The Radical and Republican

The Radical and Republican book is about slavery, racial discrimination, civil war, and the politics during the mid to late 1800s. This book is based around Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and the trials and tribulations they faced during these hard times.

After the revolutionary war Anti Slavery became a big problem in the United States. The constitution stated All men are created equal. However, the southerners did not consider African Americans to be people, in fact they thought as them as beasts. 1845 Douglass wrote his narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave and in it he stated that slavery have the major effects on the slave family and the slaveholder families. He believed that it turned intelligent slaves into unintelligent people with no importance. In his mind slavery made "ignorance a virtue and literacy a crime." Frederick was a reformer for most of his life. But during this time of his life he was a "Garrisonian." Which in short meant he denounced churches that supported slavery or let slaveholders congregate at their church, politics, and they even denounced the Constitution because they believed it recognized and supported slavery. Eventually Douglass started to pull away from this form of abolitionism. At one point in the book he had said "The best friend of a nation is he who most faithfully rebukes her for her sins. And her worst enemy, who, under the specious and popular garb of patriotism, seeks to excuse, palliate, and defend them." The Republican Party was created from the ashes of the Whig Party when it fell apart. The party promised not to interfere with slavery where it already existed, only to keep from expanding. Many of them opposed slavery not because of the moral issue, but it slowed the country's economic progress.The Republican Party's candidate for President in 1860 was none other than Abraham Lincoln. He and Douglas had many close related views about anti slavery but were very different as well. Lincoln was very picky with the words he used, as are all politicians. He never called slaveholders sinners or sadists. Douglass wanted a swift action to take place to get rid of slavery but Lincoln knew that it was not possible. He also was a lawman and he did was the law said. He may not have agreed the Fugitive Slave Act but he said it was his duty to enforce it if it came across his path, even if morally he objected to it. He felt this