Up Next, Monday, May 1st, 2023: A discussion of the Peace Democrat (Copperhead) movement in Ohio and nationally, based in part on the movie, “Copperhead”

Meeting starts at 7:00 in the large conference room in the Athens County Library at the Corner of Home and Lincoln streets in the City of Athens.

Copperhead movement discussion at the General Charles H. Grosvenor CWRT!

The meeting next Monday will be to review the movie “Copperhead,” but it’s not necessary to have seen the movie to benefit from the discussion, so if you couldn’t watch the movie, please don’t hesitate to come to this meeting.

If you did miss the movie and would like a second chance to watch it, we will be showing it at Bentley Hall, Room 129, at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, April 25th.  Also, if you have an Amazon Prime subscription you can watch the movie via streaming.

Over the years, many folks attending our CWRT meetings have asked about the Copperhead movement (Peace Democrats) during the Civil War. Sometimes these queries have been answered with a statement that these were all “southern sympathizers.” It turns out that this was an overly simplistic explanation. In reality, the Peace Democrats and their voters were a complex coalition of true southern sympathizers, like Clement Vallandigham, constitutionalists, antiwar Quakers, war-weary citizens, and several other groups.

So, a discussion of this complex movement, based partly on this movie, will be the thrust of our May meeting, which is the final meeting of year for the CWRT.  Our next meet will be in September.  Again, you don’t have to have watched to movie to attend and get something out of the discussion, but if you have a chance to view the movie before the meeting, it will enhance your overall learning experience. If you’d like to get some idea of where the Copperhead vote was in Ohio in the 1863 gubernatorial election between Clement Vallandingham and Ohio alumnus John Brough take a look at this interactive map:

If you’d like to get some idea of where the Copperhead vote was in Ohio in the 1863 gubernatorial election between Clement Vallandigham and Ohio alumnus John Brough take a look at this interactive map:

1863 Gubernatorial Election