1861_ The Civil War Awakening - Adam Goodheart [276]
Surprisingly, few studies specifically treat the contrabands in any depth. One of these, Armstead Robinson’s Bitter Fruits of Bondage: The Demise of Slavery and the Collapse of the Confederacy, 1861–1865 (University of Virginia Press, 2005), is a provocative and compelling book, persuasively arguing that Southern blacks played a major role in undermining the rebel war effort. An encouraging sign of further interest in the subject is Kate Masur’s article “ ‘A Rare Phenomenon of Philological Vegetation’: The Word ‘Contraband’ and the Meanings of Emancipation in the United States,” Journal of American History, vol. 93, no. 4 (March 2007). See also Stephanie McCurry, Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South (Harvard University Press, 2010).
Many books, on the other hand, have examined the contested subject of Lincoln and slavery. Two of the best are Richard Striner’s Father Abraham: Lincoln’s Relentless Struggle to End Slavery (Oxford University Press, 2006) and Eric Foner’s The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (New York: W. W. Norton, 2010).
Chapter Nine: Independence Day
Harry V. Jaffa’s A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000) includes an in-depth analysis of the history and political philosophy undergirding Lincoln’s July 4, 1861, message to Congress. Douglas Wilson, in Lincoln’s Sword: The Presidency and the Power of Words (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006) meticulously reconstructs Lincoln’s composition of the document by examining its various drafts. Adam Gopnik’s stimulating Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009) speaks eloquently of Lincoln and the concept of the rule of law, while Richard Striner’s Lincoln’s Way: How Six Great Presidents Created American Power (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010) proposes Lincoln as a figure embodying both the progressive and conservative traditions in American politics.
For the Comet of 1861, see David A. Seargent’s The Greatest Comets in History: Broom Stars and Celestial Scimitars (New York: Springer Science, 2009).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would especially like to thank two people: my friend and colleague Ted Widmer and my friend and student Jim Schelberg.
Ted has made so many good things happen: bringing me to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and to Washington College; introducing me to the joy of teaching; and, through countless conversations over the past nine years, opening my love of American history in new directions. (Not to mention some memorable nights in Chestertown with him and his family, dancing to 1970s rock in a 1730s house.) Ted’s work as a writer and public intellectual sets a high standard indeed. I am grateful to him as well for reading my entire manuscript and offering insights on subjects from beards to baseball, as few but he can.
Jim was present throughout the creation of this book. If not for his interest in the Civil War during his freshman year of college, we never would have come across those letters in the attic that rekindled my own curiosity about 1861. One year later, Jim deployed to Afghanistan as a U.S. Marine fighting in a twenty-first-century conflict; his experiences there gave me a new understanding of how—as he wrote to me in a letter from far-off Helmand Province—“strange and unpredictable things occur in politics and war.” After Jim’s return, he generously assisted with research, during which we had many conversations about both