Unnamed Tennessee Unionists

Describing his family history in "My Grandmother Millard," Philip Backhouse refers to the group that prevented his uncle from being elected Governor of Tennessee as "a corrupt and traitorous cabal of tavern-keepers and Republican Abolitionists" (682). Although Tennessee did secede from the Union and join the Confederacy (the last state to do so), it was deeply divided between secessionists and Unionists. The latter group probably did contain some "tavern-keepers" and certainly included "Republican Abolitionists," but the harshness of Philip's description is due to his own allegiance to the secessionist cause.