Union and Emancipation: Essays on Politics and Race in the Civil War Era

Abstract

Giffin reviews "Union and Emancipation: Essays on Politics and Race in the Civil War Era" edited by David W. Blight and Brooks D. Simpson.

Union and Emancipation: Essays on Politics and Race in the Civil War Era. Edited by David W. Blight and Brooks D. Simpson. (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, I997. Pp. x, 23I. $35.00.)

All of the essay authors in this volume completed their graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where they developed their common interest in United States history during the Civil War era. Each of them studied under Professor Emeritus Richard H. Sewell, who is the author of Ballots for Freedom: Antislavery Politics in the United States, 1837--1860 (1976) and other scholarly works in the field of antislavery politics and the coming of the Civil War. Professor Sewell's former students honor him in this collection.

As indicated by the subtitle, the essays deal with political or racial themes. The three opening chapters are on politics within the time frame 1848-1861. Robert E. May examines presidential responses to filibustering activities in the context of the Republican allegations of a slave power conspiracy. He concludes that United States presidents between 1848 and 1861 did not aid the filibusters seeking a slaveholding empire in the Caribbean. Michael J. McManus focuses on the states ' rights faction of the Wisconsin Republican party, 1854-1861. McManus shows that antislavery Republicans used a states' rights rationale to oppose enforcement of the Federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Peter Knupfer uncovers the generational roots of the Constitutional Union party in the 186o presidential election and reveals that the party leadership represented the statesmanship of a previous age.

The four remaining chapters in the book relate to African American history and race relations from the nineteenth century through 1913. Louis S. Gerteis discusses the evolution of racism and the rising popularity of blackface minstrelsy; he indicates some points of interaction between these parallel developments in the nineteenth century. "Who freed the slaves?" is the central question of Ira Berlin's essay. Berlin explains that ending slavery was a complex process and that slaves themselves were among the many who contributed to the coming of emancipation.

Brooks D. Simpson provides a study of Ulysses S. Grant and the African American soldiers under his command during and after the war. Simpson concludes that Grant's policies concerning black soldiers were based on a combination of the general's racial views and his perception of military necessity.

David W. Blight presents an analysis of historical memory; he finds that reunion and race were competing strands of the memory of the Civil War, 18751913. By the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, whites remembered the war as a tragic quarrel with racial overtones to be forgotten for the sake of national reunion, while blacks recalled it as part of a revolution in race relations to be remembered in the interest of racial justice.

This volume displays characteristics of fine scholarship valued by Professor Emeritus Sewell. The essays exhibit careful research, present clear arguments, and contain good prose. Undoubtedly, Union and Emancipation will be of interest to the readership of Civil War literature.