An Emancipation of the Mind: Radical Philosophy, the War over Slavery, and the Refounding of America

by Matthew Stewart

This is a story about a dangerous idea—that all men are created equal—which ignited revolutions in America, France, and Haiti; burst across Europe in the revolutions of 1848; and returned to inflame a new generation of intellectuals to lead the abolition movement.



Frederick Douglass’s unusual interest in radical German philosophers and Abraham Lincoln’s odd, buried allusions to the same rationalist, secularist, and essentially atheist thinkers are but a few of the clues that underlie this propulsive philosophical detective story. With fresh takes on forgotten thinkers like Theodore Parker (a minister too radical even for the Unitarians, whose work provided some of Lincoln’s most famous lines) and a feisty band of German refugees, Matthew Stewart’s vivid storytelling and piercing insights forge a significant revision in our understanding of the origins and meaning of the struggle over slavery in America—and offer a fresh perspective on struggles between democracy and elite power today.

Genres: History, Philosophy, Nonfiction, American History, Politics, Civil War, History and Politics

379 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 26, 2024

Reviews

[Allen Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

What to say? This book is so excellent, instructive, and insightful that upon finishing it, I am going back to the beginning to immediately read it again. This will be the first time I have ever done this with any book, ever. I will post a review after I finish my second read-through. The afterword is pure FIRE🔥…. Six stars.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The publisher's description may make this title seem like it could be a bit of a slog, but let me assure you that this is a very lively account of the intellectual underpinnings of the abolitionist movement. For me the most surprising aspect of the movement was that it defied the organized religions of both the north and the south, and that key movement leaders - Frederick Douglass, the near heretic minister Theodore Parker (learning about him was reason enough to read this book), Abraham Lincoln, and others - were free thinkers, pantheists, or perhaps even closeted atheists. The abolitionists are also seen as part of the revolutionary movements of 1848, and heavily influenced by German philosophers (particularly the new to me Ludwig Feuerbach who essentially said that man created god) as well as a number of German exiles (the 48ers). Based solely on the evidence presented in this book, I actually question whether these philosophers had the influence author Stewart credits them with, or if they simply validated positions which many of the abolitionists had already reached. Nevertheless, there is a bust of Feuerbach still to be found in Washington D.C's Frederick Douglass House.

In Stewart's telling the slaveholding oligarchy of the south was a counter-revolutionary movement that rolled back basic rights in the south (forbidding free speech if it involved condemnation of slavery), and used religious justification and racism to lure economically deprived white voters to their cause. If this sounds familiar to the reader it's not an accident. Here's a quote describing Theodore Parker's ideas:

The ultimate target of extreme wealth, Parker comes to understand, is reason itself. The gag rules, the censorship, the disdain for higher education, and above all the relentless attacks on religious infidelity follow from the elemental fact that reason can never support the participation of a whole society in its own impoverishment. So long as reason is against the oligarchs, the oligarchs will be against reason.

These ideas from 170 years ago haven't aged a bit.

I did say this book was lively, and I'll even say it can be entertaining and humorous at times. But be warned that there is one chapter describing the philosophy of the Germans - especially the section on Hegel - that is difficult. The philosophy-trained author may differ, but I believe that you can gloss over that section and still get plenty out of this title. This is a very highly recommended book that sheds light on the lead up to the civil war as well as on our own times; even if history isn't repeating itself there are certainly plenty of rhymes.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for giving me a egalley for early review. It's truly a privilege to be the first reviewer of this title on goodreads; I look forward to seeing what others have to say.

[David Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary work. Stewart diverges from the usual retelling the history of slavery and the antislavery movement featuring the usual cast of characters to delve into the philosophical underpinnings of each. Frederick Douglass is there, of course, but he focuses also on less remembered, but incredibly influential, people like Theodore Parker. There are even roles for almost unknown German immigrant leaders like Ottilie Assing. Indeed, the German pro-democracy, anti-slavery philosophy is a large part of the discussion (clearly the author's area of expertise). Stewart also digs deep into the role the church played in promoting slavery, and not just in the South. Overall, this is a thought-provoking tome that gives a new and important perspective. If you think you understand the struggles of the 19th and 20th centuries - and the continuing relevance threaded through today's counterrevolutionary politics - you don't, not until you've read this book. I highly recommend it.

David J. Kent
Author, Lincoln: The Fire of Genius
President, Lincoln Group of DC

[Tom A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely don’t read hardly any philosophy books but I think this one was just the right amount of mixing philosophy and history for me. The origins of the abolition movement from philosophical thinking is very cool as well as seeing how the abolitionists of the 19th century used them. Always great learning more about Frederick Douglass.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've enjoyed this book immensely. It provides an excellent expose into the hypocrisy, laughability, and challenges of using institutional Christianity and its personal God, as a means of justifying behavior -- with slavery and Civil War providing the background for providing the inconsistencies inherent in the institutional Christian faith, regardless of sect.

