The War itself had been brewing for decades. The country was divided by industry and agriculture; old money verses entrepreneurs and new money. Politics debated and were influenced by established power and new congressmen. Yet the straw that broke the camels back was slavery issue. Every Congressmen, every president fought to make compromises, knowing well that the divide between the North & the South was deepening and tempers were flaring. Every one in office did their best to not have a war break out under their watch, so they would not hold the blame, yet nothing was ever solved and the volcano would erupt with blood.
The Abolitionist movement had started decades before the war. It swayed the North, an area no longer using slave labor, to swing its way. They were the South’s annoying pest, one the planters couldn’t eliminate. So why didn’t the Abolitionists get slavery ended? For the simple fact that there were different chapters of abolitionists and they did not get along. Slavery was costing the South heavily on a financial end, but the abolitionists pushed to get the owners to free their people, even give them money to start a new life but without a solution to labor. Labor was the issue, as the South had the highest exporting product for the United States: Cotton. It was labor intensive in a climate that was hotter than hades. But it was King Cotton that would kill the South’s lifestyle in the years to come.
In this story, it is mentioned how the French viewed the peculiar institution differently than the English/Americans. Under the French and Spanish, slaves had to be Catholic and attend mass; all marriages were church marriages and not the fabricated spectacle the Americans did. ‘Jump over the broom’ was a slave marriage, not legal in any means, therefore if one of the couple had to be sold, the owner didn’t regret it, unlike a church wedding, with the couple legally and religiously binded. Under the French, slaves didn’t work on Sundays—not only was that a day of devotion, but it was also a day they could relax or hire themselves out, as some in Ste Genevieve and St. Louis did, working in the coal mining, and the money they earned, they kept. Planned right, the pay could allow a few to buy their own freedom. Once free, society treated them as Frenchmen.
In taking the reader back to the time of the War can be treacherous as words from back then have different connotations or use today. In the lexicon of the period, ‘darkie’ was used but African American was not. So use of the period correct terms is just a step to the past.
Ada’s story of being a woman doctor is not that unusual. At the mid-19th century, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York had medical schools that allowed women. In the South, there was one medical school that allowed a woman, and that was due to her being the owner’s daughter, though her practice was small and set to the care of woman and children. Of the five woman doctors who applied with the Union Medical Dept., all were allowed in as nurses only. Medical studies at the time were either by tutoring with an established doctor, though if he was a quack, they student learned the same methods. Schooling was way different at that time in that it lasted only two years and the second year was a repeat of the first year. Teaching surgeries were conducting in assembly-style setting, meaning most of the students couldn’t see anything and even these were scarce as they had to have a cadaver to work on and robbing from the graveyard was highly discouraged. Many graduated with a set of medical books and a prayer.
During the War, with the lack of technology (no x-rays, labs), and a sad set of guidelines on how the human body worked, most gun shot wounds to limbs were treated with amputation with rare chances of reconstruction. Plus the influx of hundreds of wounded, coming off the battlefield often made doctors not take the time need to see if it was necessary and not a convenient way to move onto the next. The reuse of bandages and ill-kept equipment made any survivor lucky.
This story is Francois redemption, in an attempt wash his sins away. Not an easy task, especially with his heart set on a woman like Ada who stood for her beliefs. The two are at opposite ends of the war and despite it all love can win!
To read more about this period, below is a glimpse of part of the bibliography for this book, The Better Angels.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, (1861-65). Surgeon-General Joseph K Barnes. (Washington: Government Printing Office), 1870.
Civil War Medicine, Challenges and Triumphs, Alfred Jay Bollet, M.D. (Tucson, Arizona: Galen Press, Ltd.), 2002.
Gangrene and Glory, Medical Care during the American Civil War, Frank R. Freemon (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press), 2001.
Mine Run: A Campaign of Lost Opportunities, October 21, 1863-May 1, 1864, Martin F. Graham & George F. Skoch (Lynchburg, Virginia: H.E. Howard, Inc.), 1987.
Soul By Soul, Life Inside The Antebellum Slave Market, Walter Johnson (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Havard University Press), 1999.
Lee’s Tigers, The Louisiana Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia, Terry L. Jones (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press), 1987.
Hell Itself, The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864, Chris Mackowski (California: Savas Beatie), 2016.
Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, Medical, Economical, and Agricultural, Francis Peyre Porcher, M.D. (San Francisco: Norman Publishing), 1991.
The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864, Gordon C. Rhea (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press), 1994.
Masters of The Big House, Elite Slaveholders of the Mid-Nineteenth Century South, William Kauffman Scarborough (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press), 2003.
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