In April 1865, as the Civil War came to a close, Abraham Lincoln announced his support for voting rights for at least some of the newly freed enslaved people. Esteemed historian Paul Escott takes this milestone as an opportunity to explore popular sentiment in the North on this issue and, at the same time, to examine the vigorous efforts of Black leaders, in both North and South, to organize, demand, and work for their equal rights as citizens.As Escott reveals, there was in the spring of 1865 substantial and surprisingly general support for Black suffrage, most notably through the Republican Party, which had succeeded in linking the suffrage issue to the securing of the Union victory. This would be met with opposition, however, from Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, and, just as important, from a Democratic Party-including Northern Democrats-that had failed during the course of the war to shed its racism. The momentum for Black suffrage would be further threatened by conflicts within the Republican Party over the issue. Based on extensive research into Republican and Democratic newspapers, magazines, speeches, and addresses, Escott's latest book illuminates the vigorous national debates in the pivotal year of 1865 over extending the franchise to all previously enslaved men-crucial debates that have not yet been examined in full-revealing both the nature and significance of growing support for Black suffrage and the depth of white racism that was its greatest obstacle.
Paul D. Escott is Reynolds Professor of History Emeritus at Wake Forest University and author of Slavery Remembered: A Record of Twentieth-Century Slave Narratives, winner of the Mayflower Cup, and The Worst Passions of Human Nature: White Supremacy in the Civil War North (Virginia).
Delivers an eminently readable narrative with valuable analysis that deepens our understanding of the battle for public opinion on the issue of African American voting rights in the immediate post-Civil War North...Escott handles the topic of his study with the complexity and nuance that it merits. -- "North Carolina Historical Review" What can be learned from examining the debates over Black suffrage in 1865? As Escott observes, a recurring theme in United States history is that regression follows progress. The champions of progress therefore must be indefatigable.-- "Journal of Southern History" The breadth of the newspaper research brings excellent rhetorical analysis and context to the arguments around Black suffrage as they unfolded in 1865. Historians will come away with a much better sense of the moment between the war and Reconstruction, and with boundless material to pull from in crafting lectures. This book also succeeds as a model of American political history. Escott shows how ideological convictions mix with pragmatic considerations of party unity, messaging around the political calendar of midterms and congressional sessions, and the push-pull between a president and their party's legislative leadership. This is an evergreen dynamic relevant to any period of United States history. For that reason, Escott's Black Suffrage should appeal to historians of the Civil War era, but also to scholars of federal politics in any era.-- "Journal of the Civil War Era" Escott is one of the nation's foremost scholars on the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Building upon his previous work, he has provided an exhaustive overview of Northern thinking on the postwar settlement--and on Black suffrage in particular. I know of no other work that provides such a thorough analysis of Northern attitudes in the months following the Civil War. --John C. Rodrigue, Stonehill College, author of Lincoln and Reconstruction Seamlessly picking up where his last work on Northern racism during the war left off... Escott's work is crucial to helping understand not only the failures of 1865, but also the journey towards the passage of the 15th Amendment... Black Suffrage should interest any scholar of the Civil War era or civil rights. -- "Civil War Monitor"