Yet it is also a well researched, academic-rigor exploration of the evolution of abolitionism, religion and America's embrace and revulsion of slavery. It's light readability well masks this element of the book.

I will confess, though, that Stewart's work Nature's God is one of my favorite books about the underlying philosophy of early America. Yet I will also confess, greed and Emerson's individualism is a greater, prevailing influence, much to the cost of humanity and global well being.

Nature's God reappears consistently and rightly throughout this work as well as Stewart's earlier work on America's founding. It's refounding with the Civil War and abolition of slavery serves itself equally to a Spinozaist treatment.

For those looking for some pattern in meaning for American history beyond the trite tropes of Manifest Destiny and genocidal European/Caucasian conquest of all through a convoluted definition of Christianity, one can do well to read the works exploring American history written by Matthew Stewart.

The final afterword provides an excellent summary of the co-option of Lincoln, reconstruction, abolitionism, property and labor rights and many other things that require continued vigilance from ethically grounded people recognizing a better path forward is continually challenged by widely accepted economic forces and an unequal subconscious mindset that must be emancipated - again.

I'm reading a library copy of this title, obtained at the title's release and returned for future reading by any others in my community, regardless of income, race and privilege. But I believe this is a title I may well purchase for further examination and exploration with access to underline and highlight.

For thinking Americans, highly recommended.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few excellent quotations:

"An excess of reading is rarely good for the orthodox mind..." p 11

"[Race] was a means not just of marking out certain individuals for lives of coerced labor but also of monetizing the value of their indefinite - and ultimately even more lucrative - posterity. It was on this account that the legal status of free Blacks in the South deteriorated markedly in the antebellum period, with new and hardsh penalties for educating free Blacks, for example, passing into law. It was for the same reason that enslaving the Irish - a prospect that some proslavery ideologues seriously entertained - proved unworkable. Lacking the superficial traits that might visibly distinguish them from their unenslaved cousins, their children could blend back into the general population too easily." p 58

"The slave's true master is not the man with the whip. It is the surrounding society that exercises its power through his arm. It is the policemen, the militias, the judges, the slave hunters, the watchful neighbors, and the lynch mobs; it is the battalions of preachers that sustain the conviction of the system's righteousness; and it is the squadrons of family members, such as the white half of Ellen Craft's family, who diligently humiliate their enslaved siblings and cousins in order to keep them in a state of subordination. Al these people serve the slave system, and yet the cost of their service is never reflected in the enslavers' accounts. The Fugitive Slave Act, for [Theodore] Parker and his allies, was proof that the uncompensated services of the free states, too, were central to the perpetuation of slavery. The way for the slaveholders to keep their institution profitable was to have the rest of the country pay the bill for enforcing their practice." p 184-185

"If slavery is the pardigmatic source of the poverty of nations, then what is the source of their wealth? ...Parker's first and most impassioned claim is for the value of education. The true foundation of wealth is not to be found in the appropriation of other people's labor... but in the development of the laborer's mind...

"Out of this insight into the importance of the laborer's mind, Parker champions the idea of 'free labor' that would come to play a central role in the formation of the Republican Party. 'There are some who count labour a curse and a punishment,' Parker declares... They regard the necessity of work as the greatest evil brought on us by the 'Fall.' They believe that work degrades. This deprecation of labor, Parker suggests, in turn leads to an illusory conception of wealth and advantage. Idle mastery, or domination without toil, is the ideal in a society that fails to appreciate the value of labor. The central idea of free labor, on the other hand, is that labor is a 'noble' aspect of human self-realization. The essential precondition of this kind of noble labor... is the equality of mutual regard among members of society. 'When one claims it right to have others do for him what degrades them in his eyes, their eyes or those of society, there is the spirit of slavery'...

"The strongest and wealthiest society, Parker concludes, is one that can organize itself into genuine democracy. By this he means not merely a form of government with opportunities for majority voting, but a form of society that governs itself through rational self-determination. In a characteristically optimistic finale to one of his sermons, he lays out his ideal: 'As soon as the North awakes to its ideas, and uses its vast strength of money, its vast strength of numbers, and its still more gigantic strength of educated intellect, we shall tread this monster [of slavery] underneath our feet.' Americans will then arise as 'the noblest people the world ever saw - who have triumphed over Theocracy, Monarchy, Aristocracy, Despotocracy, and have got a Democracy - a government of all, by all, and for all." pp 189-190

