Fire-Eaters
Encyclopedia
In United States
history
, the term Fire-Eaters refers to a group of extremist pro-slavery
politicians from the South
who urged the separation of southern states into a new nation, which became known as the Confederate States of America
.
ism in the South, the Fire-Eaters demonstrated the high level of sectionalism
existing in the U.S. during the 1850s, and they materially contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War
(1861–1865). As early as 1850, there was a southern minority of pro-slavery extremists
who did much to weaken the fragile unity of the nation. Led by such men as Edmund Ruffin
, Robert Rhett
, Louis T. Wigfall, and William Lowndes Yancey
, this group was dubbed “Fire-Eaters” by northerners
. At an 1850 convention in Nashville, Tennessee
, the Fire-Eaters urged southern secession, citing irrevocable differences between North and South, and they further inflamed passions by using propaganda
against the North. However, the Compromise of 1850
and other moderate counsel, including that from President James Buchanan
, kept the Fire-Eaters cool for a time.
In the later half of the 1850s, the group reemerged. They used several recent events for propaganda, among them "Bleeding Kansas
" and the Sumner-Brooks Affair
to accuse the North of trying to immediately abolish slavery
. Using effective propaganda against 1860 presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln
, the Fire-Eaters were able to convince many southerners of this false accusation. They first targeted South Carolina
, which passed an article of secession in December 1860. Wigfall, for one, actively encouraged an attack on Fort Sumter
to prompt Virginia and other upper Southern States to secede as well. Thus, the Fire-Eaters helped to unleash a chain reaction that eventually led to the formation of the Confederate States of America
and to the American Civil War
. Their influence waned quickly after the start of major fighting.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
history
History of the United States
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The...
, the term Fire-Eaters refers to a group of extremist pro-slavery
History of slavery in the United States
Slavery in the United States was a form of slave labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in...
politicians from the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
who urged the separation of southern states into a new nation, which became known as the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
.
Impact
By radically urging secessionSecession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
ism in the South, the Fire-Eaters demonstrated the high level of sectionalism
Sectionalism
-Defined:Sectionalism is loyalty to the interests of one's own region or section of the country, rather than to the country as a whole.-United States:...
existing in the U.S. during the 1850s, and they materially contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
(1861–1865). As early as 1850, there was a southern minority of pro-slavery extremists
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
who did much to weaken the fragile unity of the nation. Led by such men as Edmund Ruffin
Edmund Ruffin
Edmund Ruffin was a farmer and slaveholder, a Confederate soldier, and an 1850s political activist. He advocated states' rights, secession, and slavery and was described by opponents as one of the Fire-Eaters. He was an ardent supporter of the Confederacy and a longstanding enemy of the North...
, Robert Rhett
Robert Rhett
Robert Barnwell Rhett, Sr. , was a United States secessionist politician from South Carolina.-Biography:...
, Louis T. Wigfall, and William Lowndes Yancey
William Lowndes Yancey
William Lowndes Yancey was a journalist, politician, orator, diplomat and an American leader of the Southern secession movement. A member of the group known as the Fire-Eaters, Yancey was one of the most effective agitators for secession and rhetorical defenders of slavery. An early critic of...
, this group was dubbed “Fire-Eaters” by northerners
Northern United States
Northern United States, also sometimes the North, may refer to:* A particular grouping of states or regions of the United States of America. The United States Census Bureau divides some of the northernmost United States into the Midwest Region and the Northeast Region...
. At an 1850 convention in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, the Fire-Eaters urged southern secession, citing irrevocable differences between North and South, and they further inflamed passions by using propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
against the North. However, the Compromise of 1850
Compromise of 1850
The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five bills, passed in September 1850, which defused a four-year confrontation between the slave states of the South and the free states of the North regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War...
and other moderate counsel, including that from President James Buchanan
James Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
, kept the Fire-Eaters cool for a time.
In the later half of the 1850s, the group reemerged. They used several recent events for propaganda, among them "Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas
Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War, was a series of violent events, involving anti-slavery Free-Staters and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" elements, that took place in the Kansas Territory and the western frontier towns of the U.S. state of Missouri roughly between 1854 and 1858...
