The Struggle for Equality

Abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction - Updated Edition

James M. McPherson

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9780691005553
  9780691045665
• eBook ISBN:
  9781400852239
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: American Civil War History
• Index: History

Originally published in 1964, The Struggle for Equality presents an incisive and vivid look at the abolitionist movement and the legal basis it provided to the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Pulitzer Prize–winning historian James McPherson explores the role played by rights activists during and after the Civil War, and their evolution from despised fanatics into influential spokespersons for the radical wing of the Republican Party. Asserting that it was not the abolitionists who failed to instill principles of equality, but rather the American people who refused to follow their leadership, McPherson raises questions about the obstacles that have long hindered American reform movements.

This new Princeton Classics edition marks the fiftieth anniversary of the book's initial publication and includes a new preface by the author.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Preface to the Princeton Classics Edition
• Preface
• Key to Abbreviations
• Introduction
• I. The Election of 1860
• II. Secession and the Coming of War
• III. The Emancipation Issue: 1861
• IV. Emancipation and Public Opinion: 1861-1862
• V. The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment
• VI. The Negro: Innately Inferior or Equal?
• VII. Freedmen’s Education: 1861-1865
• VIII. The Creation of the Freedmen’s Bureau
• IX. Men of Color, to Arms!
• X. The Quest for Equal Rights in the North
• XI. The Ballot and Land for the Freedmen: 1861-1865
• XII. The Reelection of Lincoln
• XIII. Schism in the Ranks: 1864-1865
• XIV. Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction: 1865
• XV. The Fourteenth Amendment and the Election of 1866
• XVI. Military Reconstruction and Impeachment
• XVII. Education and Confiscation: 1865-1870
• XVIII. The Climax of the Crusade: the Fifteenth Amendment
• Bibliographical Essay
• Index