Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.
This story started at the beginning of 1865. Four characters from the South named John Robertson, Cornelia McDonald, Samuel Agnew, and Louis Hughes did not know what lay in store for them. They witnessed and took part in the Civil War, which was about to cease. They came from different Southern states. John Robertson was a Confederate soldier in Tennessee. Samuel Agnew was a son of a prosperous plantation owner in Mississippi. Cornelia McDonald was married to a Confederate military man Mississippi. They had seven children. Louis Hughes was a slave in Deep South. While the four characters were passing through the Confederate army’s defeat, they had different feelings ranging from desperation to aspiration and from anxiety to calmness. The book “A Year in the South: Four Lives in 1865” by Stephen V. Ash consists of four narrations devoted to each character’s fate throughout the year of 1865. The book enables the reader to follow each character’s life flow with events that bring about difficulties and gift chances. The writer employs the altering pattern of seasons and names the parts of the book “Winter,” “Spring,” “Summer,” and “Fall and Winter Again.” Apart from the life stories, these four narrations show how the Confederacy ceases to exist. The reader can observe how the characters’ fates changed as “they stepped across the threshold between the old world and the new” (Ash 14). Each part of the book is gripping in its way.
Louis Hughes was a butler. However, during the Civil War, he served as an employed slave for the state Salt Commissioner Benjamin Woolsey and was involved in the salt works. His wife Matilda was a cook. Woolsey treated them well. This resulted in the fact that Woolsey was willing to help the family put the best foot forward. Therefore, under his patronage, Hughes had a possibility of selling tobacco plugs. Thus, he earned some money and could be considered a prosperous slave, among others in his community. However, the defeat of the Confederacy ceased the “happy interlude” (Ash 28). Together with his wife, Hughes was brought to the furthest areas of the state of Mississippi, where they found themselves in slavery once the war ended. The Federal army happened to have failed to come and announce the Emancipation Proclamation. Hughes’s patron was unwilling to free him. Despite this, Hughes was lucky enough to run away to Memphis and come back with two officials to help other slaves become free according to the law. Next, Hughes and his wife went to Cincinnati to look for Matilda’s mother, who had managed to run away to that place ten years before. After the family’s reunion, Hughes directed their steps towards Canada even though the majority of people who used to be slaves were coming back to the US from there. Hughes did not believe that his country was able and willing to defend his status as a free person: he was scared to find himself in slavery again. However, after a while, his family returned to the US. Taken into account the above-said, it is important to note two facts. First, patrons in the South were highly unwilling to set slaves free and let them go. Second, slaves tended to run away to the North and West. Besides, it is necessary to add that, contrary to many other similar stories, Hughes’s one has a happy ending. Hence, Hughes spent the first half of 1865 in slavery. He was experiencing harsh times. It was not until the autumn that he managed to attain his goal of breaking free.
Another character, Sam Agnew, had a different fate. Positive and negative events in it had the opposite direction. As mentioned above, he was the son of a plantation owner. When the war started, he was employed as an official in the community and did not serve in the Confederate army. Therefore, due to his work, he managed to escape the challenges military men faced in battles. After the Confederacy defeat, his father started experiencing difficulties. The war was rather destructive from the economic viewpoint.
What is more, in the summer, there was a drought that entrained more family problems. Besides, since slavery was abolished, and the Afro-Americans rushed headlong to defend their newly-acquired rights, the labor force left the fields. The Emancipation Proclamation forced the Agnews to free their slaves. It is important to underline that the slaves did not cause any additional trouble to the plantation owner; they “simply quit working except as it suited them” (Ash 82). Therefore, the family had to agree with former slaves so that they went on to work for them on a slightly different basis. By the end of the year, they all left the plantation. The majority of planters had familiar stories. They are all full of the feeling of unwilling farewell to the accustomed way of living, desperation, and disposition.
