The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race Book

This is an exceptional book. Although Stauffer is a professor teaching at Harvard, he has written a highly readable yet still very scholarly presentation integrating personal correspondence and newspaper articles from the times as well as many other books and articles. Stauffer depicts how the religious, social, and political beliefs of two African American leaders, Frederick Douglass and James McCune Smith, and two white men, Gerritt Smith and John Brown, coalesced in the context of the Panic and subsequent depressions of 1837 to form the Radical Abolitionist Party in 1845. Believing that slavery was a state of war on the USA these men began to propose in the mid 1840's that it could only be ended through violent acts. From there they went on to support Brown's efforts in Kansas in the mid 1850's and his failed raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859. The impact that the failure of the raid had on the four of them as well as the country at large is also depicted.

Having already read a fair amount about Douglass I still learned some things about him I had not known before. And I learned a great deal about the other 3 men about whom I knew little about. Equally important, the times in which they lived were thoroughly and expertly portrayed by Stauffer. I recommend this book most highly. I plan to read other books by him as well. One cannot compliment an author any more highly than that.