"A certain theory of freedom - call it the atomic theory - is perennially popular among those with property and privilege to defnd. It says that freedom is a predicate of individuals alone, in the way that momentum pertains to individual atoms. A distinctive feature of freedom in this atomic sense is that it is entirely independent of equality and even inclined to oppose it. Any attempt to make the atoms more equal - to speed some up and slow others down - can only come at the expense of freedom, or so the thinking goes. Even advocates of limited equality... pursue their arguments from a defensive crouch mandated by this atomism. Their case for a welfare state boils down to reasons why we should sacrifice some degree of liberty and prosperity for some degree of equality. It isn't hard to explain why the men of property tend to favor the atomic view, of course; it confirms them in their belief that the freedom and prosperity they enjoy belong to them and them alone, just as momentum pertains to every atom - and that the cries for equality are therefore merely a cover for theft." p 227

"Civil society is therefore... according to Hegel, a historical achievement, not a natural state of things. It accumulates over time, as actual human societies discover and develop the rules that make it possible for all to work together in a manner that respects the rights of each. It is in the final analysis a measure of a society's willingness to educate itself." p 239

"The proslavery theology that supplied the intellectual scaffolding for America's first iteration of fascism never went away; it was the spiritual face of the second couterrevolution, and it is the direct ancestor of Christian nationalism today. Some of its original practicioners... continued to peddle the religion of literalism, domination, and race hatred well into Reconstruction. They aimed much of their fire at 'the falsehood and deadly tendencies of the Yankee theory of popular state educaion,' which compelled good white people to turn their hard-earned tax dollars over for the education of 'the brats of black paupers.' A direct line of descent connects... leaders of the proslavery church to the founding theologians, econoic ideologues, and political activites of the religious right of the late twentieth century. The extremist theologian Rousas Rushdoony... in many ways the intellectual godfather of the union between Ronald Reagan and the religious right in 1980, was explicit about his debts to Dabney and the Southern Presbyterians. As proof that history's sense of irony far exceeds that of its actors, some members of the anti-abortion wing of the modern Christian nationalist movement, apparently oblivious to the actual theological origins of their enterprise, have nonetheless attempted to brand themselves as the new abolitionist, apparently unaware that this would also make them infidels.

"At the center of most of the revisionism that shrouded America's second revolution lay one of the greatest historiographical frauds of all time. The war over slavery wasn't about slavery after all, the mythologizers asserted; it was all about 'states' rights,' 'self-government,' 'tariffs,' or irreconcilable differences over the meaning of life. It is hard to say which is more remarkable - the audacity of such a falsification of history of the fact it was (and still is in places) entertained as a theory worthy of consideration, 'Let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds,' Lincoln had said in his Second Inaugural Address. Bat the nation often preferred to bind up its eyes rather than to treat the underlying conditions." pp 310-311

"The second American revolution, for all its shortcomings, cannot be dismissed as a total loss any more than the first. Douglass was surely right in thinking that the postrevolutionary struggles in both instances confirm something vital about the kind of emancipation they offer. The revolutionary part of the American Revolution holds that human beings are the source of their own authority in the political world; that they achieve self-government not through acts of faith but through acts of understanding; and that should they find themselves beholden to some other imaginery authority, this can only mean that they have constructed the conditions of their won servitude. As Douglass understood very well, the revolutionary aspect of the second American revolution was of precisely the same character. That a second revolution proved necessary does not mean that the first one failed. It shows rather than the revolutionary project of self-government through reason is not a permanent fact but an ongoing sturggle." p 320

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a "you are there" dip into the reality of pre-Civil War America and the twists and turns involved on all sides about the "Southern system" and the true nature of slavery and those who fought to end it, this is a good book to consider.

Quite ably and fluidly written, it most ably puts a dagger through the heart of the post-Civil War Southern originated myth of the "Lost Cause" and its related fanciful interpretations: the "nobility" of the Southern way of life and the "natural and kind" method practiced by owners of slaves. It forcefully shows these things to be artificial constructs designed to mask the abhorrent cruelty and obscene idea behind slavery and that some humans had the right to "own" others!

I have two quarrels with the book, however, that while I express them here I do not intend to wave anyone away from reading it. Rather, my "quarrels" are meant to be "cautions" for you.

First, the book could have used some rigorous editing. How many times do we need to be introduced to a person or persons and their thought? How many times do we have to witness -- albeit from slightly different perspectives on occasion -- person "x" meeting or encountering the thought of person "y"? It seemed to me that over and over again we were returning to the same, or similar, starting point, only to have the same lessons made (often as authoritarial "preaching") again and again!

Second, the author really engages in an over-the-top bashing of both "Christianity" and the Bible. While justly stating -- and emphasizing -- how slave-holders and their defenders (which included many in the North and a depressing number of theologians throughout the country and of many traditions) horribly used the Bible to "justify" slavery, he makes no reference to the "context" in which what the Bible said (or did not say) about slavery happened at both a different time (in which there was no chattel slavery like the Southern system) and, especially in the New Testament books, when Jesus and his initial followers (including St. Paul) expected that God was about to intervene at any moment to introduce "the kingdom" in which all such distinctions between, and justices existing towards, different people would vanish.

