When It Was Grand: The Radical Republican History of the Civil War

When It Was Grand: The Radical Republican History of the Civil War by LeeAnna Keith

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In 1862, the ardent abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison summarized the events that were tearing the United States apart: "There is a war because there was a Republican Party. There was a Republican Party because there was an Abolition Party. There was an Abolition Party because there was Slavery."

Garrison's stark words convey the essential truths at the heart of LeeAnna Keith's When It Was Grand. Here is the full story, dramatically told, of the Radical Republicans -- the champions of abolition who helped found a new political party and turn it toward the extirpation of slavery. Keith introduces us to the idealistic Massachusetts preachers and philanthropists, African American activists, and rugged Midwestern politicians who collaborated to protect escaped slaves from their former captors, create and defend black military regiments, and win the contest for the soul of their party. Keith's fast-paced, deeply researched narrative gives us new perspectives on figures including Ralph Waldo Emerson; John Brown; the gruff antislavery general John Fremont and his astute wife, Jessie Benton Fremont; and the radicals' sometime critic and sometime partner Abraham Lincoln.

Ultimately, When It Was Grand shows how in the 1850s and 1860s a powerful faction of Republicans embraced the demanding ideal of racial justice -- and insisted that their party and their nation live up to it. Here is a colorful, definitive account of their indelible accomplishment.

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Hill & Wang, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2020