Thaddeus Stevens: Scourge of the South

by Fawn M. Brodie

"More imaginatively than any other Stevens biographer, Fawn Brodie has speculated upon the emotional springs of the man's behavior. More resourcefully than any other, she has brought out the objective conditions to which he related his views on the South. Her book must be taken into account by all serious students of the Civil War and Reconstruction." ―Richard N. Current, William F. Allen Professor of History, The University of Wisconsin In this biography of the chief architect of Reconstruction after the Civil War, Fawn Brodie seeks to explain the basis for his actions, the nature of his economic radicalism, and the emotional forces that resulted in his becoming one of the most controversial figures in American history. She describes his roles as father of the Fourteenth Amendment and prosecutor in the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, his relations with Lincoln, and his battles for black suffrage and schooling.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Politics, Civil War, Historical, American History

452 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Fawn McKay Brodie (September 15, 1915 – January 10, 1981) was a biographer and professor of history at UCLA, best known for Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, a work of psychobiography, and No Man Knows My History, the first prominent non-hagiographic biography of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Raised in Utah in a respected, if impoverished, Latter-day Saint (LDS) family, Fawn McKay drifted away from religion during her years of graduate work at the University of Chicago and married the ethnically Jewish national defense expert Bernard Brodie, with whom she had three children. Although Fawn Brodie eventually became one of the first tenured female professors of history at UCLA, she is best known for her five biographies, four of which aim to incorporate the alleged insights of Freudian psychology.

Brodie's controversial depiction of Joseph Smith as a fraudulent "genius of improvisation" has been described as a "beautifully written biography ... the work of a mature scholar [that] represented the first genuine effort to come to grips with the contradictory evidence about Smith's early life." Her psychobiography of Thomas Jefferson became a best-seller and reintroduced Jefferson's slave and purported mistress Sally Hemings to popular consciousness even before advances in DNA testing increased evidence of a sexual liaison. Nevertheless, Brodie's study of Richard Nixon's early career, completed while she was dying of cancer, demonstrated the hazards of psychobiography in the hands of an author who loathed her subject.

Reviews

[Colleen Browne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I fully expected to give this book a very high rating. I have read Bodie's biography of Jefferson and found it to be very good but this book disappointed on several levels. First, Bradie had a habit of trying to psychoanalyze her subjects. She was a historian and should have stuck to what she knew. Further, as an intelligent and talented historian, she really missed the boat in her analysis of Reconstruction. Instead of accepting the old lost cause interpretation that it was a failure, she might have done more research and discovered the fact that although the North abandoned African-Americans and left white Southerners to take away the hard-won rights over which the war had been fought, three very important amendments were passed during that time and although those rights were to be denied to blacks for nearly a century, they were put in place. Moreover, many of the advances made were kept in place until nearly the turn of the century. Further, Instead of referring to it as rule by "Negro carpetbaggers" it would have been nice if she had questioned some of those assumptions. She would have found out that the blacks who were elected tended to be educated and intelligent and that many of the Northerners who went South did it with the best intentions and were honest people. Finally, although she accepted the moniker of scallawag to refer to white Southerners who were Unionist, she might have done her research and found out that there were many honest men amongst them.

There is a lot of information in this book and I do not regret reading it because of that and because I think she was pretty fair in her assessment of Stevens. I have read a few biographies of Stevens but I have yet to find a great one. If anyone is aware of one, I would love to know the name and author.

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this age of celebrity worship, it might be time to revisit some of America's forgotten heroes. Thaddeus Stevens was an abolitionist before it became popular. An impeccably honest man, he earned a modest fortune by saving and investing. Once, passing the auction of a widow's homestead (she had been left destitute by the death of her husband and could not pay the bills,) he bought the place gave it to the widow and then went on his way as anonymously as he had arrived. Perhaps too humorless, he thought most people were selfish and evil. He avoided church even though he had been raised a Baptist, but paid for the schooling of two young men who wanted to go to seminary but couldn't afford it. He always said whatever he wanted and believed. In 1838, he refused to sign the Pennsylvania Constitution because it gave the vote only to white men. He worked hard to end slavery, worked for free schools (not a popular stance for a politician as it meant increasing taxes,) and provided free legal support for runaway slaves.