Such contextual information in no way would have justified the use to which slaveholders and their defenders put the Bible, but it would have helped the readers of this book to better understand why the Bible did not condemn slavery the way that Mr. Stewart expected that it should.

Furthermore, the author ignored the many warnings of the prophets about how the powerful and wealthy were misusing or abusing the poorest among them, many of whom were slaves (in ancient times, slavery resulted from enemies captured in warfare and through the failure of some to pay debts they had incurred; in the latter case, and even for those captured in warfare, the terms of "slave-service" were often fixed and not interminable).

OK, having given these caveats, let me go on to briefly give the author's salient points which are all well made and worth knowing!

In addition to the slaves themselves, who had numerous ways to resist the slave system even while as slaves (work slowdowns or stoppages, pilfering of supplies, damaging equipment and tools, sullen resentful behavior, etc.), those who ended up most vigorously fighting for the end of slavery and for abolition had to essentially change the terms of the debate!

[Note: many of those who wanted to free the slaves hoped to export them back to Africa! For them, it was one thing to end the evil of one human being owning others, and quite another thing for realizing political and social equality for Black people.]

First, they had to challenge and denounce the reading of the Bible used by slaveholders to justify slavery. And this was no easy thing, since religious authorities were already having to "push back" against modern biblical scholarship which was undermining belief in the literal truth of the Bible as well as various religious offshoots -- such as unitarianism -- which interpreted the Bible and Jesus differently than the more orthodox. Then, as we can see again in our own time, those "in charge" of religious institutions tended to double-down on their authority and time-honored teachings rather than engage in a dialogue with new questions. Thus, even those religious folks who opposed slavery were outraged when abolitionists and their like attacked interpretations of the Bible allegedly supporting it.

The second thing they had to do was to re-interpret the Revolution and the Constitution itself, another difficult task since the principle author of the Declaration -- Thomas Jefferson -- was a slaveholder and many of those who drew up the Constitution in 1787 were slaveholders also. While the Declaration ringingly declared that "all [people] are equal," the Constitution was a tad mealy-mouthed about the fact that millions throughout Southern states were most definitely NOT equal.

So, how did they respond?

First, while some of them did emphasize the teachings of Jesus -- which clearly would not allow for some to be treated less -- most of them reached into the more deist thought of the Enlightenment which talked about "nature's God," that is, a God that could be found not in the Bible but by observing the world about us. That God was clearly a God of order and harmony, and from observing what that God had created and how his creation worked one could see that slavery was abhorrent. Many, including Lincoln, spoke of Nature's God. (While Lincoln loved the Bible for its wondrous stories and sonorous, soaring language -- it helped form his own method of speaking -- he was apparently not a Christian, something he sought to keep hidden for understandable reasons.)

Second, they both cited how the Founders -- even though many of them were slave-owners themselves -- obviously thought that slavery was a dying institution! The Constitution even had a clause saying that after 1807 it would be allowable for the government to take steps to restrict the slave trade (the clause was actually written in the reverse: "No efforts to...before...").

And then there was just the moral/ethical horror that lived in so many peoples' hearts that found slavery -- as a theory and as it was revoltingly practiced -- obscene and just plain wrong.

Stewart also places a "dagger through the heart" of those who argue that the cause of the Civil War was, well, varied! Nope! Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, and many of those on both sides engaged in that bloody struggle knew damn well that it was fought over the maintenance, continuation, and expansion of the slave system. That was really what the war with Mexico in the 1840s and the subsequent annexation of Texas was all about -- the most fervent supporters of both were slaveholders and their rich allies who drooled over the possibility of expanding slavery and its economic system ever westward and southwestward. These same folks even had their eyes for a long time on acquiring Cuba!

One last point: Stewart does a SUPERB job of exposing how slavery did NOT create great wealth; again contrary to the myth embodied in the Lost Cause, the reality is that the slave system eroded wealth. Yes, the slaveholders themselves -- always a distinct minority class in the South -- were themselves wealthy (if one can tolerate the fact that this "wealth" was represented by the value of human bodies and their unpaid labor), but the system worked to despoil not only the slaves, but poor whites, the land itself (mono-culture of cotton ruined the soil), and led to all of the Southern states being poorer by any measure (education, health, prosperity of cities, etc.) than the free states. BTW, Stewart notes that 160 years AFTER the Civil war these same criteria prove that the former slave states are STILL lagging behind those which never had slavery!

A worthy, if wordy, addition to the debunking of Southern myths and the telling of the fuller, whole truth!

