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scores a recent emphasis among
leagues have elsewhere called This
scholars looking at the darker side
Terrible War.
of the conflict-its brutality, horror,
and baleful impact on American cul-
ROBERT E. McGLONE is Associate Pro-
ture. As Drew Gilpin Faust reminds
fessor of History at the University of
us, it changed the face of death itself.
Hawai'i at Manoa and the author of
Now we need to look beyond the
John
"Gray Ghosts" and find a believable
(2009).
Brown's War Against Slavery
face for what Sutherland and his col-
Border Wars
Fighting Over Slavery before the Civ
By Stanley Harrold
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Pp. xiii, 283. Map, illustrations, notes,
bibliography, index. $30.00.)
Stanley Harrold, a preeminent schol-
separate cultures meet. He traces
ar of abolitionism, has in this book
those clashes in the actions of four
thrown down the gauntlet at the stan-
particular groups: runaway slaves,
dard interpretations of abolitionism,
free northern blacks, northern whites
antebellum politics, and race rela-
and abolitionists, and gangs of south-
tions. In a study of fugitive slaves
ern slave-catchers. The fugitive slave
along the North-South border, Har-
question brought riot after riot in the
rold argues that violence erupted
lower northern states, gave birth to
where freedom and slavery touched,
the Underground Railroad, and gen-
that the two sides were starkly dif-
erated friction between state legisla-
ferent, and that no public policy was
tures. Harrold sees a continuum of
going to mitigate the clash. Histori-
escalating violence; indeed, he con-
ans of the antebellum period cannot
siders Bleeding Kansas a logical result
ignore Harrold's conclusions and will
of the border wars over fugitive
either have to incorporate them or
slaves. The border South's quest for
explicitly refute them.
security for the peculiar institution
The substance of the book is eas-
was, in Harrold's eyes, a demand for
ily described. Border Wars looks at the
a stronger national government that
conflict over fugitive slaves from the
could override state sovereignty on
1790s to the 1850s, along the line
the runaway question, a demand that
from Delaware to Kansas that sepa-
took initial legal form in the Fugitive
rated freedom from slavery. Harrold's
Slave Act of 1850. At the close of the
governing idea is that cultural clash-
book, Harrold insists that the reason
es are greatest at the sites where two
Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and
REVIEWS
Missouri stayed in the Union was
from reading this book. Harrold sim-
their shared belief that a strengthened
ply throws away the idea when dis-
Union committed to enforcing the
cussing how radical abolitionists dealt
Fugitive Slave Act would better guar-
with runaway slaves: "Most aboli-
antee the survival of slavery than a
tionists
new and immature slaveholding Con-
opposed to violent means, and even
federacy.
those who were, including Quakers,
Consider the challenges to cur-
were
not
fundamentally
professed varying degrees of pacifism"
rent interpretations that Harrold pres-
(p. 99). Harrold's treatment of aboli-
ents. First, for general antebellum
tionism differs starkly from that of
period historians, Harrold does not
other authors: he does not go into an
see two largely similar
exegesis of abolitionist literary texts,
cultures.
Unlike Edward Ayers's In the Presence
does not wonder about the relation-
of Mine Enemies: War in the Heart of
ship between abolitionism and capi-
America, 1859-1863 (2003), which
talism, and-rather shockingly-does
emphasizes common cultural ground
not even bother much with religious
between southern Pennsylvanians
motivation. Harrold's abolitionists are
and northern Virginians, Harrold ele-
actors; his interest in them is not in
vates the presence of violence when
what they said but what they did, and
border northerners and southerners
as a result he portrays a group of rad-
confronted each other over slavery
icals who acted violently against slav-
issues. From his presentation, one
ery. In addition, the author's portrayal
could infer that the clash was between
of northern border whites distinctly
a culture of natural rights and a cul-
downplays the racism that social and
ture of mastery. Northerners saw the
political historians have stressed so
slaveholder's assumption of mastery
forcefully.
when slave-catchers forced entry into
northern
homes
and
While this work is strong in
threatened
many ways, it raises a few serious
whites with violence. Conversely,
questions. Were contemporaries able
southerners came to suspect that
to contextualize the runaway clashes
every northerner was an abolitionist
by marginalizing the two groups of
and a thief. By the 1850s, both the
activists and proclaiming them out-
slave power conspiracy and the abo-
laws and deviants, with neither group
litionist free-soil conspiracy theories
being representative of either south-
took concrete form-aggression was
ern or northern culture? An addi-
no figment of a vote-seeking political
tional question involves the social
demagogue's irrational imagination.
composition of the border North: the
Scholars who study abolitionists
original settlers there came from the
have dealt gingerly with the pacifism
border South, especially Virginia and
of the movement's radical faction, and
Kentucky. Were these people, living
many of them might well be shocked
in free states, being converted to anti-
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INDIANA MAGAZINE OF HISTORY
slavery, or were they more likely to
der South would have learned that
support their relatives in the slave
continued union with northerners led
states? This ethnic dimension needs
to the extinction of slavery, not to its
elucidation. Finally, this reviewer has
preservation. Border South loyalty to
considerable qualms about Harrold's
the Union will require a fuller analy-
interpretation that border southern-
sis. Regardless of these reservations,
ers remained in the Union because
Harrold's book is not only informa-
obtain
tive but provocative, and antebellum
stronger laws for the preservation of
historians will have to weigh careful-
slavery. Given the description of how
ly his conclusions.
they
thought
they could
violently the lower North and the border
South battled
over runaway
slaves, I would surmise that the bor-
JAMES L. HUSTON is Professor of History at Oklahoma State University.
God's Almost Chosen Peoples
A Religious History of the Civil War
By George C. Rable
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Pp. 586. Illustrations, notes, bibliogra-
phy, index. $35.00.)
An important book that provides a
tionship to politics, especially with
full-scale religious history of the Civil
respect to the issue of slavery. Rable
War, George C. Rable's God's Almost
demonstrates how the faithful inter-
Chosen Peoples takes the Christian
preted the rush of events in 1860-
perspective of the majority of Amer-
1861 in light of theological views
icans at the time and illuminates our
conveyed by clergymen of all politi-
understanding of the whole scope of
cal persuasions in both the North and
the conflict. Although the author
South. Protestants and Catholics alike
notes that "this is not a thesis-driven
turned to their churches to find
his study sheds light on
meaning as the war began and men
"important questions about the war's
enlisted to fight "for God and Coun-
origins, course, and meaning" (p. 6).
try" (p. 69). Many thought bloodshed
Ultimately, it stands as a magisterial
necessary for a cleansing
synthesis of intellectual and social
nation's sins-whether they saw slav-
work,"
of the
history that reveals how "religious
ery or alcohol or greed or some other
conviction produced a providential
vice as the chief stain on the soul of
narrative of the war" (p. 9).
America.
The book begins by explaining
The
"new"
military
history,
the place of religion in antebellum
bringing the lens of social history to
America, including Christianity's rela-
the study of war, informs chapters