See my post above. The source is an excellent book of top notch scholarship. The author was the Professor of History at Alabama University in the early 1930's or so. The book is chock full of interesting notes about the immense difficulties the Confederate Government had keeping the population of the states under control. Poor Jeff Davis. It's really tough to be tyrant and pretend everyone is really interested in promoting the cause of slavery.
The book is chock full of interesting notes about the immense difficulties the Confederate Government had keeping the population of the states under control.The south was basically a police state. It had elements of a police state even before the war with the slave patrols.
But the poor whites -did- rush to the colors in 1861, largely to support what would now be called "white supremacy." After a year, when their ardor for that waned, they were forcibly conscripted to serve the slave power.
And of course -- the neo-confederates will give Davis and the slave power a pass for the same things they excoritate President Lincoln for.
Walt