[Catherine Woodman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one telling of the journey the United States took in the 19th century from a country with slaves to one without. The author frames this as one based on religious principles, but I would say it really was based on the premise of white supremacy. The driving force in American politics in the decades after the American Revolution was the rise of an arrogant, ruthless, parasitic oligarchy in the South, built on a foundation of Christian religion and a vision of permanent, God-ordained inequality. Their goal in seceding in 1860 was to undo the basic ideals of the American republic and keep their wealth.
From 1770 to 1860, religion in America underwent a massive shift. The number of churches exploded, North and South, and soon most of these churches were using depictions of slavery from the Bible. There is also rampant polygamy and stoning for relatively minor offenses which were assiduously not endorsed, but slavery is definitely not contrary to Old Testament values.
The abolitionists clearly needed help. Enter freethinking Germans whose radical republican philosophy underpinned the failed European revolutions of 1848. The ideas they espoused were more harmonious with New Testament values that were espoused by Jesus, as well as quite irreligious ideas that swayed major anti-slavery players in America.
The very interesting thing about this argument of how Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln came to see eye to eye is how familiar it sounds today. The GOP is the party of white supremacy, and the legacy of the South, and the evangelical church is no longer adherent to the teachings of Christ, who was basically too woke for them.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Philosophy And The Coming Of The Civil War

The Civil War remains endlessly fascinating. It rewards study from many perspectives. Matthew Stewart’s book, An Emancipation of the Mind: Radical Philosophy, the War over Slavery, and the Refounding of America is a study of the Civil War through ideas and of how ideas may lead to action. It combines history, philosophy, and theology in a way that is difficult, challenging, and provocative.

Stewart is an independent philosopher and historian whose books include Nature’s God[1], which explores the influence of the Enlightenment on the American Revolution. Stewart argues that Enlightenment thought was based on naturalism, science, and reason and that it rejected supernatural religion. For Stewart, the significance of the American Revolution does not lie in the overthrow of a king, but lies instead in its effort to take a transcendental deity and a claimed Revelation out of public life. The Enlightenment, for Stewart, lead to the precious values of American life, including freedom, intellectual curiosity, an openness to differing ideas, economic opportunity, and individual growth.

In The Emancipation of Mind, Stewart expands upon his earlier book to consider the Second American Revolution – the Civil War and the fight against slavery. The book explores at some length the economic basis of slavery, but its focus is on revealed religion, on transcendent standards for conduct that allegedly dictate the structure of human society, and in what Stewart finds as the complicity and support that organized Christianity provided to justify the “Peculiar Institution.” Stewart discusses the Bible and passages which he finds support slavery, and he shows how many theologians of the day, both North and South, used the Bible in their extensive purported justifications of slavery.

Stewart writes with a passion for ideas, but also with polemic and with a harsh, narrow view of religion. The book consists of an introduction, “About this Book” which offers a good overview of its content followed by ten chapters, with titles derived from Lincoln’s second inaugural address or from speeches by Frederick Douglass. The work concludes with an afterword, “Let us Strive On” in which Stewart offers his view of the importance of the Civil War era to contemporary American life and to the fight against racial and economic inequality, a bibliographical Appendix of sources, and extensive end notes.

The chapters move between discussions of history and philosophy and try to weave together a broad, international story. The book’s most unusual aspect is its focus on German philosophy and on its influence on the United States following the failed European revolutions of 1848. Many German thinkers, including Hegel and Marx, receive attention, but Stewart gives most consideration to Ludwig Feuerbach (1804 – 1872). Feuerbach’s book The Essence of Christianity (1841) maintained that God was created in man’s image. Feuerbach argued against revealed religion and in favor of a study of man to promote humanism and human solidarity. Stewart offers expositions of Feuerbach’s thought and works to trace its influence in the United States of the Civil War era. He was a particular influence on Frederick Douglass who read The Essence of Christianity in the summer of 1859 and had a bust of the German philosopher in his Washington, D.C. home.

In the United States, Stewart focuses upon four individuals. The central figure, and the least known, is the renegade Unitarian minister and theologian Theodore Parker (1810 – 1860). Martin Luther King Jr’s famous statement: “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” (308) is derived from Parker. Parker was a conduit for German thought in the United States. Parker’s erudition, rejection of Christianity, and commitment to abolitionism and other social movements are discussed throughout the book together with his influence on Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown.

Stewart argues that Lincoln remained a religious skeptic throughout his life. He contends that Lincoln read Parker’s essays, which were in his law library, and alluded to them in several important speeches. Lincoln’s second inaugural address is the most important single text in this book, and Stewart gives it a naturalistic interpretation, contrary to the work of some other scholars[2]. Frederick Douglass spoke often about Parker’s works “for the cause of human freedom” (170, 295). Parker was a member of the “Secret Six” which provided funds and support to John Brown’s Harpers Ferry raid. Douglass also was involved. Stewart is strongly sympathetic to Brown for, in essence, beginning the Civil War and showing that activism and violence would be necessary for the overthrow of slavery.[3]

Stewart “takes for granted that ideas matter, and that they trace a visible arc through the disorder of human history.” (xxi) He traces this arc through the Enlightenment and the American Revolution in his earlier book and through German philosophy and the Second American Revolution in An Emancipation of the Mind. Even if they may not be fully convinced, students of the Civil War will learn from this book.

