"Bright Radical Star" traces the evolution of frontier Iowa from arguably the most racist free state in the ante-bellum Union to one of its most outspokenly egalitarian, linking these mid-westeners' extraordinary collective behaviour with the psychology and sociology of race relations. Personalities from a variety of political cultures - Yankees and New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians and Ohioans, Southerners from Virginia and Maryland and North Carolina, immigrant Irishmen, Germans, Scandinavians - illuminate this saga, which begins in 1833 with Iowa officially opened to settlement, and continues through to 1880, the end of the pioneer era. Within this half-century, the number of Iowans acknowledging the justice of Black civil equality rose dramatically from a handful of obscure village evangelicals to a demonstrated majority of the Hawkeye State's political elite and electorate. How this came about is explained by Robert Dykstra, whose narrative reflects the precepts and methods of social, legal, constitutional and political history. Based largely on use of local resources, the book also offers quantitative analysis of Iowa's three great equal rights referendums, one held just before the war, one just after, and one at the close of Reconstruction. The book is designed to appeal to American historians, especially to historians of the frontier, the Civil War era, and African-American history; sociologists and others interested in historical perspectives of race relations in America should also find it useful.
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This review is from: Bright Radical Star: Blk Freedom-97 (Paperback)
"Brilliant, readable, and profound ... concerned with the broadest and deepest questions about our history." -- J. Morgan Kousser. "One of the most important books ever written about the politics of race in the United States." -- Tyler Anbinder. "Superb ... exhaustive [and] convincing." -- James M. McPherson. "Extraordinary and sophisticated. [The author] is one of the most meticulous historians in the business." -- John Lauritz Larson. "A model for both political historians and students of nineteenth century race relations." -- Albert S. Broussard.
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First Sentence:
In the second decade of the nineteenth century two young slaves, Samuel Turner's Nat and Peter Blow's Sam, both of them slight in build and coal-black in color, approached adolescence in Southampton County, Virginia, a low, heavily wooded rural backwater abutting the North Carolina line. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
voter nativities, estimated eligible voters, convention album, gubernatorial returns, referendum returns, presidential returns, slavery extension issue, motion amending, township returns, nativity data, black exclusion, racial progressives, exclusionary legislation, impartial suffrage, black suffrage, suffrage reform, racial conservatives, poorer counties, political abolitionists, colored convention, church seats, liquor prohibition, territorial assembly, voting returns, ethnocultural groups Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Iowa City, Penn Clarke, United States, Des Moines, Yellow Spring, Hawkeye State, Know Nothing, Fugitive Slave Law, New England, Mount Pleasant, Washington County, Saint Louis, Asa Turner, Henry O'Connor, Alex Clark, Burned-Over District, Henry County, Emerson's Sam, New School, Vox Populi, Whatever Happened, Declaration of Independence, Dred Scott, George Shedd New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
In the second decade of the nineteenth century two young slaves, Samuel Turner's Nat and Peter Blow's Sam, both of them slight in build and coal-black in color, approached adolescence in Southampton County, Virginia, a low, heavily wooded rural backwater abutting the North Carolina line. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
voter nativities, estimated eligible voters, convention album, gubernatorial returns, referendum returns, presidential returns, slavery extension issue, motion amending, township returns, nativity data, black exclusion, racial progressives, exclusionary legislation, impartial suffrage, black suffrage, suffrage reform, racial conservatives, poorer counties, political abolitionists, colored convention, church seats, liquor prohibition, territorial assembly, voting returns, ethnocultural groups Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Iowa City, Penn Clarke, United States, Des Moines, Yellow Spring, Hawkeye State, Know Nothing, Fugitive Slave Law, New England, Mount Pleasant, Washington County, Saint Louis, Asa Turner, Henry O'Connor, Alex Clark, Burned-Over District, Henry County, Emerson's Sam, New School, Vox Populi, Whatever Happened, Declaration of Independence, Dred Scott, George Shedd New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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10
books
cite this book:
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- Washington County (GA) (Images of America) by Washington County Historical Society on 4 pages
- The Strange Career of Jim Crow by C. Vann Woodward on page 262, and Back Matter
- Commentaries on the Constitution by Joseph Story on page 60, and Back Matter
- The Nature of Prejudice: 25th Anniversary Edition by Gordon W. Allport on page 264, and Back Matter
- Notes on the State of Virginia (Penguin Classics) by Thomas Jefferson on page 55, and Back Matter
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- Cutting Into the Meatpacking Line: Workers and Change in the Rural Midwest (Studies in Rural Culture) by Deborah Fink in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Covering Iowa: The History of the Des Moines Register and Tribune Company, 1849-1985 by William B. Friedricks in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Strength of a People: The Idea of an Informed Citizenry in America, 1650-1870 by Richard D. Brown in Back Matter
- The American Midwest: Essays on Regional History by Andrew Clayton in Back Matter
- Manhood Lost: Fallen Drunkards and Redeeming Women in the Nineteenth-Century United States (New Studies in American Intellectual and Cultural History) by Elaine Frantz Parsons in Back Matter
See all 10 books citing this book
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