Good Hater: George Henry Hoyt's War on Slavery

by Bill Hoyt

Massachusetts abolitionist George Henry Hoyt treated the Civil War as a John Brown raid on an epic scale. A young Boston lawyer who briefly represented Old Brown following the Harper’s Ferry Affair, Hoyt followed John Brown’s son back to Kansas, where he joined the Kansas Seventh Volunteer Cavalry, known contemptuously in Missouri as Jennison’s Jayhawkers. While rising from Second Lieutenant at the war’s beginning to Brevet Brigadier General at its end, Hoyt consistently treated the Union army as a mere tool for pursuing abolition through direct action. As the chief of the Red Legs – Kansas’ most feared and hated irregular outfit – Hoyt used the power of the Union to punish regular Missourians for the evils of slavery.

Genres: History, Biography, Civil War

86 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

Bill Hoyt holds an MA in history from Pittsburg State University.

In 2012, Hoyt won the PSU Graduate Research Colloquium for his decipherment of John Brown Jr's encrypted Civil War correspondence. He has been a featured speaker on the Bleeding Kansas Lecture Series and has addressed the Kansas Association of Historians.

Hoyt's graduate thesis, Good Hater: George Henry Hoyt's War on Slavery, was a PSU Distinguished Thesis finalist and a Topeka History Geeks book-of-the-month selection. In February of 2016, Good Hater was an Amazon.co.uk #1 Bestseller in both the Slavery Biography and United States Civil War categories.

Reviews

[UEM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Hoyt has written an engaging history about George Henry Hoyt who at times seems more like a creation of Robert E. Howard--Solomon Kane--than a real person. George Hoyt hated slavery as well as those who supported it, and used whatever available means to end it. Hoyt actually had quite a lot of means available to him throughout his life--the law, the pen, the cloak and dagger, and the gun. Some tactics Hoyt used to end slavery were contradictory, such as supporting free speech one time only to curtail it another time, and being for secession and then joining the Union army. The Apostle Paul was all things to all people in order to save their souls; Hoyt was all things to end slavery. Unlike Paul, though, Hoyt did not have a Damascene experience--his father was an abolitionist whose place of business was a station on the Underground Railroad.

This is a well written history with a style reminiscent of Teary Deary's "Horrible Histories" series and likewise is a history without the boring bits. Once I started reading this book I could not put it down. Several details are included which are not necessary for a work of history but are necessary for enjoyment and interest, such as: a certain newspaper editor who fortified his office with iron bars, a cannon, and a booby trap, as well as the mention of several secret societies, the presumption on the part of Virginians that Nat Turner was actually a priest from Haiti, and the nightly oath of Company K of the Seventh. I am not very knowledgeable about the Civil War, but this book has compelled me to learn more.

[Peter Baran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shappy bit of biographical history on a footnote style character who turns out to be considerably more colourful than his status suggests. In particular his "any means necessary" war on slavery which moves him from spy to lawyer, to general, to murderer and from secessionist to Republican Unionist in a few years.

[Nick B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read about a part of the Civil War most know little to nothing about.