This review was posted on Emerging Civil War (ECW) on January 7, 2025, and is used here with permission.

[1] Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic, Matthew W. Stewart, (W.W. Norton & Company, 2014).

[2] Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural, Ronald C. White, (Simon & Schuster, 2006) offers a detailed, religiously oriented reading of the Second Inaugural Address.

[3] Decade of Disunion: How Massachusetts and South Carolina Led the Way to Civil War, 1849-1861, Robert W. Merry, (Simon & Schuster, 2024) reviewed on ECW, October 3, 2024, offers a different view of Brown and of the Secret Six. It is rewarding to compare Stewart’s book with Merry’s.

Robin Friedman

[John Rymer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because it made me think and introduced me to new figures in US history. Surprising to me: Most of the new people were Europeans. Among the Americans new to me was Theodore Parker. I'd never heard of him before. His journey roughly parallels that of the abolitionist movement, from infidel to armed struggle.

"Emancipation" is not an easy read. Not hard either, but be prepared for some slow going. Stewart combines a discussion and analysis of ideas with a conventional telling of the individuals and events leading to abolition as a force in American politics. You'll swing from chapters with strong narrative drive to chapters dense with explanations of Hegel and other German philosophers. This is a difficult combination to weave into a consistent story flow. Still, for me the history of ideas, including how ideas traveled from mostly Germany to America, and how those ideas informed those engaged in the struggle against American slavery, was worth the effort.

In addition to the new people, I encountered many old friends in this book. Von Humboldt, James Baldwin, Karl Marx; of course, Abraham Lincoln, and even the Samuel Morse, the Lightning Man.

The historical (as opposed to philosophical) passages in the book include a mini-biography of Frederick (Bailey) Douglass. I'd not appreciated before the depth of his influence on both the abolitionist movement and on the GOP as it formed. Stewart's mini history of slavery's evolution into an economic system is also great. The Civil War emerges as a fight to the death between two economic systems. Stewart makes a good case that if the South had prevailed, the US would have embarked on its imperial adventures (Puerto Rico, The Phillippines, etc.) with an overt slavery policy. Imagine that. Of course, the North's approach to Reconstruction ended slavery without killing off the economic system. The South invented ways to preserve most of the essential characteristics of the Slave System for the next 150 years.
Stewart spends a lot of time examining the role of churches in using the Bible's references to slavery in order to promote it, as well as the "mudsill" theory I encountered in "White Trash." Poor people should know their place in society, and that place is to support the rich, educated (we hope) rulers. All of whom are white.

Stewart's book provides a distant mirror of today. He comments on parallels with America today as is appropriate. I did not feel he was heavy-handed in doing so. The Epilogue was appropriate and thorough.

Stewart's concept of a second American revolution is credible to me. It evoked the concept of American history as one step forward, two steps back that we saw in "Lies My Teacher Told Me."

I'm curious to know how this book acquired its title. Stewart makes much, particularly in the Epilogue, of the 2nd American Revolution centered on the Civil War. That is a much more immediate title than "An Emancipation of the Mind". I wonder if Stewart and his publisher viewed "The Second American Revolution" as too extreme in some way.

A big caveat: Two members of our book club hated Stewart's book. One dismissed it as poor scholarship and often wrong, relying on too many biased sources. Another objected to Stewart's handling of John Brown. Was the book anti-Christian? Did it promote Marxism? Not for me, but I didn't deeply investigate Stewart's book.

Another caveat: Two members of our club noted that Stewart's book is not a smooth, easy narrative.

[Scott Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Audiobook) I wouldn’t normally rate a philosophy-type book so highly, but this work did an outstanding job of blending history, philosophy and narrative in a volume that will offer the read a lot to think on and consider. The primary subject: The philosophical underpinnings of slavery and abolition in the years leading up to and including the Civil War. 150 years on, it is easy to consider that the sentiment of most of the people, to include the church, was against slavery and the concept, that it was only the greedy South that held on to the concept that slavery was actually a natural good. Yet, looking back at the antebellum US, many in the church were in favor of slavery, or certainly, very against the abolition movement. In particular, the 1840s-1861 saw a major uptick in the writings and thought that slavery was a natural good, that it helped black people and that it was biblically sound. Yeah, post Civil War, quite a lot of revisionist/ignoring of history took place where the church and its positions are concerned.

Themes like what the church really thought of slavery dominate the book. Stewart incorporates the philosophical theories that underpinned much of the abolitionist/slavery movement, but then offers extensive real-world examples of how that philosophy was put into practice. Included would be Hagal, Marx and some other European influences, aside from the American-based schools of thought. It give a lot for the reader to consider and it will challenge some long held-beliefs. The rating is the same regardless of format. Opens up a new discussion front on Civil War/Antebellum history and worth the time to read, and likely re-read.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

London-based philosopher-historian Stewart explores the surge in atheism that developed among abolitionists prior to the Civil War. While Southern evangelicals turned increasingly to biblical justifications for the slave-labor system, abolitionists were drawn to philosophy to support their demand for emancipation.

