Good Hater: George Henry Hoyt's War on Slavery [Kindle Edition]

Bill Hoyt (Author)

Book Description

Massachusetts abolitionist George Henry Hoyt treated the Civil War as a John Brown raid on an epic scale. A young Boston lawyer who briefly represented Old Brown following the Harper’s Ferry Affair, Hoyt followed John Brown’s son back to Kansas, where he joined the Kansas Seventh Volunteer Cavalry, known contemptuously in Missouri as Jennison’s Jayhawkers. While rising from Second Lieutenant at the war’s beginning to Brevet Brigadier General at its end, Hoyt consistently treated the Union army as a mere tool for pursuing abolition through direct action. As the chief of the Red Legs – Kansas’ most feared and hated irregular outfit – Hoyt used the power of the Union to punish regular Missourians for the evils of slavery.

Product Details

• File Size: 769 KB
• Print Length: 129 pages
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B008ET8BZA
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #139,541 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun history read July 18, 2012

By John F. Rogers

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Recently read "Good Hater" while on vacation and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I think it covers an often forgotten aspect of Civil War history: the fact that abolitionists, right though they were about slavery, could be fanatical and cruel in fighting war.

Hoyt and the "red legs" offer up a useful reminder.

Hoyt is a fascinating character, standing by John Brown's side as he was condemned, defending Brown's name to jeering violent crowds, and advocating the destruction of the country that killed him.

As the war looms, Hoyt reconsiders his allegiance to the US and joins the Northern Army to fight with John Brown's son in a furious war of retribution against the people who upheld slavery in Missouri and Kansas.

In the end, as with Sherman, that may have been the unrefined war that the country needed to purge the sin of slavery.

Too often, we see the war glamorized with gentle Robert E. Lee and stoic Grant.

We forget this part of the war; soldiers (in a chilling preview of wars to come) methodically laying waste to farms and cities so the confederates would starve and bleed hating the very idea of war with anyone. Sherman was not alone in this conviction.

A great vacation read. Enjoyed it immensely.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A thesis without the boring bits, submitted in complete fulfillment of awesome July 15, 2012

By Kawaika

Format:Kindle Edition

Bill Hoyt has written an engaging history about George Henry Hoyt who at times seems more like a creation of Robert E. Howard--Solomon Kane--than a real person. George Hoyt hated slavery as well as those who supported it, and used whatever available means to end it. Hoyt actually had quite a lot of means available to him throughout his life--the law, the pen, the cloak and dagger, and the gun. Some tactics Hoyt used to end slavery were contradictory, such as supporting free speech one time only to curtail it another time, and being for secession and then joining the Union army. The Apostle Paul was all things to all people in order to save their souls; Hoyt was all things to end slavery. Unlike Paul, though, Hoyt did not have a Damascene experience--his father was an abolitionist whose place of business was a station on the Underground Railroad.

This is a well written history with a style reminiscent of Teary Deary's "Horrible Histories" series and likewise is a history without the boring bits. Once I started reading this book I could not put it down. Several details are included which are not necessary for a work of history but are necessary for enjoyment and interest, such as: a certain newspaper editor who fortified his office with iron bars, a cannon, and a booby trap, as well as the mention of several secret societies, the presumption on the part of Virginians that Nat Turner was actually a priest from Haiti, and the nightly oath of Company K of the Seventh. I am not very knowledgeable about the Civil War, but this book has compelled me to learn more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A different take on the civil war period. December 14, 2012

By Jeremy

Format:Kindle Edition

Good Hater is a fascinating look at an individual who seemed to be in the right place at the right time for a neglected history that few speak of; but then again, I went to public school.

I say right place at the right time, but the individual profiled, George Hoyt, was an accomplished and intelligent man who placed himself where he wanted to be through sheer strength of will. He was a lawyer who went to war despite his physical ailments which surely made his journey that much more difficult and impressive.

It's also a fascinating look at how a country could become divided so quickly, and how good men seeking to accomplish good goals ultimately have to pick a side. Humans, when push comes to shove, are unable to maintain cognitive dissonance. Free speech, which George Hoyt once championed, went out the window when he gained the upper hand and led men out to kill. George Hoyt was rightly motivated by his righteous hate of slavery, but that seems to have also infected his soul. In the later part of his life, this lawyer-commander committed what we would today call war crimes. The book also reminds us, that in all these years, humans have not changed. Our partisan politics, although rancorous, are quite tame in comparison.

This book explores the fascinating pre and civil war environment, from John Brown's trial to Bleeding Kansas to behind Union lines from the perspective of this interesting man.

The writing is of comprehensive professional quality, The writers' style lends itself to a refreshingly neutral point of view that is quite rare in this day and age.

It's a quick read, and well worth your time and money. For me, it certainly kickstarted an interest in the civil war's less known battlefield. Not the front lines, but what was going on behind it.

More About the Author

Bill Hoyt holds an MA in history from Pittsburg State University, where he works as a database analyst. He won the 2012 PSU Graduate Research Colloquium for his decipherment of John Brown Junior's encrypted Civil War correspondence. He has been a featured speaker in the Bleeding Kansas Lecture Series and has addressed the Kansas Association of Historians. His graduate thesis, Good Hater: George Henry Hoyt's War on Slavery, was a PSU Distinguished Thesis finalist and a Topeka History Geeks book-of-the-month selection.

Huntress and other stories is his first foray into fantasy fiction.