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.
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