The dispute over the issues of states’ rights became one of the defining moments leading up to the Civil War.
Yet the basis of the argument for Southern secession began decades earlier. Historian Gary Gallagher referenced the scholarship of Barbara Fields during his keynote speech before the U.S. Capitol Historical Society.
Professor Fields offered insight into the politics of the Civil War at the 150th anniversary of the South Carolina Low-country Sesquicentennial Observance.