Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War [Paperback]

Jeffrey Rogers Hummel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1996

This book combines a sweeping narrative history of the Civil War with a bold new look at the war's significance for American society. Professor Hummel sees the Civil War as America's turning point: simultaneously the culmination and repudiation of the American revolution. A unique feature of the book is the bibliographical essays which follow every chapter. Here the author surveys the literature and points out where his own interpretation fits into the continuing clash of viewpoints which informs historical debate on the Civil War.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this insightful treatment of the Civil War (addressing the causes, the war itself and Reconstruction), Hummel's text argues against the thesis that armed confrontation was inevitable. "As an excuse for civil war," he says, "maintaining the States territorial integrity is bankrupt and reprehensible. Slavery's elimination is the only morally worthy justification." But slavery, he suggests, was on its way out in any case. Not only was it a political liability, but the institution's many-faceted costs (social cost, enforcement, uprisings, mistreatment) outweighed any profits. If, after decades of unsuccessful compromise, the North had recognized the South's revolutionary right to self-determination and had let the Gulf states secede, slavery would have succumbed in the border states. Hummel goes on to argue, as have many others before, that after a devastating war and the disappointment of Reconstruction, a federal government that once interfered only a little in the affairs of individual states "had been transformed into an overbearing bureaucracy that intruded into daily life with taxes, drafts, surveillance, subsidies and regulations." Hummel, a professor of history and economics at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, quotes David H. Donald, saying, "Before the Civil War, many politicians and writers referred to the United States in the plural"--i.e., the United States are, a grammatical agreement no longer used after 1865. With its insightful analysis (not to mention the extensive bibliographical essays that elaborate each chapter), Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men will supply both the academic and Civil War buff with an added perspective on the causes and consequences of the Civil War.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Hummel (history and economics, Golden Gate Univ.) presents some uncomfortable truths for both sides of the Civil War. For the South, Hummel builds a case that the war was indeed about slavery. For the North, he shows that a war to preserve the union was morally bankrupt and that freeing the slaves was the only justifiable reason for fighting. Yet Hummel demonstrates that even a war for such a noble cause was probably unnecessary, since slavery was politically doomed in an independent South. Hummel also illustrates some of the cost of the war, such as Lincoln's suppression of political opposition, the closing of dissenting newspapers, and the creation of big government under Republicans Lincoln, Johnson, and Grant. Here, Hummel steps on some toes. A worthwhile purchase for public and academic libraries.?Robert A. Curtis, Taylor Memorial P.L., Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 421 pages
• Publisher: Open Court; 1st edition (1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812693124
• ISBN-13: 978-0812693126
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #56 in Books > History > Americas > United States > Civil War > Abolition

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 86 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Slaves Freed, Free Men Enslaved to Big Government April 9, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Jeff Hummel, Associate Professor of Economics and History at Golden Gate University, in his new book Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men puts forth the unique new Libertarian hypothesis that, while the slaves were freed as a result of the Civil War, free men were enslaved to bigger government. Evidence which Hummel cites in support of this hypothesis include:(a) the war was fought to preserve the Union, with the fate of slavery being secondary; (b) the Emancipation Proclamation was not issued until two years into the war and even then left the slaves in bondage in the border states (where Lincoln could do something about) while "freeing" them in the Confederacy (where they were beyond Lincoln's reach); and (c) the Civil War accustomed the American people to bigger government, including increased taxation, intervention in the economy, social reform, and suppression of dissent, among other things. Hummel is among the few historians who draw a distinction between the causes of secession and the causes of the Civil War, thus separating the questions "Why did the South want to leave the Union?" and "Why didn't the North let them go?" While Hummel is no Lincoln hagiographer, laying at his doorstep the responsibility for the Civil War (due to his refusal to let the South go), neither is he any fawning apologist for the absolutism of Jefferson Davis. As a Libertarian, Hummel sees no inconsistency in his pro-secession views and his anti-slavery views; indeed, both are part of the revolutionary right of self-determination. Further, he believes that secession would have destabilized slavery by allowing the North to repeal its fugitive slave laws and thus legally making the North a haven for escaped slaves. Hummel is a man who is not afraid to let his opinions be known. His interpretation is fresh, lucid, and insightful. His bibliographies are extremely thorough, showing an excellent command of the literature of the field. Above all, unlike many academics, Hummel actually writes interestingly!