A key driver of this counterrevolution was the Rev. Theodore Parker, a Harvard-trained Unitarian minister who rejected the Biblical support for slavery and embraced transcendentalism. [Of note, both Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. borrowed from Parker’s writings for their own speeches.] Parker was also greatly admired by Frederick Douglass. Parker was drawn to German philosophy—radical ideas of such thinkers as Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Follen and David Friedrich Strauss. Their arguments provided strong arguments to counter the ‘slaveholding oligarchy’ and offered a roadmap to emancipation.

Stewart balances the philosophical arguments with inclusion of well-known characters like Lincoln and John Brown. He also introduces Ottilie Assing, a Hamburg-born journalist who sought out and befriended Douglass, translating his works into German. There is also Moncure Conway, an antislavery editor strongly influenced by German culture and philosophy.

Net, Stewart makes the argument that “philosophy was an indispensable guide on the road to emancipation”. Fascinating exploration of the abolitionist movement!

[Kathryne · Rating 5 out of 5]

FANTASTIC. I cannot say enough about this book! Quoting Frederick Douglas, the author reminds us that “we have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and future.” Matthew Stewart does just that in this book. In a beautifully clear and engaging writing style, he tells the story of the abolitionist movement and reveals the broad connections between historical events, economics, and the philosophical contexts that guided the key actors in the tortuous cyclical contest between the forces of enlightened progress and the backlash against reason itself. It is a book that needs to be read NOW by everyone worried about 2025’s crisis from the oligarchs and the destructive politics of spite. Particularly important are the similarities he suggests should be drawn between the present and Civil War era regarding (1) the psychological use of false religion to disguise the practices of evil, (2) the covert aims of an oligarchy seeking to preserve itself by suppressing rational democracy attempting to gain control of government itself, and (3) the threat of “Christian” nationalism uniting fascist, authoritarian, racist influences. Stewart sets out the big picture in which the fight against tyranny and oppression must be refought again and again. This is a timely MUST READ.

[Riet · Rating 4 out of 5]

De schrijver, een filosoof, geeft de geschiedenis van de strijd tegen de slavernij vanuit het gezichtspunt van de filosofie. Klinkt moeilijk, maar het is een zeer leesbaar boek geworden met, althans voor mij, veel nieuwe inzichten. De abolitionisten" zijn ons welbekend, maar hier komen heel nieuwe aspecten aan het licht. Vooral in de personen van Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln etc. Zij blijken toch heel andere ideeen over God en godsdienst te hebben dan de doorsnee Amerikaan uit die tijd. Zij lijken eerder atheistisch. Hun ideeen zijn vooral gestoeld op de ideeen van de Duitse filosofen uit die tijd en dan vooral op Feuerbach. Daarnaast waren na 1848 (het jaar van veel revoluties in Europa) veel Duitsers naar Amerika gereisd of gevlucht. Zij brachten het gedachtengoed van o.a. Hegel, Fichte, Kant etc. mee.
Al met al een boeiende geschiedenis van de strijd tegen de slavernij vooral geschreven rond de persoon van Frederick Douglass. Aan het eind geeft de schrijver nog interessante parallellen met de situatie van de huidige "Evangelicals" in de VS.

[Joe Keefhaver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was a tough book to read for someone who is a Christian believer. Stewart lays out the case that the Bible is supportive of slavery and that Southern churches of the pre-Civil War era were staunchly pro-slavery. The facts about Southern churches is well-known, but he says even Northern churches were cool to the idea of abolition. Because of this and other reasons, the author lays out what he says are the fact that Lincoln, Douglass and many other anti-slavery leaders were nonconformists in faith -- and perhaps atheists. Some of these these claims may be true, but I am not completely convinced of all of them. It is certainly true some strains of Christianity continued to support racist positions after emancipation, and it is true some present-day Christians like to sugarcoat American history to make it appear leaders of the past were all true believers when they may not have been.

[Tim Gru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed view on how the abolitionist movement grew and finally succeeded in 19th century USA. Bit of a slow, academic read to me. My two big takeaways:

1. Not only was the Bible used as a weapon by proslavery advocates, the abolitionists couldn't find any productive way to spin the writings, to the point where many appeared to descend into closeted atheism or similar (Lincoln included?)

2. The economic productivity of a nation is worse off with slavery involved. This was initially not obvious to me, with my assumption being that the abusive labor practices were extracting more than a free labor market could, but when considering both the destructive wage competition between the free and enslaved for the same work as well as the level of non-education that needs to be maintained for slavery to "appear" acceptable, it makes sense that a nation as a whole would be worse off economically.

