Till the Dark Angel Comes: Abolitionism and the Road to the Second American Revolution

by William S. King

Overview

The Transformation of the Abolitionist Movement from Peaceful Demonstration to Radical Confrontation as Embodied in John Brown
Establishing himself as a fresh and important voice in the history of African American emancipation,William S. King provides a critical introduction to the lead-up to the Civil War. A skilled and judicious chronicler, King seamlessly weaves multiple and seemingly disparate threads, including early nineteenth-century Revivalism, the emergence of the Republic of Texas, the fugitive slave laws—and even the explosion of a cannon aboard the U.S.S. Princeton in 1844—to explain how the opposition to slavery in America changed from producing speeches and pamphlets to embracing the reality that slavery could be eradicated only through armed conflict. By tracing this transformation through the life of John Brown, King provides an entirely new assessment of this enigmatic figure who was characterized as a “mad man” in the wake of his butchering of proslavery settlers in Kansas and the inept raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. King puts these actions in context to explain the paradox of Brown’s legacy. On one hand he was vilified as an unstable threat to American democracy or a fanatical sideshow to the history of the Civil War, while on the other he was an inspiration to the oppressed, a man who garnered the indomitable Harriet Tubman’s commitment to the righteousness of his endeavor.
Elegantly written with a command of period sources, Till the Dark Angel Comes: Abolitionism and the Road to the Second American Revolution is the story of interracial opposition to slavery, the important debates among free blacks as to their future in America, and the arguments and compromises at the highest levels of government. Here we encounter many personalities of the time, some well known, such as Frederick Douglass,William Lloyd Garrison, and John C. Calhoun, and others less so, but no less important—Martin Delany, Henry Highland Garnet, and Elijah Lovejoy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594162381
Publisher:	Westholme Publishing
Publication date:	12/10/2015
Edition description:	1
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

WILLIAM S. KING is an independent scholar and commercial driver specializing in the transport of oversized industrial materials. He is the author of the award-winning To Raise Up a Nation: John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and the Making of a Free Country, named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2014, also available from Westholme Publishing.

Editorial Reviews

11/23/2015
In this vivid monograph, King (To Raise Up a Nation), an independent historian and commercial driver, narrates the American abolitionist movement’s rise from its emergence as a popular crusade in the 1830s to the outbreak of the Civil War. Focusing on leading figures, including Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, and John Brown, as well as lesser-known participants such as Presbyterian minister Henry Highland Garnet, King examines the efforts to bring about the end of enslavement in America by any means possible. Readers who are new to the history of American abolitionism will find King’s work lucid and engaging, but others more familiar with the historical material are unlikely to come across major new insights. King’s interpretation of this period and its leaders breaks no real ground, and his research neither draws upon previously untapped primary sources nor presents significant challenges to the insights of the many scholars who have written on this topic. Moreover, the lack of an introduction to explain the book’s argument and intellectual goals, and the abrupt ending, leave the detailed narrative devoid of a broader framework that might have made it a more forceful entry in the historiography of the struggle against slavery. Illus. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly