Our fiery trial: Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, and the Civil War era

313 Pages·1983·0.77 MB·English

by  Stephen B. Oates

Our Fiery Trial : Abraham Lincoln, John
title:
Brown, and the Civil War Era
author: Oates, Stephen B.
publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
isbn10 | asin: 0870233971
print isbn13: 9780870233975
ebook isbn13: 9780585139043
language: English
Lincoln, Abraham,--1809-1865--Addresses,
essays, lectures, Brown, John,--1800-1859--
Addresses, essays, lectures, Turner, Nat,-
subject
-1800?-1831--Addresses, essays, lectures,
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-
1865--Addresses, essays, lectures.
publication date: 1979
lcc: E457.8.O18eb
ddc: 973.7
Lincoln, Abraham,--1809-1865--Addresses,
essays, lectures, Brown, John,--1800-1859--
Addresses, essays, lectures, Turner, Nat,-
subject:
-1800?-1831--Addresses, essays, lectures,
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-
1865--Addresses, essays, lectures.
Page i
Our Fiery Trial
Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, And The Civil War Era
Stephen B. Oates
University of Massachusetts Press Amherst
Page ii
Copyright © 1979 by The University of Massachusetts Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 7816286
ISBN 0-87023-397-1
Printed in the United States of America
Designed by Mary Mendell
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Oates, Stephen B
Our fiery trial.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1.Lincoln, Abraham, Pres. U.S., 18091865
Addresses, essays, lectures. 2. Brown, John, 1800
1859Addresses, essays, lectures. 3.Turner,Nat,
1800?1831Addresses, essays, lectures. 4. United
StatesHistoryCivil War, 18611865Addresses,
essays, lectures. I. Title.
E457.8 018 973.7 7816286
"Styron's War against the Blacks" first appeared under the title,
"Styron and the BlacksAnother View," in The Nation 220 (May 1975).
''John Brown and His Judges" first appeared in Civil War History 17
(March 1971). "Modern Radicals and John Brown" first appeared
under the title" 'In Thine Own Image': Modern Radicals and John
Brown," in the South Atlantic Quarterly 73 (Autumn, 1974).
Copyright 1974 by Duke University Press. "The Enigma of Stephen
A. Douglas" first appeared under the title "The Little Giant
Reconsidered," in Reviews in American History (December 1973).
Reprinted with permission. "Ghost Riders in the Sky" first appeared in
The Colorado Quarterly 23 (Summer 1974).

Page iii
For
David D. Van Tassel
Page v
Contents
Preface vii
One. Styron's War against the Blacks 1
Two. God's Stone in the Pool of Slavery 9
Three. John Brown and His Judges 22
Four. Modern Radicals and John Brown 43
Five. The Enigma of Stephen A. Douglas 52
Six. Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation 61
Seven. The Long Shadow of Lincoln 86
Eight. Carl Sandburg's Lincoln 99
Nine. Ghost Riders in the Sky 112
Ten. Themes and Variations of a Civil War Trilogy 121
References 130
Index 144
Page vii
Preface
The studies gathered here focus on the Age of the Civil War and some
of the leading personae in the tragedy of that conflictamong them,
Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, Nat Turner, Stephen A. Douglas, and
the Southern secessionists. On one level, this serves as a companion
volume to my biographical trilogyThe Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner's
Fierce Rebellion, To Purge This Land with Blood: A Biography of
John Brown, and With Malice toward None: The Life of Abraham
Lincoln. Several of the essays, in fact, grew out of the reading and
research I did for the trilogy. Among other things, they examine some
of the literary and historical controversies that surround the three men
and their era, try to clarify my ideas about them and add new insights,
and generally pursue topics I thought more appropriate for essays than
for biographies.
"God's Stone in the Pool of Slavery," for example, analyzes Harpers
Ferry in the context of Southern anxieties and apprehensions over
slavery that had been growing since the beginning of the Republicand
especially since Nat Turner's rebellion. The essay demonstrates that
on one score John Brown proved himself a keenly perceptive man, for
he correctly predicted the explosive impact his raid would have on
Southern whites. For them, Harpers Ferry was no isolated outbreak of
little historical import. It was instead an apocalyptic outgrowth of
Northern antislavery agitation, an act of "outside provocation" that
caused white Southerners to equate Brown-style revolutionary
violence with Lincoln and the Republican party and that escalated
sectional tensions over slavery to the breaking point. In this respect,
Our Fiery Trial shows

Page viii
how symbolically significant Turner, Brown, and Lincoln were in
Southern eyes, how profoundly interconnected they were in the
whirlwind of events that spun the United States toward civil war, how
inextricably bound up all three were in the haunting problem of
slavery in their day.
"Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation," for its part, challenges two
widely accepted interpretations about Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation and his views on race. The first interpretation,
popularized by Richard Hofstadter, argues that the Proclamation went
no further than the Second Confiscation Act and that it did not in fact
liberate any slaves. Furthermore, Hofstadter thought it represented the
sentiments of the average Northerner of the time, proving that in the
matter of emancipation Lincoln was a follower and not a leader of
public opinion. The second interpretation, advanced by George M.
Fredrickson, contends that Lincoln remained to the end of his life a
paternalist in race relations and a diehard champion of colonization.
This book not only disputes both of these views, but also points out
that at war's end the president was considering a tougher
Reconstruction policy than most Lincoln biographers and Civil War
historians have claimed.
Another essay, "The Enigma of Stephen A. Douglas," offers a critical
re-evaluation of Lincoln's arch rival and reviews the major writings
about that stormy and inconsistent man. "The Long Shadow of
Lincoln" is an explication de text of three major Lincoln source
booksand three views of Lincoln himselfand a celebration, too, of the
enduring literary and historical value of authentic contemporary
accounts. And "Themes and Variations of a Civil War Trilogy,'' which
serves as an epilogue to the book, is both a discussion of the nature
and purpose of my three intersecting "lives" and an ode to biography
as a literary art.