Author Interview--Kevin Waite (West of Slavery) Part 2

Hello H-CivWar readers,

today we start our new multipart video interview series with Kevin Waite. We chat about Southerners as global-minded capitalists with significant political influence in the West and their visions for a Pacific Empire.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Kevin Waite via Zoom. We talked about his new book West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire, which was just released by the University of North Carolina Press. The interview is broken up so that you can easily use the material in class.

Kevin Waite is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and an assistant professor of history at Durham University. His writings have also appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the Journal of the Civil War Era, and California History.

These videos are also available on this Playlist

We start our conversation by looking at Southerners in the West and their political influence:

Kevin suggests that there was not just a dream of a southward looking empire, but also a Southern Dream of a Pacific Empire:

We briefly look at how Hawaii fits into this Southern Dream of a Pacific Empire:

We conclude today with how viewing planters as capitalists and interested in a global market changes our perspectives.