Full Citation
Title: All Aboard: The Influence of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on Sectionalism and Statehood in West Virginia
Citation Type: Journal Article
Publication Year: 2019
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/wvh.2019.0023
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Abstract: The pivotal role played by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) in the shaping of the state of West Virginia is critical to the examination of the intersection between business, community, and government, as the weight of the B&O on the fulcrum of sectionalism in West Virginia was a powerful influence on the political views of communities and state-makers. This influence of a growing American ideology of empire based on industrial expansion was waged by the B&O at the local, state, and national levels and was a current running beneath the multitude of reasons that West Virginians vowed to remain in the Union and separate from Virginia. The history of West Virginia’s separation from Virginia has been examined by historians over the years, as the process that cleaved the state in two is unmatched in the history of the United States.1 West Virginia historians have laid important groundwork on the broad sectional issues of political and social alliances, and have addressed the fact that West Virginians were less vested in the slave economy that characterized the Confederacy and were less frequently tied to family histories that shaped the Old Dominion.2 While economic issues have been considered in each of these valuable studies, this article seeks to highlight the specific impact that the B&O exerted on the formation of West Virginia to highlight the way that industry, state-making, and empire building coalesced in the Civil War period.
Url: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/739989/pdf
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Authors: Wilkes, Kristen
Periodical (Full): West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies
Issue: 2
Volume: 13
Pages: 47-72
Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS
Topics: Other, Population Mobility and Spatial Demography
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