He actually believed Jefferson's "All Men are Created Equal." To him "all men" meant "all men," not just all white men. He began battling for abolition, emancipation and equal rights. He was the chief author of the fourteenth amendment and the foundation for the fifteenth amendment. Unlike Lincoln, he had little faith in moderation and compromise and he wanted strong laws to control behavior in the south after the Civil War. He was a leader of the Radical Republicans and was hated by Andrew Johnson. He was very ill during the impeachment trial and had to be carried into the Senate. He died shortly after Johnson's acquittal.

I recommend Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War by David Herbert Donald for more details.

[Immigration Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thaddeus Stevens was a visionary, and a true open-minded thinker, who championed Civil War era issues like free schools for children of all races, creeds, and color; the abolition of slavery (the 13th Amendment); Equal Protection and Due Process of Law for all (the 14th Amendment); and Negro Suffrage (the 15th Amendment).

His unwavering adherence to the defense of the simple human dignity of all men and women, driven by the sheer force of his personality, cut through the noise and rose above petty political self interests. Thaddeus Stevens was inspired by, and fought for, the ideals written by Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence.

Sadly, it is a question of his tactics, as the father of the punitive, vengeful "Reconstruction Acts" that overshadows his noble intentions. His federal legislation incited a Southern backlash against Carpet-Bagger state governments foisted upon the South by Union Generals governing "Military Districts" throughout the South. The state governments enforced policies that created the many "hoops" through which the Southern states
had to jump to become "readmitted" to the United States.

These "hoops" triggered widespread resentment and humiliation of the Southern white lower classes and the aristocratic white upper classes, and yielded the Ku Klux Klan; the Jim Crow codification of legalized hell; and the overall persecution of the newly freed slaves.

These unintended consequences (really? couldn't these have been foreseen?) were a direct result of the structural upset to antebellum society caused by the "hoops" the Southern states needed to jump through for readmission to the Union. Upsetting new realities like "former slaves voting, and perhaps electing black government officials," or "former slaves possibly owning land," or "ignorant and base black men set free, and loose, among the prim and proper fair Southern belles of our families?" WHAT?!?!?! Lamentable, yes. Avoidable, even if foreseeable, doubtful.

Did Thaddeus Stevens inadvertently cause the plight of the black men and women of America to worsen before it eventually got better, 100 years after the close of the Civil War? Or is fundamental change -- fundamental change -- a long time in comin' regardless of whatever legislation is enacted to attempt to change discriminatory, violent, human behavior?

Whatever your conclusion concerning how the extraordinary work of Thaddeus Stevens changed the lives of Freedmen (and all Southerners) for the 100 years after the Civil War, one could observe that his same extraordinary work led to a bequeath of the Constitutional tools of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments that were deployed by Truman, Ike, JFK, and LBJ to slowly rein in and then kill off Jim Crow, and all the attendant evils thereof (like unspeakable discrimination, lynch mob justice, and other acts of violence and gross affronts to civil society). The Civil Rights movement after WWII is the direct result of the social upheaval after Civil War. Fundamental change is a long time in comin'

Nevertheless, Thaddeus Stevens had guts, he stuck to his guns, and was guided by universal humanitarian principles from which he never deviated. I like him, especially his acid wit, direct bluntness, cutting sarcasm, and his relatively low tolerance for hypocrisy. Was he a perfect legislative superman? No. But he did try his level best, and he did as much as he could to fight the good fight. I like him. And I love Fawn Brodie. 5 Stars.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

In terms of leveling the playing field for social equality, no white individual was more firmly committed to that than Thaddeus Stevens of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Born in Vermont in 1792 to a
Puritan family, Stevens had a club foot which he never let handicap him in any way. He went to
Dartmouth College and then moved to Pennsylvania to practice law. He settled first in York, then
Gettysburg and finally Lancaster.

