Nullification in South Carolina: A revisitation

Thirty years have passed since the publication of the last significant work on the Nullification Crisis which consumed South Carolina in the winter of 1832--1833, William Freehling's Prelude to Civil War (1966). "Nullification in South Carolina: A Revisitation" examines Freehling's work by analyzing the interests of the legislators serving in the 1830 and 1832 General Assembly as well as those of the delegates to the Nullification Convention and the state's reaction to the other elements of the American System.; In determining the interests of the legislators and delegates, I compared their age, occupations, slaveholdings, religious affiliation, previous political experience, and the state in which they received their post-secondary education. I utilized the federal census and state tax returns to determine an individual's age and slaveholdings. Church histories and county histories provided the religious affiliations, occupations, and prior political service for many of the representatives. Surviving business directories included the names of merchants and other professionals. If Freehling's conclusions are sound, the Nullifiers should have a greater interest in the protection of slavery, most likely to be manifested by being exclusively involved in commercial agriculture and by owning a large number of slaves.; The analysis of the two factions do not sustain Freehling's conclusions. Planters and large slaveholders comprised a larger percentage of the Unionists, although the difference is not significant. When comparing religious affiliation and place of education, there is only a small difference between the two factions. As for age and previous political experience, the Nullifiers tended to be approximately ten years younger and have less political experience.; If South Carolina feared that the centralizing of authority in the federal government would one day lead to the abolition of slavery, the state should have objected consistently to other elements of the American System. The state's objections to internal improvements began more than five years later than those directed at the tariff. The state remained divided throughout the Jacksonian Age on the utility of a national bank. There is also no correlation between the supporters of nullification and opposition to the American System.