Ed Rugemer on Prophets of Protest: Reconsidering The

Timothy Patrick McCarthy, John Staufer, eds.. Prophets of Protest: Reconsidering the History of American Abolitionism. New York: The New Press, 2006. xxxiii + 382 pp. $22.95, paper, ISBN 978-1-56584-880-1.

Reviewed by Ed Rugemer

Published on H-SHEAR (June, 2008)

Historians have developed a new narrative for change: newspapers, pamphlets, history, poet‐ for radical abolitionism over the past two decades ry, fction, scientifc argument, the law, the mar‐ and it is thoroughly explored in the essays of this ket, violence, photography, and commemoration. book. During the years after the American Revolu‐ The essays in this book open a window into each tion when a free black community began to grow of these dimensions of radical abolitionism. in the northern United States, a "founding genera‐ Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John Staufer's tion" of African Americans came to realize that volume explicitly draws from, and is in dialogue white society would not apply the liberating with, the rich tradition of historical re-interpreta‐ rhetoric of the Revolution to Americans with tion charted by Martin Duberman's Antislavery African ancestors. In fact, slavery experienced Vanguard (1965) and Antislavery Reconsidered rapid expansion in the South with the indepen‐ (1979) edited by Lewis Perry and Michael Fell‐ dence of the United States, and northern whites man. Duberman's volume was deeply shaped by slowly but surely excluded African Americans the civil rights movement then underway, and the from the political life of the early republic. The essays announced the demise of the portrayal of frst generation of black abolitionists understood the abolitionists as the "meddlesome fanatics" that if African Americans wanted to realize the as‐ who caused the Civil War. Fourteen years later, pirations of the Revolution, slavery would have to Perry and Fellman's volume sought to distance be abolished, white racism would have to be abolitionist historiography from the presentism of fought, and they would have to lead the efort the 1960s and treat abolitionism as "an historical themselves. The history of American abolitionism subject."[1] grew from this understanding of the political real‐ Duberman and Fellman have both written ities of the United States and throughout the ante‐ short pieces for the volume that situate Prophets bellum decades black abolitionists were at the of Protest in this decades-long conversation about forefront of radical abolitionism. They used every the place of radical abolitionism in U.S. history. tool in the arsenal of modern social movements H-Net Reviews

Like the previous volumes, the contributors in‐ plore abolitionist historiography beginning with clude both young and established historians at the the works of movement participants. A section on cutting edge of the scholarship, and as with the "Origins" follows, with fve essays that explore the previous collections, Prophets of Protest chroni‐ origins debate. Two additional sections explore cles the most innovative shifts in abolitionist stud‐ the means and ends debate: "Revolutions," with ies over the past seventeen years, specifcally, the two essays on Brown, and "Representations," emphasis on the centrality of black protest to which includes fve essays that examine the tools American abolitionism, and secondly, a fresh un‐ of protest and a retrospective essay that looks at derstanding of the violent abolitionism embodied the treatment of abolitionists in movies. by John Brown. Neither subject was ignored in the "Revisions" begins with a historiographical es‐ past two volumes, but both received slight atten‐ say by Robert Forbes, who traces some of the in‐ tion. Brown was only mentioned in passing in the tellectual shifts in the writings on abolitionism frst volume, and in the second only Jim Stewart's from the eighteenth century through 1916 (al‐ essay on Wendell Phillips devoted any sustained though it is unclear to what the endpoint of 1916 attention to Brown. Assessments of black protest refers). Forbes identifes three intellectual stages, actually declined from 1965 to 1979, a shift that which he carefully explains are not to be miscon‐ was pointed out by reviewers. Antislavery Van‐ strued as either linear or self-contained. The frst guard contained two essays on the black aboli‐ generation of historians of abolitionism were ac‐ tionists, one by Benjamin Quarles on Frederick tors in the movement, most were Evangelicals, Douglass and an essay by Leon Litwack that ex‐ and all saw the movement as "Providential," the plored the relations between black and white abo‐ work of God in the world. The providentials were litionists, while Abolitionists Reconsidered includ‐ followed by the "racialist progressive" writers ed only one essay on African American churches who began to appear in the 1840s and 1850s and by Carol George. In stark contrast, an entire sec‐ saw the abolition of slavery as emblematic of the tion of Prophets of Protest is devoted to Brown, progress of humanity, but more specifcally the and eight of the ffteen essays focus exclusively on progress of the "white race." This group included African American abolitionists. Neither of the pre‐ such nineteenth-century writers as Thomas Car‐ vious volumes had such a strong thematic concen‐ lyle, but it would also include such historians as tration as the present volume on black abolition‐ Reginald Coupland, writing in 1933, who saw ists, suggesting the most signifcant transforma‐ Britain's abolition of slavery one century earlier tion of abolitionist studies in the past forty years. as the quintessential example of British moral [2] achievement. The fnal intellectual transition has As the editors point out in their introduction, been to the "modern revisionists." This group was acknowledgement of the infuence of black aboli‐ inaugurated by the West Indian writers Eric tionists stimulates a reconsideration of the three Williams and C. L. R. James and the black Ameri‐ debates that have shaped abolitionist historiogra‐ can W. E. B. Du Bois. These men were all material‐ phy, which Staufer and McCarthy describe as the ist/Marxist historians as well as black activists "origins" debate, the debate over the "character" deeply involved with the racial politics of their of the movement, and the "means and ends" de‐ day. They distrusted the religious emphasis of the bate on abolitionist tactics. The essays are orga‐ providentials and had nothing but disdain for nized into four sections of unequal length that ex‐ racist notions of "progress." The modern revision‐ plore the role of black protest in these debates. ists put economic factors on the table as an expla‐ Prophets of Protest begins with a section entitled nation for abolition, and while historians now "Revisions," which includes two essays that ex‐ take religion far more seriously, we still work