" and the Sumner-Brooks Affair
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was an American politician and senator from Massachusetts. An academic lawyer and a powerful orator, Sumner was the leader of the antislavery forces in Massachusetts and a leader of the Radical Republicans in the United States Senate during the American Civil War and Reconstruction,...
to accuse the North of trying to immediately abolish slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. Using effective propaganda against 1860 presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, the Fire-Eaters were able to convince many southerners of this false accusation. They first targeted South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
, which passed an article of secession in December 1860. Wigfall, for one, actively encouraged an attack on Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter
Fort Sumter is a Third System masonry coastal fortification located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. The fort is best known as the site upon which the shots initiating the American Civil War were fired, at the Battle of Fort Sumter.- Construction :...
to prompt Virginia and other upper Southern States to secede as well. Thus, the Fire-Eaters helped to unleash a chain reaction that eventually led to the formation of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
and to the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Their influence waned quickly after the start of major fighting.
Notable Fire-Eaters
- William BarksdaleWilliam BarksdaleWilliam Barksdale was a lawyer, newspaper editor, U.S. Congressman, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War...
- James Dunwoody Brownson DeBowJames Dunwoody Brownson DeBowJames Dunwoody Brownson DeBow was an American publisher and statistician, best known for his influential magazine DeBow's Review, who also served as head of the U.S...
(publisher of DeBow's ReviewDeBow's ReviewDeBow's Review was a widely circulated magazine of "agricultural, commercial, and industrial progress and resource" in the American South during the upper middle of the 19th century, from 1846 until 1884. It bore the name of its first editor, James Dunwoody Brownson DeBow DeBow's Review was a...
) - Thomas C. HindmanThomas C. HindmanThomas Carmichael Hindman, Jr. was a lawyer, United States Representative from the 1st Congressional District of Arkansas, and a Major General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War....
- Laurence M. KeittLaurence M. KeittLaurence Massillon Keitt was a South Carolina politician who served as a United States Congressman. He is included in several lists of Fire-Eaters—men who adamantly urged the secession of southern states from the United States, and who resisted measures of compromise and reconciliation,...
- William Porcher MilesWilliam Porcher MilesWilliam Porcher Miles was among the ardent States' Rights advocates, supporters of slavery, and Southern secessionists who came to be known as the "Fire-Eaters." Born in South Carolina, he showed little early interest in politics and his early career included the study of law and a tenure as a...
- John A. QuitmanJohn A. QuitmanJohn Anthony Quitman was an American politician and soldier. He served as Governor of Mississippi from 1835 to 1836 as a Whig and again from 1850 to 1851 as a Democrat and one of the leading Fire-Eaters.-Early life:John A. Quitman studied Classics at Hartwick Seminary, graduating in 1816...
- Robert RhettRobert RhettRobert Barnwell Rhett, Sr. , was a United States secessionist politician from South Carolina.-Biography:...
- Edmund RuffinEdmund RuffinEdmund Ruffin was a farmer and slaveholder, a Confederate soldier, and an 1850s political activist. He advocated states' rights, secession, and slavery and was described by opponents as one of the Fire-Eaters. He was an ardent supporter of the Confederacy and a longstanding enemy of the North...
- Nathaniel Beverley TuckerNathaniel Beverley TuckerNathaniel Beverley Tucker was an American author, judge, legal scholar, and political essayist.-Life and Politics:...
- Louis WigfallLouis WigfallLouis Trezevant Wigfall was an American politician from Texas who served as a member of the Texas Legislature, United States Senate, and Confederate Senate. Wigfall was among a group of leading secessionists known as Fire-Eaters, advocating the preservation and expansion of an aristocratic...
- William Lowndes YanceyWilliam Lowndes YanceyWilliam Lowndes Yancey was a journalist, politician, orator, diplomat and an American leader of the Southern secession movement. A member of the group known as the Fire-Eaters, Yancey was one of the most effective agitators for secession and rhetorical defenders of slavery. An early critic of...