56 of 59 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Presents a lot of overlooked facts November 4, 2001

By [e-mail]

Format:Paperback

Hummel's main focus in this book covers a broad range of topics, but at the same time it's not intended to be a broad, all-inclusive picture of the civil war period. The book tends to concern itself with the motivations and ideologies of the major actors of the war, and Hummel devotes much of his effort to second-guessing those actors. In particular, Hummel heaps criticism on Lincoln for massive conscription (which provoked massive riots, such as the one in New York in July 1863); politically motivated jailings and other repressions; suspending habeus corpus; the debasement of the currency and the resulting great inflation; disregard or contempt for enemy civilians suffering from the war; and huge increases in taxes and national indebtedness. This is not, however, the anti-Lincoln, pro-Confederate screed that some "neo-confederates" are searching for: each of these malfeasances of Lincoln's are also found to take place in the South, and often to a much worse degree. Hummel also does not accept the old canard that the South seceded primarily for reasons other than the preservation of slavery, although he does take the unionists to task for pursuing aims other than emancipation.

As a Libertarian, Hummel sees the end of slavery as the only worthy goal to be accomplished by the war - simply "preserving the union" is not an adequate reason for bloodshed and killing. Hummel also appears to be unwilling to accept an "ends-justify-the-means" view of the damage that was done to American liberty in the course of prosecuting the war. One of the recurring things I found in this book was a "what-if" contemplation of ways in which slavery could have been ended without the bloodiest war in American history. Hummel explores the end of slavery elsewhere in the world during the 1800s. Outside of Haiti, no other country had to undergo any bloodshed in order to end black slavery. Hummel seems to be advocating that the North could have caused slavery to evaporate by withdrawing its support for it, mainly by ceasing to cooperate with the South in apprehending runaway slaves. In my view it's likely that slavery was just too deeply entrenched in the South to have eroded in the same way it did in some other countries, but Hummel still makes some interesting arguments.

This book is not a massive effort to provide an all-encompassing understanding of the Civil War, and of the topics it does cover, none of them are covered masterfully. The book is a standout mostly because it evaluates the period from a unique point of view, i.e., the Libertarian view. As such this book has, for its size and scope, much more information on the attitudes of American anarchists towards slavery and the war, compared to what you would find in any other comparably sized work. Hummel also thinks that the South should have relied more on guerilla style warfare for its defense, letting Northern troops advance unopposed, but hampering them from actually occupying territory, and cutting their supply lines. It needs to be pointed out that this type of warfare is much more agreeable to the Libertarian because it doesn't rely on central government control of operations and it doesn't involve offensive operations which might harm civilians. Hummel is probably right to criticize Southern commanders for throwing their troops into some very uneven, disadvantageous situations, but the reader should know that his view of how the South should have fought is not exactly the conventional wisdom among historians. The idea that the South could have won at all, under any circumstances, is itself controversial.

If you are a Libertarian, or are otherwise interested in learning about the misdeeds of government during the Civil War, this is a must-read. Also, the annotated bibliographies are excellent, and interesting reading by themselves.

73 of 80 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A challenging and groundbreaking history December 1, 1999

By J.D. Tuccille

Format:Hardcover

Given the extensive (and very helpful) bibliographic notes, Hummel's text is all too thin. In that space, though, he makes some well-supported arguments about the negative impact of the War Between the States on American liberty, even as slavery was abolished. Unlike some other revisionist works on the period, he makes no attempt to sugarcoat the Confederacy, but delves into civil liberties violations and the growth of the centralized state in that country, too.

Hummel's criticism of Lincoln for overstepping legitimate presidential powers, and his support of secession as a principle separate from the context of slavery seems to draw violently emotional reactions from people who want to view the war as a black-and-white war of good against evil. I take that as evidence of the high quality of Hummel's research and writing.

Overall, this is an excellent work, and I'd very much like to see more from Hummel along these lines.