness the consequences of war for familial relationships, religious values, and educational institutions. David Hein’s crisp editorial commentary knits these letters together, enabling the Davis family to tell of life in the tumultuous middle of the nineteenth century. We are in the debt of this book and its editor for reminding us that a history with leaders and battles is incomplete without the testimony of sons and daughters, of mothers and fathers. From the Foreword by Charles W. Mitchell, editor of Maryland Voices of the Civil War