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James L. Roark Books

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“Especially appealing to the planter elite was the conservatism of the American Revolution. Indeed, according to their reading, it had been so conservative that it hardly deserved the title of revolution at all. The goal had been simple political independence, and the issue of home rule had not expanded to include the dangerous question of who should rule at home. The men who made the revolution had maintained control in victory.”

SlaverySouthU S HistoryU S PoliticsAmerican Conservatism
Book:Masters without Slaves: Southern Planters in the Civil War and Reconstruction
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“Planters clung to their proslavery beliefs even when there were facts to the contrary because the stakes involved in abandoning them were too high. They could not reject or even compromise their central myths, for to do so would mean condemning a whole culture as a lie...Ideologies, once constructed, have lives of their own. Any evidence which might have contradicted the planters' basic beliefs faced an a priori denial.”

SlaveryAfrican AmericanCivil WarU S History
Book:Masters without Slaves: Southern Planters in the Civil War and Reconstruction
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