To raise up a nation : John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and the making of a free country William S. King

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

King, William S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895--Influence.

Douglass, Frederick.

Brown, John, 1800-1859--Influence.

Brown, John.

United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--African Americans.

United States.

Antislavery movements--United States.

Antislavery movements.

Physical Description:

xiv, 679 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Yardley, Pennsylvania : Westholme, [2013].

Summary:

William S. King narrates the coming of the Civil War, the war itself, and the emancipation process, through the intertwined lives of John Brown and Frederick Douglass.

"Drawing on decades of research, and demonstrating remarkable command of a great range of primary sources, William S. King has written an important history of African Americans' own contributions and points of crossracial cooperation to end slavery in America. Beginning with the civil war along the border of Kansas and Missouri, the author traces the remarkable life of John Brown and the personal support for his ideas from elite New England businessmen, intellectuals such as Emerson and Thoreau, and African Americans, including his confidant, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman. Throughout, King links events that contributed to the growing antipathy in the North toward slavery and the South's concerns for its future, including Nat Turner's insurrection, the Amistad affair, the Fugitive Slave law, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision. The author also effectively describes the debate within the African American community as to whether the U.S. Constitution was colorblind or if emigration was the right course for the future of blacks in America. Following Brown's execution after the failed raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859, King shows how Brown's vision that only a clash of arms would eradicate slavery was set into motion after the election of Abraham Lincoln. Once the Civil War erupted on the heels of Brown's raid, the author relates how black leaders, white legislators, and military officers vigorously discussed the use of black manpower for the Union effort as well as plans for the liberation of the "veritable Africa" within the southern United States. Following the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863, recruitment of black soldiers increased and by war's end they made up nearly ten percent of the Union army, and contributed to many important victories. To Raise Up a Nation: John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and the Making of a Free Country is a sweeping history that explains how the destruction of American slavery was not directed primarily from the counsels of local and national government and military men, but rather through the grassroots efforts of extraordinary men and women. As King notes, the Lincoln administration ultimately armed black Americans, as John Brown had attempted to do, and their role was a vital part in the defeat of slavery."--Publisher's description.

Contents:

Life and Times

Bleeding Kansas

Raising an Army of One Hundred Volunteers

Carrying the War into Africa

An American Spartacus

A Setting Possessed of Imposing Grandeur

The Battle at Harper's Ferry

Year of Meteors

1860

Terrible Swift Sword

His Truth Is Marching On

Buffeted by Sleet and by Storm

Lincoln's Emancipation

Men of Color, To Arms!

Battles for Liberty, Battles for Union

War for the Total Expiation of Slavery

One More River to Cross

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 642-654) and index.

Local Notes:

Pennsylvania Aboltion Society Complimentary Collection.

ISBN:

9781594161919

1594161917

OCLC:

847837400

Online:

Klappentext