The stories of Louis Hughes and Sam Agnes took place in Deep South. As for the Upper South, the Civil War and its outcome involved the locals in the battle, which differed absolutely in essence from the one in Deep South. It was a partisan war that resulted in the life of common people being destroyed. Cornelia McDonald’s husband died of illness soon after his release from prison in 1864. So, she was a widow with seven children. They resided in Lexington, Virginia. Cornelia McDonald was in love with Shenandoah Valley. He was a military man and considered a “breadbasket of the Confederacy” (Ash 121). By the end of 1864, he had to participate in an enduring military campaign. Like many other people, Cornelia McDonald had to face the defeat of the Confederacy. Her friends did their best in assisting in her survival at the beginning of 1865, which appeared to be the times of hardship for her. Later, Cornelia McDonald got the teacher’s position, whereas her sons got employed as wood-choppers in the army. Hence, she managed to overcome enduring times. She was strong enough not to give up when her husband died. However, when she got to know about the Confederacy defeat, she felt desperate and inconsolable. Cornelia McDonalds started supporting the Confederacy only after the war began. After its defeat, the place where she lived was left impoverished. It was full of people, both Europeans, and Afro-Americans, who wanted to find shelter. She was one of the first to free her slaves. Besides, she made her sons fulfill all the farm duties so as not to die of hunger. They considered this humiliating. Cornelia McDonald did not like a Union officer who came to the administration of the town. However, she did not demonstrate her opinion to avoid any possible argument: she was a “master of the cold stare, the condescending voice, the subtle insult” (Ash 159). Cornelia McDonald could not participate in the events taking place in the town since she had to be occupied by her survival issues. Nevertheless, the relations inside the community, which were the result of the war and the times of hardship, gave her strength, as she overcame the war.
It is necessary to admit that the most gripping narrative in the book touches the fate of John Robertson. He was a Confederate military man in the state with the Unionist majority. In the course of the war, the army managed to keep the balance. John Robertson was in a powerful minority, although it was extinct. The partisan war spoilt the reputation of the Confederate army. In 1863, the Union army managed to take hold of the region, so Robertson and his fellows had to hide. Finally, he had to accept their authority. Robertson wanted this war to come to an end in 1864 but in vain. The partisan war extended the fight for one more year. Despite this, Robertson addressed God and was willing to create a family with a woman he had met not so long ago. However, the Unionist authorities did not allow him to devote himself to the mere personal life. In the summer, he was charged with his involvement in the Confederate army. Therefore, he had to run away to the North. Ex-Confederates tended to escape to the North, just like Afro-Americans did. There is a certain irony in the situation: both former enemies found themselves in the same place.
The book “A Year in the South: Four Lives in 1865” represents a thorough investigation and a wonderfully composed narration that sews together the fates of four interesting characters with the events and outcome of the Civil War post-war life. The postponed freedom proclamation in various far areas of the South, movement of everyone of every sort to the North and West, reevaluation of the relationships inside the community in the times of the overall devastation, and the moral encouragement which was entrained by the events had an impact on the characters. John Robertson, Cornelia McDonald, Louis Hughes, and Samuel Agnew are from different backgrounds. They all experience the dreadful aftermath of the war. The war does not tend to have mercy on anyone. Therefore, it is reasonable to admit that wars are evil, which can be drawn from the book’s conclusion. Besides, if it were necessary to point out one drawback which can be found in the book, it is possible to state that, unfortunately, the author decided to leave the connection between the characters implicit. The only thing that ties them is the circumstances in which they happened to find themselves. These four stories of ordinary people create a powerful image that reflects the time and the place. The author is successful in dwelling upon the war events, which helps the reader allocate each character’s narration in the post-war situation. It is important to note that Ash’s book manages to demonstrate “how the New South came to be” and “what the Old South was” (Ash 12).
Work Cited
Ash, Stephen V. A Year in the South: Four Lives in 1865. St. Martin’s Press, 2016.
Do you need this or any other assignment done for you from scratch?
We have qualified writers to help you.
We assure you a quality paper that is 100% free from plagiarism and AI.
You can choose either format of your choice ( Apa, Mla, Havard, Chicago, or any other)
NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.
NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.