[Tim Brynteson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting history

Really enjoyed learning more about the intellectual history and disagreements among the abolitionist groups about the nature of slavery, the scope of the efforts against it and the philosophical and theological differences among the groups. My only complaint is the author falls into the tired dichotomy between reason and religion and perhaps oversimplifying the categories of the good guys and bad guys n the narrative. That said, his observation that organized religion in general, either passively supported the stats quo and the powerful (even if opposed to slavery) or, as in the south and sometimes in the north as well, actively supported slavery as in line with natural law and human experience. It took the ideas of the “radicals “ described in the book to shake key political leaders and social leaders out of their complacency.

[Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure why, but I had never considered how the philosophical underpinnings of American political thought regarding enslavement and freedom could be largely inspired by other countries (in this case, mostly Germany). Maybe because the world was less globalized and my American education didn't teach me much about foreign history. Reading this book helped me to understand how enslavement was rationalized in religious contexts, and rebuked by the eminent Lincoln and Douglass, among others, whose fidelity to Christianity was often under fire. I especially enjoyed learning about Theodore Parker, the Unitarian abolitionist, and Ottilie Assing, the German freethinker who allegedly had a decades-long affair with Douglass.

An interesting look into the fringe ideologies that ultimately contributed in part to the Civil War.

[John Gattermeyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible. Really pulls out the threads of the philosophy of abolition, the connection between the revolutions of Europe and the rebuilding of America, but also goes to great lengths to remind us of who really won the civil war. If victors write the histories, this book explains why people like Theodore Parker, Ottilie Assing, August Willich, and the many others are so often left out of the history books. The slave power became the money power, and it’s a war we’re still fighting today. The lessons within this book point us the direction we need to go to overcome the money power counter revolution and bring back the ideals that led to the second founding of our nation back in the 1860s.

[Herb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A breathtakingly marvelous book, intellectually stimulating and revelatory in nature. The author, a philosopher, examines the causes of slavery, the Civil War and the struggle to overthrow the racist (and Xian) systems behind them. Lincoln, Frederick Douglass and the less famous Theodore Parker (and others) were directly and philosophically influenced by 19th c. German philosophers, notably, Feurebach, Fichte & Hegel. There's too much going on the this book to stir the mind, making it impossible to come up with a decent synopsis. Suffice it to say, it is an erudite treasure.

[Cheryl Beseler · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book that delves into the links between religion, philosophy, and slavery. It provides insight into the most important architects of the civil war. It accurately describes the role of religion in the move to truly establish a democratic nation and achieve the goals of a true union of free people. The detail provided about the philosophical thinking of the time, the role of the European enlightenment and the lives of the Americans who fought to abolish slavery come to life in this telling. The book is thoroughly researched and well-written.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This intellectual history of the abolitionist movement and the civil war was incredibly enlightening! And also a page turner! It gave me a much deeper understanding of the ways conservative Christianity served as the moral justification and bulwark for slavery. Therefore, what we see today in the pro-fascist views of the religious right aren’t an accident or some veering off the course but the actual continuation of an original purpose of these religious denominations. This is both clarifying and terrifying. Because what do we do to fight it?!

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding work tracing the connection between abolitionism, Abe Lincoln, & the German romantic philosophy which inspired the European revolutionary movement of the middle 1800s. Leading characters are the Germans Hegel, Feurbach, von Humboldt, Ottiellie Assing & Americans Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglas, Wm Lloyd Garrison, John Brown & Theodore Parker. As the philosophical issues are delineated, one sees that the same issues are still in play. This is an important book.

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This does an excellent job of illustrating the changing and developing anti-slavery philosophy of Lincoln and others. It does a nice job showing that it was an more Enlightenment philosophy that challenged the prevailing evangelical church dogma that dominated the nation and defended slavery. This is a good counter to efforts to rewrite religion into a role the founders never envisioned and that did exist pre-Civil War.

[Jeri · Rating 3 out of 5]

I "liked" the book, so a solid three. My issue which is my personal issue is it was so depressing. How christianity was used (still used) to justify slavery and how they managed to convince slaves to follow that religion. It makes me despise this part of US history to my absolute very being. Fecking humans.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oddly, though this book was about the emancipation of the mind and the philosophy shift America had to do to embrace (or not) anti-slavery ideals, it made me think about a lot of philosophies around capital, property and economics today. And, it showed how Lincoln might even be underrated as a president, if possible.

[Bonny Messinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get through this as I’m deeply affected by the story of slavery in America, but it is an outstanding exploration of the cultural landscape of the early 1800’s to the emancipation proclamation

[Gabriel K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read!

[David George · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0

[Mesut Bostancı · Rating 5 out of 5]

This goes on my reading list of books I want to try to get my US history dad to read as part of his unwitting political education