Given his Puritan upbringing Stevens was a man who only saw things in black and white. No subtleties, no shades of gray for him. His first crusade was Anti-Masonry and he joined that party
and got elected to the Pennsylvania legislature. Eventually he turned to the anti-slavery cause and got elected to the House of Representatives in 1848.

Stevens had a wicked tongue and he flayed opponents alive with it. He quickly became a leader first
of the Whigs than the Republicans.

Come the Civil War, Stevens was inpatient with Abraham Lincoln for not freeing the slaves instantly
by decree. Usually Lincoln arrived at the same goals but slower. Lincoln had a sense of political
timing that Stevens lacked. Both favored and got the 13th Amendment to the Constitution passed
abolishing slavery.

Stevens never married, but lived with a black 'housekeeper' who had children by him. That was a
great deal back in those days. Miscegenation laws forbid marriage, so they just lived together.

It was those last four years of his life that Stevens is most familiar to us. He led the move for a radical Reconstruction of southern society. That ran contrary to the aims of President Andrew
Johnson who wanted none of that as a southerner himself.

Stevens was in ill health in this period, but it barely slowed him down any. The final dramatic
act of his life was the impeachment of Andrew Johnson which he got through the House of
Representatives. Stevens was one of the Representatives who laid out the reasons for impeachment.

As we know removal from office failed by one vote. A few months later this most angry man died
and probably convinced that his goal of a just society for all was way in the future.

Stevens is a fascinating man the subject of many studies. Fawn Brodie's work ranks right up there
with the best.

[Socrates Taha · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent and honest look at the life of one of the most radical American politicians of the 19th century, and his crucial role in the civil war, the emancipation policy as well es the civil rights reforms of the reconstruction era that followed on the footsteps of the war.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thaddeus Stevens was one of the greatest politicians and great promoter of human rights at a time when these philosophies were not always compatible. His staunch support of abolition, and human rights was astounding. He was a great Curmudgeon--but a very compassionate and yes even gentle person to those whom society had chosen to ostracize-- slaves, non-Christians, women and the less fortunate. Senator Stevens has become a new hero of mine, even though he was a rather stern person. His heart and mind were in the right place. The son of an Alcoholic father who abandoned the family and raised by a single mother with a Calvinist background-- Senator Stevens made his mark first as an attorney and later as a Pennsylvania politician. He was born with a club foot-- a painful disability which he dealt with all of his life.
If you only know him from the recent film Lincoln, as played by Tommy Lee Jones--then you are missing the journey and achievements of truly unique American. The only way to know more about this enigmatic man is to read this book. His relationship with his Mulatto housekeeper--Anna Smith was a quiet relationship that lasted many years and saw him through many difficulties. As with Thomas Jefferson the exact nature of their relationship can only be guessed at -- but it speaks volumes of his devotion and care for her throughout the years. At the time, very few people would openly admit to being in love with someone of another race-- and yet he clearly cared very deeply for Anna Smith.

If he had any failings, it was that he could have been a bit gentler with fellow politicians--but I think that in his case-- the cause of ending slavery would not be resolved with gentle urging--only a stern voice and a demand for action could get the results Senator Stevens fought for-- to achieve freedom for the slaves and the country. I highly recommends this book!

[John E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent study of an intensely troubled man. Born with a club-foot and bald from a early life disease, Stevens' intellect and drive brought him to the leadership of the Republican Party after the American Civil War. Too witty and bitter to have many political friends, he drove the Republicans to remember their ideals of equality and union in dealing with the South after the war. When he was gone the Republicans disowned the Black and, as Brodie says, "not to remodel the world just to own it." Only in the 1950s did Stevens' legacy begin to be felt when the nation rediscovered the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting comprehensive work on Thaddeus Stevens by Fran M. Brodie. Work includes plenty of references and quotes from notable persons of the era.

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

At times this was like a difficult textbook, but well worth reading.

[Mya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough