Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice Paperback – March 1, 2022

Not contemporary words, though they could and should be: they are from Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens during the Civil War, mocking as only he could the members of Congress willing to compromise on the treatment of slaves. Bruce Levine has given us Stevens again, at a time when we need his example. Voting rights, dignity and equality in society and before the law, equal economic opportunity--these were Stevens's lifelong cause. As if some big wheel has turned back to the same place, here we are again struggling with these issues. Stevens stands out for his moral clarity, his courage, his wit in the political arena. A splendid book, a splendid man.

In light of the thousands of books that have been written about the Civil War it is hard to believe that there can be a new book with an unexplored viewpoint. But Bruce Levine’s Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary, Fighter for Racial Justice, which describes the efforts of one relentless Congressman to end slavery and to grant full rights of citizenship to the former slaves, is just such a book.Thaddeus Stevens was a Congressman from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania during the years leading up to, and during, the Civil War. While Levine describes him as a very stubborn, principled person he also shows that he was a shrewd politician who knew how to pick and win his important battles.At the time that Stevens was first elected to Congress most Americans, even in those in the North, considered African Americans to be inferior to white Americans and not capable of exercising the rights of citizenship. The early Congressional battles over slavery involved the question of extension of slavery into the territories and the new states. Levine deftly incorporates quotes from Stevens’ speeches in Congress to demonstrate the evolution of his position on slavery during those early battles. He shows that, by the time the Civil War started, Stevens was in a small minority seeking to end slavery everywhere in the United States.When War broke out most Northerners did not go to war to eliminate slavery. They went to war to preserve the Union. And during the first years of the War, many of the most liberal Northerners, including Abraham Lincoln, sought to appease the seceded Southern states, and to encourage them to rejoin the Union, by crafting some type of plan to gradually terminate slavery or to resettle the former slaves in Africa.The Northerners seeking to appease the South abandoned those efforts only when they saw how successful the South was during the first years of the War. While most of Stevens’ fellow Congressmen were not, initially, anxious to take action to free the slaves, they were anxious to win the War. And Levine explains how Stevens advanced his antislavery position by strategically tying it to the War issue. Over the initial objections of his colleagues he was able to show that emancipating the slaves would weaken the South’s war effort and that permitting African Americans to enlist in the Union Army would strengthen the Union’s war effort.Levine explains that, even after they lost the War, Southerners were not ready to change the status of African Americans living in their midst. In fact, they planned to return the African Americans to their pre-war subservient status, using a name other than slavery. And the North, which was tired of the War by the time it was over and was unwilling to enforce the rights of the former slaves, pretty much looked the other way. But Stevens did everything that he could stiffen the North’s resolve.Stevens saw that reconstruction, as implemented by Andrew Johnson, was likely to undermine everything that the North had achieved for African Americans during the War. So his last great achievement before he died was passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments that amended the Constitution to grant to African Americans all rights of citizenship.Levine has written a valuable addition to the extensive existing library of Civil War books. His is a rare history book in that it both transmits historical events and builds, in the reader, true feelings of contempt for Stevens’ fellow Congressmen who remain indifferent to the plight of the slaves. I give this book four stars and recommend it for everyone.

One of my major takeaways after reading: Thaddeus Stevens was hardly an unalloyed hero. Nevertheless, his heart was usually in the right place. So, combining that ‘heart’ with a competent legislative mind, he was destined to come up with sound analyses and effective, humane solutions, e.g., the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution. Bruce Levine repeatedly notes instances where Stevens is a man ahead of his country and fellow patriots and sometimes forced to resort to a rapier wit in championing his occasionally unpopular positions, e.g., “If these [congress]men are statesmen, where are the fools to be found?”

To Bruce Levine: “ A portrait written about a true radical wrapped in humanity. Thaddeus Stevens the real founder of the civil rights movement, and the indictment of white supremacy against humanity. His name should be on many Federal buildings, high schools, college campuses, especially HBCU’s. Taddeus Steven was highly instrumental in the dismantling and destruction of slavery of the time. Bruce Levine, this book was very inspirational. You did your research, Great job ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ !!

His life long fight to emancipat the slaves. It is a book worth reading

This is a must for people interested in the Civil War and civil rights. Well-written and researched biography of an often overlooked mover and shaker.

History classes throughout the United States generally give Abraham Lincoln credit for freeing the slaves. But after reading Bruce Levine’s “Thaddeus Stevens,” I believe that may be a misperception.Throughout Levine’s book, I was struck by the repeated way the author described Lincoln. In many cases, Levine paints Lincoln as far more conservative in abolishing slavery than Stevens. For example, in one chapter Levine quotes from a New York Times article that reflected Lincoln’s position on slavery before the Civil War. “It suggested that Lincoln would have preferred a bill that was a little less hasty and radical, one that implemented abolition in Washington gradually rather than immediately and even than had done so only with the approval of the local white population.”It’s clear that Stevens certainly must deserve much of the credit for repeatedly pressing legislation that abolished slavery. He was considerably ahead of Lincoln in coming to that conclusion.Stevens was also ahead of his time when it came to political parties. According to Levine, he branded loyalty to a political party as being a mortal threat to the nation. “Party spirit is the nurse of treachery and revenge and the parent of corruption.” He accurately predicted that loyalty to political parties would eventually “foment political division among the citizenry which soon grows up into civil tumults and worse. Then every tie which connects society is rent asunder.”Had Stevens been alive today to see our political divisions he would have every reason to say, “I told you so.”

Just starting to read it. My dad went to his school in 1940s ww11and taught night school there in 1960s. Glad to see more information about Thaddeus Stevens.