2 H-Net Reviews from the suppositions of the modern revisionists. remind readers that black abolitionists had al‐ While Forbes's intellectual schema is invaluable, ways been involved. one wishes for more examples of writers whose With the exception of the frst essay by T. K. interpretations ft within the phases he so clearly Hunter, the fve articles in "Origins" examine the describes. frst two generations of African American aboli‐ From this broad intellectual base Manisha tionists. Hunter's essay does not really align with Sinha moves to a focused investigation of histori‐ the themes of this section, but the essay itself is a ography on African American participation in the fascinating comparison of the Somerset Case of abolitionist movement. Like Forbes, Sinha begins 1772 in Great Britain with the case of the enslaved with those writers who were actors in the move‐ girl Med in Boston in 1836. Hunter shows that ment: William Cooper Nell, William Wells Brown, while these cases were separated by wide gulfs of Martin Delany, Hosea Easton, James W. C. Pen‐ time and space, they were both concerned with nington, Henry Highland Garnet, and Douglass, the same question: Where did the law enforcing among others. This group was followed by such slavery prevail? Hunter shows that while Judge amateur historians as Archibald Grimke and Mansfeld's decision freeing James Somerset was George Washington Williams, who wrote in the extremely narrow, it made "liberty contingent late nineteenth century against professional white upon geography" (p. 50). Put diferently, even historians who fashioned the portrait of the aboli‐ though Mansfeld had no desire to threaten the le‐ tionists as unstable fanatics and completely ig‐ gitimacy of slavery in Great Britain or the nored African American contributions to Ameri‐ colonies, he did value Great Britain as a place can life. Grimke and Williams were followed by where liberty reigned, a value that could be ex‐ Du Bois, Carter Woodson, Charles Wesley, and panded to limit the power of slaveholders to Dorothy Porter, professional historians and ar‐ maintain their property. The case of the slave girl chivists who further developed a black abolition‐ Med was remarkably similar. Brought to Boston ist historiography that most white academics con‐ from Louisiana by her owner, Med was discov‐ tinued to ignore. Sinha draws careful attention to ered by members of the Boston Female Anti-Slav‐ the work of Quarles, who spent a long career at ery Society, who brought suit in a Massachusetts Morgan State University in Baltimore. Quarles's Court on the grounds that Med's enslavement dissertation was the frst modern biography of could not be enforced in Massachusetts, a place Douglass, which he later condensed into an essay that was "singularly conducive to liberty" (p. 50). that appeared in Duberman's Antislavery Van‐ Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw agreed and the Somer‐ guard. Quarles's Black Abolitionists (1969) was set case served as a precedent for his decision. the frst comprehensive study of African Ameri‐ Essays by Richard Newman, Julie Winch, San‐ can involvement in abolitionism, and despite the dra Sandiford Young, and McCarthy make excel‐ long tradition in which Quarles worked, most his‐ lent contributions to our understanding of the ori‐ torians of abolitionism at the time still wrote of gins of American abolitionism. Newman explores the movement as predominantly white. Sinha the role of the "Black founders," a group that in‐ points out that Black Abolitionists is more chroni‐ cludes Phyllis Wheatley, Prince Hall, Paul Cufee, cle than an analysis, but in light of the historio‐ Lemuel Haynes, Easton, and Thomas Paul of New graphical moment, Quarles's task remained very England; Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, and James similar to the black writers who had gone before Forten of Philadelphia; Peter Williams and him. Quarles was thus a modern pioneer for his‐ William Hamilton of New York; Daniel Coker and torians still working today, as well as a bridge to William Watkins of Maryland; and the slave rebel past generations of black historians who sought to

