Zeb Vance

by Gordon B. McKinney

"In this comprehensive biography of the man who led North Carolina through the Civil War and, as a U.S. senator from 1878 to 1894, served as the state's leading spokesman, Gordon McKinney presents Zebulon Baird Vance (1830-94) as a far more complex figure than has been previously recognized." "Vance campaigned to keep North Carolina in the Union during the succession crisis of 1860-61, but served as a Confederate colonel after Southern troops fired on Fort Sumter. He has been viewed as a champion of individual rights, particularly because as governor he refused to suspend the writ of habeus corpus during the war, and he opposed Confederate conscription and confiscation of private property. But McKinney demonstrates that Vance was not as progressive as earlier biographies suggest. Especially in his postwar career, Vance was a tireless advocate for white North Carolinians and the restoration of white supremacy, and he supported policies that favored the rich and powerful." "McKinney prov