The Boston way: radicals against slavery and the Civil War
(Book)
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"Has there ever been good violence or a good war? The American Civil War is likely considered to be so since there seemed to be no alternative. Or was there? Before the war, Bostonian abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison correctly predicted that fighting would not bring about real freedom and justice. If emancipation came about through violence, he believed, it would take at least a century for Black people to get their rights. As we now know, it has taken even longer than that. Here is the story of Garrison and other abolitionists, Black and white, male and female, who advocated a peaceful end to slavery and the start of human rights for Black people. The Boston Clique, as they were called, were victorious in persuading their fellow Bostonians to end Jim Crow laws on Massachusetts’ railroads. Persuasion was, these pacificists believed, the only means to lasting change. In these pages, we find Frederick Douglass and lesser-known Black abolitionists, William Nell and Charles Remond. We meet leading feminists of the nineteenth century Lydia Maria Child, Margaret Fuller, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Additional key figures include Adin Balou, William Ladd, and Noah Worcester whose voices for nonviolence impacted Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Still, if it meant a faster end to the horrors of slavery, wasn’t violence the answer? In time, pacificist abolitionists such as Douglass and John Brown came to believe the entire system in the South needed to be overthrown and that could only happen through the shedding of blood. Time may now provide a different perspective. While history has little memory of abolitionists, and even less for pacifists, nothing can be learned from that which is not remembered. What if the Civil War had never been fought? Might we now live in a world of far greater justice and peace? What does this mean today as we still pursue “righteous” violence? This is the story of a road not taken"--
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Citations
Kurlansky, M. (2025). The Boston way: radicals against slavery and the Civil War. Godine.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Kurlansky, Mark. 2025. The Boston Way: Radicals against Slavery and the Civil War. Godine.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Kurlansky, Mark, The Boston Way: Radicals against Slavery and the Civil War. Godine, 2025.
MLA Citation (style guide)Kurlansky, Mark. The Boston Way: Radicals against Slavery and the Civil War. Godine, 2025.
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Record Information
| Last Sierra Extract Time | Oct 07, 2025 01:15:12 PM |
|---|---|
| Last File Modification Time | Oct 07, 2025 01:15:19 PM |
| Last Grouped Work Modification Time | Oct 07, 2025 01:15:18 PM |
MARC Record
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| 245 | 1 | 4 | |a The Boston way : |b radicals against slavery and the Civil War / |c Mark Kurlansky. |
| 264 | 1 | |a Boston : |b Godine, |c 2025. | |
| 300 | |a 245 pages : |b illustrations ; |c 22 cm | ||
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| 504 | |a Includes bibliographical references. | ||
| 505 | 0 | |a 1859: Pottawatomie is back -- 1824: Life in Athens -- 1831: Being heard -- 1833: Here I am! -- 1835: Sisters in the clique -- 1837: The most difficult principle -- 1838: A sweet solution -- 1841: Bringing it home -- 1843: Kooky Boston -- 1845: Margaret's good year -- 1848: Time for change -- 1850: Fugitives -- 1856: The practice war -- 1859: The weird meteor of war -- 1863: Red handed slaughter. | |
| 520 | |a "Has there ever been good violence or a good war? The American Civil War is likely considered to be so since there seemed to be no alternative. Or was there? Before the war, Bostonian abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison correctly predicted that fighting would not bring about real freedom and justice. If emancipation came about through violence, he believed, it would take at least a century for Black people to get their rights. As we now know, it has taken even longer than that. Here is the story of Garrison and other abolitionists, Black and white, male and female, who advocated a peaceful end to slavery and the start of human rights for Black people. The Boston Clique, as they were called, were victorious in persuading their fellow Bostonians to end Jim Crow laws on Massachusetts’ railroads. Persuasion was, these pacificists believed, the only means to lasting change. In these pages, we find Frederick Douglass and lesser-known Black abolitionists, William Nell and Charles Remond. We meet leading feminists of the nineteenth century Lydia Maria Child, Margaret Fuller, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Additional key figures include Adin Balou, William Ladd, and Noah Worcester whose voices for nonviolence impacted Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King. Still, if it meant a faster end to the horrors of slavery, wasn’t violence the answer? In time, pacificist abolitionists such as Douglass and John Brown came to believe the entire system in the South needed to be overthrown and that could only happen through the shedding of blood. Time may now provide a different perspective. While history has little memory of abolitionists, and even less for pacifists, nothing can be learned from that which is not remembered. What if the Civil War had never been fought? Might we now live in a world of far greater justice and peace? What does this mean today as we still pursue “righteous” violence? This is the story of a road not taken"-- |c Dust jacket flap. | ||
| 650 | 0 | |a Antislavery movements |z Massachusetts |z Boston |x History |y 19th century. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Nonviolence |z Massachusetts |z Boston |x History |y 19th century. | |
| 651 | 0 | |a United States |x History |y Civil War, 1861-1865 |x Moral and ethical aspects. | |
| 651 | 0 | |a Boston (Mass.) |x History |y 19th century. | |
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