3 H-Net Reviews

Garbriel Prosser of Virginia and the un-named should go to Haiti where they could continue the slaves who joined him. The Black founders were struggle against slavery, rather than to Liberia. free and enslaved, most of them lived through the Russwurm came to a diferent conclusion and in Revolution and some of them fought in it. But all 1829 at the age of thirty he made the stunning de‐ of them witnessed the simultaneous expansion of cision to emigrate to Liberia under the auspices of the enslaved population in the South and the free the American Colonization Society (ACS). His deci‐ black community in the North. Their task was to sion shocked African Americans, for as co-editor build the institutions of the northern free black of Freedom's Journal, Russwurm had played an community as a bulwark against slavery, and abo‐ important role in the political mobilization of the litionism emerged from that community. Newman black community in the North against the ACS. draws from the recent work of Steven Hahn, who Young roots this decision in Russwurm's relatively in Nation Under Our Feet (2003) emphasizes the privileged childhood in Jamaica, Canada, and political importance of community among slaves Maine. Born of a white father who recognized and then freed people in the rural South. The him and provided for him, Russwurm did not Black founders saw community from a similar grow up in a black world. When he moved to Bos‐ perspective; community had both a material and ton and then to New York City, Russwurm felt the ideological role. The material success of the free burden of racism with particular acuity. Young ar‐ black community could undermine racist, gues that while Russwurm's political development proslavery arguments that blacks were incapable was in sync with his contemporaries, his failure to of achievement. Community also laid the founda‐ fulfll his social aspirations through friendships tion for later generations of black abolitionists to with the black elite made American racism un‐ continue the struggle. bearable, leading to his decision to emigrate. The essays by Winch and Young are biograph‐ McCarthy takes the title of his essay, "To Plead ical sketches of a frst and second generation Our Own Cause," from the opening editorial of black abolitionist, respectively, Forten and John Freedom's Journal, the frst newspaper edited by Brown Russwurm. Winch's brief essay concen‐ black abolitionists. With one of the best essays in trates on Forten's "refections on revolution and the volume, McCarthy argues for the centrality of liberty" (p. 80). Forten fought in the American print culture in the making of black abolitionism. Revolution and was in Philadelphia when streams Drawing from the work of Benedict Anderson and of white and black refugees swarmed the city in Michael Warner, McCarthy shows that black abo‐ the wake of the Haitian Revolution; he is thus the litionists created an "imagined community" of ideal subject to illuminate the founding genera‐ abolitionism within the early "republic of letters" tions' perspective on the Age of Revolution. Winch (p. 117). This community was palpably evident in shows how Forten used his service to argue that the list of subscription agents printed every week, black Americans deserved the "liberty" that which demonstrated to readers both the reach of should have come to all with the independence of the paper as well as the breadth of the black com‐ the United States. With respect to Haiti, Forten munity. And African American writers used the was uncomfortable with the extreme violence, pages of Freedom's Journal in accordance with but he saw it as the result of liberty denied. Forten the political tradition of such writers as Benjamin also admired Haiti's leaders; he saw that nation's Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Jonathan Swift, to success as emblematic of black achievement in advance an unpopular cause for liberation within the fght against slavery, and on the momentous the broader society. McCarthy delves into the con‐ question of emigration, Forten suggested that if tent of Freedom's Journal, exploring how authors African Americans felt compelled to migrate, they used history, poetry, and essays to establish a "tex‐

