“There is a war because there was a Republican Party. There was a Republican Party because there was an Abolition Party. There was an Abolition Party because there was slavery.” So stated the famous abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison.
LeeAnna Keith's recently released book, When It Was Grand: The Radical Republican History of the Civil War, is about the exciting (for me, as a political junkie, at least!) founding of the Republican Party and the role played by the Radical Republicans before, during, and after the Civil War.
On these pages, we meet names we know well: Abraham Lincoln; William Seward; John Brown, Thaddeus Stevens, Zechariah Chandler, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and others. We're also introduced to little-known Abolitionist heroes, like James H. Lane, the “Bleeding Kansas” Jayhawker and future Senator; Sherman Booth, an Abolitionist from Wisconsin who unfortunately destroyed his reputation with a serious crime; the Oberlin College Rescuers from Ohio, led by Charles Langston and Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall; and others. We march in parades with the Wide Awakes. We cheer for courageous women, early feminists like Jessie Benton Fremont, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucy Stone.
Keith's thesis is that “[Radical Republicans] would make America great by restoring the original course of slavery toward its ultimate extinction” (p. 5).
Professor Keith leaves us to ponder on our own how the Republican Party has changed since those founding years, when the Party supported universal suffrage; equal rights; and voting rights for all. She concludes: “The Radicals excelled at envisioning an alternative America, even in the darkest days. Their example instructs the present, illuminating a path to a better world. By commitment, organizing, and relentless activism, they made themselves into the greatest generation of American progressives, despite their reverses. To commemorate their trials and triumphs is to move at last in the direction of a truly post-Confederate United States” (p. 292).
I heartily recommend this book!
Guy Purdue
*LeeAnna Keith is a professor of history at the Collegiate School in New York City. She is also the author of “The Colfax Massacre: The Untold Story of Black Power, White Terror, and the Death of Reconstruction” (2009). She is a recipient of a Gilder Lehrman Institute fellowship. Her articles have appeared in “The Dictionary of American History” and “The Journal of Southern History.”
Book Review: Harriet Tubman by M.W. Taylor
Recently I read “Harriet Tubman” written by M.W. Taylor. This book was an easy read; it outlined the life of Harriet. There are a few highlights I would like to share about this book.
Harriet was born into slavery as Harriet Ross around 1820 “on the Eastern shore, a peninsula shared by the state of Delaware and parts of Maryland and Virginia.” No one officially recorded her exact birth because few slaves could read and write. Slave owners did not keep accurate record of slaves born to them. Her parents, Harriet Green and Benjamin Ross who were slaves belonging to Maryland planter Edward Brodas. Harriet’s mother was known as “Old Rit” and named her daughter Araminta. I found it interesting that her parents were both “full-blooded Africans” brought over in chains from Ashanti, in West Africa (according to legend).
When Harriet was 5 she was rented to a family, but ended up getting sick. She was sent back to get well, then off to another family. She ended up running away for stealing some sugar, came back and was beaten. She was sent back to the Brodas to get well again. When she was well, she was sent out again. This time to work outside splitting fence rails. She liked this type of work. She had a rough childhood, but she continued on, becoming strong and aware of what it is like to be mistreated. As she came into her teenage years, she was introduced to runaway slaves and what could happen to them. One such incident happened when she was about 15, in the fall of 1835. She followed a “black man sneaking away from the group” and she decided to follow him. She ended up helping this man escape, in the process she was hit on the head with a two-pound lead weight. It hit her square in the head, knocked her to the floor with blood pouring out from the gash in her head. She was sent back to her mother who nursed her back to health, but she was never quite the same after that. She ended up being forgetful and would have “sleeping fits” at random.
Later, she was hired out with her father to John Stewart. She eventually worked outside alongside her father. All the while, she dreamed of freedom. In 1839, they heard of a slave ship where the slaves won their freedom and were returned back to Africa. This sparked a dream she told about later, seeing a line. On one side were green fields and on the other side, lovely flowers. The line really did exist, it is the Mason/Dixon line named after two surveyors in 1767.
