Thomas    Fleming
By the time John Brown hung from the gallows for his crimes at Harperâ€™s Ferry, Northern abolitionists had made him a "holy martyr" in their campaign against Southern slave owners. This Northern hatred for Southerners long predated their objections to slavery. They were convinced that New England, whose spokesmen had begun the American Revolution, should have been the leader of the new nation. Instead, they had been displaced by Southern "slavocrats" like Thomas Jefferson. This malevolent envy exacerbated the Southâ€™s greatest fear: a race war. Jeffersonâ€™s cry, "We are truly to be pitied," summed up their dread. For decades, extremists in both regions flung insults and threats, creating intractable enmities. By 1861, only a civil war that would kill a million men could save the Union.
History,Military History,Civil War,North American Hi...,American History,Nonfiction,Politics,American History,American Civil War,Science,Literature,19th Century
A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War