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Chapter 17: History’s Emancipator
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Stamped from the Beginning, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Discrimination, Racist Ideas, and Ignorance
Segregationists and Assimilationists vs. Antiracists
Media, Institutions, and the Transmission of Knowledge
The Invention of Blackness and Whiteness
The Illogic of Racism
Summary
Analysis
In 1863, Garrison’s son Willie brings home a friend, the German-American journalist Henry Villard, who tells Garrison about the Gullah people of the South Carolina coast. Not able to understand their creole language or African religious practices, Villard calls the Gullah people “brutes.” His words are typical of the almost uniformly racist position of the American elite. By this point in the Civil War, Lincoln has started actively imploring Black people to join the Union Army. Yet some white Union soldiers viciously resent the idea of having to fight alongside Black people. During the war, the racist ideas of both Republicans and Democrats shifted to suit the new environment wherein Black people were suddenly fighting alongside white people against slavery.
The seemingly banal story of Henry Villard telling Garrison and his family about the Gullah people and calling them “brutes” is an example of the way that racist knowledge is disseminated via those in unearned positions of authority. Because he is a journalist and a member of the white male elite, Villard is endowed with authority within the culture of his time. Yet when it comes to the Gullah people, who have a complex, rich culture that he doesn’t understand, this authority is unearned, leading him to dismiss them as “brutes.”
Themes
The debate about Black men’s suitability as soldiers comes to a head during a hand-to-hand battle between around 600 exhausted Black soldiers and the Confederate army in South Carolina. Lincoln faces pressure to drop the issue of colonization, as people argue that by serving in the Civil War, Black people have “earned” their American citizenship. Sure enough, by the summer of 1863, Lincoln signals that the prospect of colonization is no more. Yet the question of how a unified nation could rebuild itself after war remains far from resolved. The abolitionist Wendell Phillips protests that Lincoln is a half-hearted centrist and that his plan for the South “frees the slave and ignores the negro.”
The notions that Black people must “prove” their suitability as soldiers and “earn” their right to American citizenship are prime examples of the absurd illogic of racism. Meanwhile, Wendell Phillips pronouncement that Lincoln “frees the slave and ignores” Black people becomes one of the most famous lines describing the political climate of this era. Black people may be granted freedom from slavery, but their leaders like Lincoln as well as ordinary white people still refuse to acknowledge their humanity.
Themes
Yet Garrison, who has made a career out of urgency, insists that his fellow abolitionists be patient before judging Lincoln’s plans. As Maryland begins to rebuild as a free state in 1864, Lincoln delivers a powerful speech in which he reflects on the hypocrisy of slavery in America, the land of freedom. By this point, Lincoln certainly thinks of himself as the Great Emancipator whose job it now is to educate and “civiliz[e]” Black people. Yet Maryland’s new constitution prevents Black people from economic advancement; following emancipation thousands of Black children in the state are involuntarily placed in “long-term indentures to their former masters.” Lincoln speaks about rights for Black people, but in reality he engineers policies that ensure Black people remain oppressed.
The divide between Lincoln’s rhetoric and his actions sets a new, enduring trend for American politicians. The fact that Lincoln and leaders like him use the language of antiracism while instituting policies that continue to harm Black people means that it is a mistake to focus on language and intention when it comes to racism. Instead, people should scrutinize the outcomes of political actions to see if they actually have an antiracist effect or not.
Themes
In 1864, the American Freedmen’s Inquiry Commission lays out a set of recommendations including equal rights, opportunities for Black people to buy land, and the founding of a Bureau of Emancipation to assist the formerly enslaved. Yet even this recommendation of rights stops far short of treating Black and white people as truly equal. Garrison, meanwhile, continues to comment on the “brutishness” of the formerly enslaved and advocates for Lincoln’s limited offer of rights, which precludes Black people without formal education from voting.
In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, a myth circulates that both Black people and white leaders do not know how to address the social problems left in slavery’s wake. Yet as this passage indicates, the issue wasn’t ignorance around solutions—generally, people knew what should happen in order for the formerly enslaved to flourish. There was instead an absence of will to implement it.
Themes
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By August of 1864, it looks as if the Union is going to lose the Civil War. Yet against the odds, Lincoln is reelected. The formerly enslaved editor of the The Liberator, Garrison Frazier, insists that Black people cannot be truly free without owning land of their own. In this way, Black advocates make a clear distinction between abolishing slavery and actually freeing the enslaved. Many also object to the idea of assimilating into white society or the use of uplift suasion. By June 1865, thousands of formerly enslaved people are given plots of land and mules. Yet this policy remains highly controversial, as many Americans cling to the idea that the emancipated have been so damaged by slavery that they cannot be left to their own devices.
This passage contains another reflection on the question of what freedom actually means. Is it enough to abolish slavery and pronounce that Black people are now free? Or is it, as Frazier suggests, not really freedom unless basic economic justice for the formerly enslaved is instituted as well? This question is particularly urgent given how much slavery has robbed of those subjected to it. The formerly enslaved have no wealth, no access to resources, and usually no education. They also face a world that is still heavily discriminatory toward them.
Themes
In January 1865, the House of Representatives passes the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolishes slavery. This is a welcomed development amidst fierce infighting among abolitionists. Garrison remains stubbornly opposed to the prospect of granting voting rights to the formerly enslaved. In March Congress founds the Freedmen’s Bureau, which is charged with the highly challenging task of bestowing legal rights on those who formerly had none. On April 9, Lee’s army surrenders, and the Civil War is officially over. In a speech immediately following this, Lincoln hints that he plans to extend voting rights to “very intelligent black people and black soldiers.” This is the first time an American president has openly considered any form of Black suffrage. Only five days later, the president is murdered at the theater by Confederate assassin John Wilkes Booth.
In popular understandings of this period, Lincoln is often framed as a martyr killed for his support of abolition and Black people. As this passage mentions, it’s true that shortly before his death, Lincoln begins talking about the possibility of Black enfranchisement, and it is true that Boothe is furious at Lincoln about the end of slavery. But Kendi underscores that Lincoln is not a martyr for the cause of antiracism because he is not remotely antiracist. Just because proslavery segregationists like Boothe perceive him as such does not make it true.
Themes