4 H-Net Reviews tual equality" (p. 130) with whites that under‐ one. About half of the African American popula‐ mined racist argument. McCarthy closes his essay tion was free and the mountains in the area with a careful analysis of David Walker, a sub‐ (which you can still walk through on the Ap‐ scription agent for Freedom's Journal who Mc‐ palachian Trail) were an important part of what Carthy describes as a second-generation black was known as the "Great Black Way" often trav‐ abolitionist. Working from the foundation built by eled by Harriet Tubman. Brown had lived in the the founders, Walker's Appeal to the Colored Citi‐ region and Gefert plausibly argues that he would zens of the World (1829) announced the matura‐ have been well connected in the black communi‐ tion of black abolitionism. ty. In the months before the raid, Brown used The third section entitled "Revolutions" is en‐ these contacts, particularly the AME minister tirely devoted to the career of Brown. Karl Gridley Thomas W. Henry and the barber Henry Watson, writes about the community of radical abolition‐ whose shop was a center for the Underground ism in the Kansas territory that supported Brown, Railroad. And while the sources confict on how and Hannah Gefert (with Jean Libby) highlights many participated in the raid, Gefert deduces the participation of the black community of Harp‐ that between seven and seventeen were blacks er's Ferry in the famous raid of 1859. Both essays from the local community. While this was hardly are primarily concerned with dispelling the com‐ the slave rebellion Brown hoped to ignite, it is mon notion that Brown was a radical loner, ad‐ very diferent from stating (as one widely read ac‐ mired for his dedication to abolition and racial count does) that the only local blacks to join equality but isolated because of the tactics he Brown were some hostages brought in by his chose. For Gridley, this portrayal of Brown stems men.[3] It is equally signifcant that a rash of ar‐ in part from the emphasis in past historiography sons in the aftermath of Brown's trial caused seri‐ on Kansas to downplay the role of abolitionism as ous damage to the farms of several of the jurors motivation for Kansas migrants. But Gridley who convicted him. points out that Eastern Kansas (where Pot‐ The fnal section of the book, "Representa‐ tawatomie took place in 1856) was a central corri‐ tions," employs the methodologies of American dor of the Underground Railroad linking Texas to Studies and Literary Studies to explore the old de‐ Nebraska and points north. Moreover, Gridley has bate over abolitionist tactics. Essays by Patrick investigated the considerable correspondence be‐ Rael and Dickson Bruce, for example, investigate tween Boston abolitionists and Kansas migrants. two diferent genres of writing that abolitionists Gridley describes a highly mobile abolitionist employed to counter racism and advance aboli‐ community, rethinking the distinction between tionist beliefs. Rael's essay on the scientifc writ‐ "Eastern" and "Western" abolitionists, and shows ings of black abolitionists makes an intervention that Brown was an acknowledged leader in this in the interpretive debate that Rael describes as a community. Remarkably, Gridley fnds that split between historians, such as Joanne Pope Mel‐ "Brown's following and magnetic strength in‐ ish, who argue a "hegemony thesis," (p. 346) creased exponentially after the massacre" (p. 155). which posits that when African American writers Likewise, Gefert's careful examination of the sought to write against the new racial science of recent local history of Harper's Ferry in 1859 pro‐ the antebellum decades, they actually internal‐ vides valuable context for Brown's raid. Populated ized some of racial science's central premises. mostly by migrants from Pennsylvania and Vir‐ Other scholars, such as Stephen Howard Browne, ginia, Harper's Ferry was politically diverse and argue that African American use of racial ideas maintained a white to black ration of about two to should be seen as an "appropriation" (p. 185) rather than an unconscious embrace. Rael ex‐

