Granville Davisson Hall

"When Virginia seceded from the Union in 1861, its western residents were outraged and formed a separate state two years later, introducing political upheaval into already tumultuous times. Hall's account of those events, which first appeared when the birth of West Virginia was still a living memory, takes modern readers back to those turbulent days.". "Hall recorded all the proceedings of the loyalist constitutional convention and preserved every printed document from that assembly. He gathered those materials, along with reminiscences of the men involved in the secession effort, into a book, originally published in 1901, that offers first-hand insights into the personalities and politics of the day. The Rending of Virginia sheds light on how those individuals perceived current events and offers an insider's analysis of their interactions. Hall's acquaintance with so many leading politicians also allowed him to make telling corrections to their own self-serving accounts of those events.". "John Stealey's introduction provides a biographical sketch of Hall and places him within the broader social and political context of dissent in western Virginia. He also shows how modern scholars can benefit from Hall's unabashedly partisan viewpoint, noting that Hall's knowledge of individuals and families can help us better understand the regional politics of that era."--BOOK JACKET.