John Stauffer

A dual portrait of the two nineteenth-century leaders evaluates their successes as self-made men, in an account that traces their dramatic rise from poverty and slavery to influential activists and writers.

The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass & Abraham Lincoln

Giants

Timothy Patrick McCarthy

A collection of original contributions on American abolitionism by African Americans, women, and other less-represented groups draws on a new body of research in black studies, literature, law, and other disciplines; sharing perspectives on such familiar figures as Sojourner Truth, Louisa May Alcott, and Frederick Douglass. Simultaneous.

Reconsidering The History Of American Abolitionism

Prophets Of Protest

Sally Jenkins

In Jones County, Mississippi, a farmer named Newton Knight led his neighbors, white and black alike, in an insurrection against the Confederacy at the height of the Civil War. Knight's life story mirrors the little-known story of class struggle in the South--and it shatters the image of the Confederacy as a unified front against the Union.

The Small Southern County that Seceded from the Confederacy

The State of Jones

Contradicts the myth of a unified Confederacy during the Civil War, recounting the efforts of Newton Knight, the Jones County, Mississippi, farmer who organized his community to fight against the Confederates.

Darryl Pinckney

Andrew Delbanco

Manisha Sinha

Wilfred M McClay

Revisits the nineteenth century abolitionist movement as the embodiment of a driving force in American history, giving a better understanding of the balance between moral fervor and political responsibility.

The Abolitionist Imagination

Zoe Trodd

This landmark anthology collects speeches, letters, newspapers, journals, poems, and songs to demonstrate that John Brown’s actions at Harpers Ferry altered the course of history. Without Brown, the Civil War probably would have been delayed by four years and emancipation movements in Brazil, Cuba, even Russia might have been disrupted.

The Tribunal

At a time when slavery was spreading and the country was steeped in racism, two white men and two black men overcame social barriers and mistrust to form a unique alliance that sought nothing less than the end of all evil. Drawing on the largest extant bi-racial correspondence in the Civil War era, John Stauffer braids together these men's struggles to reconcile ideals of justice with the reality of slavery and oppression. Who could imagine that Gerrit Smith, one of the richest men in the country, would give away his wealth to the poor and ally himself with Frederick Douglass, an ex-slave? And why would James McCune Smith, the most educated black man in the country, link arms with John Brown, a bankrupt entrepreneur, along with the others? Distinguished by their interracial bonds, they shared a millennialist vision of a new world where everyone was free and equal. As the nation headed toward armed conflict, these men waged their own war by establishing model interracial communities, forming a new political party, and embracing violence. Their revolutionary ethos bridged the divide between the sacred and the profane, black and white, masculine and feminine, and civilization and savagery that had long girded western culture. In so doing, it embraced a malleable and "black-hearted" self that was capable of violent revolt against a slaveholding nation, in order to usher in a kingdom of God on earth. In tracing the rise and fall of their prophetic vision and alliance, Stauffer reveals how radical reform helped propel the nation toward war even as it strove to vanquish slavery and preserve the peace.

The Black Hearts of Men

Celeste-Marie Bernier

A landmark and collectible volume—beautifully produced in duotone—that canonizes Frederick Douglass through historic photography. Commemorating the bicentennial of Frederick Douglass’s birthday and featuring images discovered since its original publication in 2015, this “tour de force” (Library Journal, starred review) reintroduced Frederick Douglass to a twenty-first-century audience. From these pages—which include over 160 photographs of Douglass, as well as his previously unpublished writings and speeches on visual aesthetics—we learn that neither Custer nor Twain, nor even Abraham Lincoln, was the most photographed American of the nineteenth century. Indeed, it was Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave-turned-abolitionist, eloquent orator, and seminal writer, who is canonized here as a leading pioneer in photography and a prescient theorist who believed in the explosive social power of what was then just an emerging art form. Featuring: Contributions from Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. (a direct Douglass descendent) 160 separate photographs of Douglass—many of which have never been publicly seen and were long lost to history A collection of contemporaneous artwork that shows how powerful Douglass’s photographic legacy remains today, over a century after his death All Douglass’s previously unpublished writings and speeches on visual aesthetics

John Stauffer

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