5 H-Net Reviews plores fve diferent literary strategies to racial spreading the abolitionist message and bringing science employed by African American writers, new people into the movement. Jefrey fnds that "concession, living proof refutation, arguments black and white abolitionists "created diferent from history, the idea of racial genius, and nega‐ rituals" (p. 201) to celebrate that day, but also of‐ tive environmentalism" (p. 188) and concludes fers evidence of interracial celebrations that re‐ that hegemony and appropriation should not be veal the signifcant impact of the First of August seen as distinct approaches, but rather as "poles in northern communities. In 1856, for example, separated by a range of possibilities" (p. 196). one abolitionist described an audience of one Bruce's essay explores the importance of aboli‐ thousand people, mostly white and half of them tionist poetry. Most abolitionists wrote poetry and women at the celebration organized by the such poets as John Greenleaf Whittier and Henry African American community in New Bedford, Wadsworth Longfellow were quite prominent. Massachusetts. For Jefrey, such evidence points to Bruce argues that abolitionists believed that poet‐ the "changing status of abolitionism" (p. 218) in ry enabled both poets and readers to use their the North, brought about in part by these celebra‐ powers of imagination in a manner that revealed tions. Staufer's essay explores the attitudes of the barbarity of slavery and racism and actually such black abolitionists as Douglass and Sojourn‐ change the public mind on the question of slavery. er Truth toward the new technology of photogra‐ Abolitionist poets took their art seriously, occa‐ phy. Both former slaves paid careful attention to sionally playing with classical and popular poetic the manner in which their portraits were replicat‐ forms that opened poetic conversation within the ed in their famous narratives. Truth displayed abolitionist community, as well as introducing herself as a "respectable, middle-class matron" abolitionism to readers who may have read pri‐ (in the words of Nell Painter) who would be at‐ marily out of a love of poetry. Poetry thus had a tractive to potential readers, and Douglass reacted dual role. It strengthened the connection among critically when an engraver portrayed a far gen‐ poet/abolitionists while adding lovers of poetry to tler face than Douglass preferred. Douglass fa‐ the community of abolitionism. vored photography because of its "truthfulness" Bruce's attention to the "play" in poetic tech‐ (p. 260) to the being represented. He believed that nique and to the value abolitionists placed on the pictures had the power to cultivate the human imagination echoes themes in the essays by Julie imagination by portraying what was real, and Roy Jefrey and Staufer. Play can be a serious en‐ thus dispelling falsities like racism and defenses deavor, and Jefrey's exploration of First of August of slavery. Like poetry, Douglass hoped that pho‐ celebrations reveals a festive event that had im‐ tography would be an art at the service of aboli‐ portant ramifcations. Beginning in 1834, Ameri‐ tionism. can abolitionists celebrated 1 August as an annual The impressive size of the First of August cele‐ commemoration of Great Britain's abolition of bration in New Bedford in 1856 suggests the par‐ slavery in the West Indies. Jefrey draws from the ticipation of a signifcant portion of northern soci‐ scholarship of historians, including Susan David, ety, large enough to create a market that could Simon Newman, and David Waldstreicher, who sustain professional abolitionists. Augusta have expanded our understanding of national Rohrbach studies this relationship between aboli‐ politics to include parades and public celebra‐ tionism and the larger society through an analysis tions, such as the Fourth of July.[4] Jefrey argues of the "market strategies" (p. 235) of Louisa May that First of August celebrations, and especially Alcott and Truth. Both women used their writing, the newspaper coverage describing them, were their gender, and their ideas to "sustain the sub‐ one of the most important abolitionist tactics for stance" of daily life, as Truth famously put it.