There is so much more to the story, as many of us know. I wanted to share some history about her, before she became the leader of the Underground Railroad. Her history helped me understand her later decision to help free slaves. I encourage you to read this book for a simple understanding of this great woman.
Respectfully,
Alisha Turner
Summer Reading
It's not easy these days. We don't hear the sound of tent stakes being pounded into the earth. We don't smell the campfires. We don't hear the thrilling sound of artillery fire or the music of a regimental band. No bugles pierce the air. No laughter with friends. No passing a cup when the spectators head home. We're all missing our hobby, and we're all missing the friends who make the hobby so enjoyable.
But there are still ways that we can use these strange days to further our hobby. Some of us may be involved in sewing a new dress, or mending a long-used one. Maybe you're working on new underpinnings, or decorating a bonnet.
I'm doing some reading! There's no end of books about the Civil War, and new ones are rolling off the presses.
Read moreA Review of The Rush
Once I picked this book up, I couldn't put it down. I finished it in a few days. The book is The Rush, America's Fevered Quest for Fortune, 1848 – 1853 by Edward Dolnick (2014). Mr. Dolnick wrote his book after consulting many diaries/journals of various participants in the Gold Rush, although he concentrated on 5 specific 49'res. Two made the trip west by sea and the other 3 by land. Two did very well and the other three made it back East with no real monetary gain.
This book is very appropriate for us Civil War reenactors since 8 years after the Gold Rush, the war breaks out. This is recent history for the citizens of 1861. In fact, a couple of 49'res are mentioned who eventually served or even died in the war. Lucius Fairchild, commander of the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, was a 49'er and is mentioned several times in the book.
The impact on the United States, especially California, was huge. “In the four years from 1849 to 1852, more than 1 percent of the American population moved to California. To put that number in terms of today's population, picture three million young Americans giving up their jobs, leaving their families, and rushing off to a barely known destination thousands of miles away.”
This book covers the discovery of the gold, the slow dispersal of the news back East, the long, arduous journey to the gold fields, and the back-breaking work itself. It follows the fortunes gained and lost. The book tells of the lives destroyed or broken by disease, accidents, and the lawless miner community itself. It a story of luck, avarice, ruthlessness, and hope. I can't recommend this book enough.
Submitted by Craig Decrane
A Review of How to Be a Victorian
I was in the library a week or so ago and I noticed a book, How to Be a Victorian (2014). Well, I had to pick that one up. It is sub-titled, A Dawn-to-dusk Guide to Victorian Life. It is written by Ruth Goodman, a reenactor from Great Britain. She is a consultant for the Victoria and Albert Museum and was involved in a TV series called Victorian Farm.
I am about half way through the book and I have found it fascinating. Yes, it is written by a Brit so some of it does not apply to us Yanks. However, frequently she mentions specific situations that apply to “America”. The Victorian period starts in the late 1830's and goes to the turn of the century so it does not all apply to our time period. The early stuff is fine, since an older person in the 1860's would be aware of the earlier part of the century. The late 1800's stuff obviously does not apply to us, but I still found it interesting.
I think just naming the chapters will probably give you a good idea of what the book covers.
Chapter 1 Getting Up
Chapter 2 Getting Dressed
Chapter 3 A Trip to the Privy
Chapter 4 Personal Grooming
Chapter 5 Morning Exercise
Chapter 6 Breakfast
Chapter 7 The Main Business of the Day (this is as far as I have got so far)
I believe this is a valuable book for us 1860's reenactors. There is plenty of stuff here for you to try. In many cases, the author tried several period concoctions or methods of doing things and then gave her opinion of what worked best. She is trying to make it easier to live the life of a Victorian. It depends how much you want to immerse yourself into the time period. At the least, there would be some words that you could slip into conversations, like “miasma”.
Submitted by, Craig DeCrane