6 H-Net Reviews

Rohrbach is mostly concerned with how these that of Caleb McDaniel.[5] In light of these still women were able to use the market to make a liv‐ burning questions, we can expect in twenty years ing and advance their literary careers without be‐ or so another volume reconsidering antislavery. ing forced by market forces to compromise their Surely the editors would have it no other way. integrity. She explores the strategies of both wom‐ Notes en in detail, and while the comparison of the two [1]. Martin Duberman, ed., The Antislavery writers is undeveloped, the essay is an intriguing Vanguard: New Essays on the Abolitionists analysis of this understudied component of aboli‐ (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965), vii; tionist life. Lewis Perry and Michael Fellman, eds., Antislav‐ The fnal essay by Casey King explores how ery Reconsidered: New Perspectives on the Aboli‐ the abolitionists have been portrayed in American tionists (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University cinema. Surprisingly for a group that was long Press, 1979), xv. blamed for instigating civil war, American movie [2]. Lawrence Friedman wrote a valuable re‐ makers have devoted very little attention to the view essay of the two previous volumes in "Aboli‐ abolitionists. King writes with a wry humor on tionist Historiography 1965-1979: An Assessment," fve flms that have featured abolitionists: Birth of Reviews in American History 8 (June 1980): a Nation, Souls at Sea, Santa Fe Trail, Conquest of 200-205. Two other reviewers who noticed the de‐ the Planet of the Apes, and Amistad. He skillfully cline in essays on black abolitionists include combines scene and dialogue analysis of aboli‐ James M. McPherson, review of Antislavery Re‐ tionist portrayal with a rich contextualization of considered, edited by Lewis Perry and Michael the forces shaping the movie industry over the Fellman, Journal of American History 67 (Septem‐ course of the twentieth century. ber 1980): 416; and Tilden G. Edelstein, review of Prophets of Protest is an impressive volume Antislavery Reconsidered, edited by Lewis Perry that should become required reading for graduate and Michael Fellman, American Historical Review students of abolitionism and for scholars who 86 (October 1980): 928. wish to stay on top of the literature. This said, [3]. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Free‐ there remain two important historical questions dom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford Uni‐ about American abolitionism that are touched versity Press, 1988), 206. upon, but inadequately explored in this volume. What was the relationship between abolitionism [4]. Susan G. David, Parades and Power: and the major political parties of the antebellum Street Theatre in Nineteenth Century Philadelphia decades? What was the relationship between (Berkely: University of California Press, 1988); Si‐ American abolitionism and the transnational mon P. Newman, Parades and the Politics of the struggle between slavery and abolition that began Street: Festive Culture in the Early American Re‐ before and lasted longer than the struggle in the public (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania United States? Both Antislavery Vanguard and An‐ Press, 1997); and David Waldstreicher, In the tislavery Reconsidered included essays that ex‐ Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American plored these questions. More recently, such schol‐ Nationalism, 1776-1820 (Chapel Hill: University of ars as Jonathan Earle, Frederick Blue, and James North Carolina Press, 1997). Brewer Stewart have dug deeper into the annals [5]. On political abolitionism, see Jonathan of political abolitionism; and the global dimen‐ Earle, Jacksonian Antislavery and the Politics of sions of the struggle over slavery has been ex‐ Free Soil, 1824-1854 (Chapel Hill: University of plored by David Brion Davis, my own work, and North Carolina Press, 2004); Frederick Blue, No

7 H-Net Reviews

Taint of Compromise: Crusader Antislavery Poli‐ tics (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005); and James B. Stewart, "Reconsidering the Abolitionists in an Age of Fundamentalist Poli‐ tics," Journal of the Early Republic 26 (Spring 2006): 1-24. On the transnational dimensions of abolitionism, see David Brion Davis, Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006); Edward B. Rugemer, The Problem of Emancipa‐ tion: The Caribbean Roots of the American Civil War (forthcoming, Louisiana State University Press); and W. Caleb McDaniel, "Our Country is the World: Radical American Abolitionists Abroad" (Ph.D. diss., The Johns Hopkins Universi‐ ty, 2006).

If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-shear/

Citation: Ed Rugemer. Review of McCarthy, Timothy Patrick; Staufer, John, eds. Prophets of Protest: Reconsidering the History of American Abolitionism. H-SHEAR, H-Net Reviews. June, 2008.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14552

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

8