The American Civil War is one of the most controverter parts of American history. It bore all sorts of names from the more neutral "War between the states" to the revealing name of "Abolition war" or even "Secession war". Those different ways of referring to it are revealing of how complex this war was and furthermore of how differently it could be perceived from one person to another. The most basic preconceived ideas about the subject were that the war was the mere display of an opposition between the North and the South. Of course it was considerably more complicated than that as testifies the reading of memoirs from the period.
It could be interesting to ponder over two contrasting visions of the war through the analysis of the autobiographic memoirs of two individuals that everything seemed to separate; their age, gender, race, politics and geography. On the one hand, Kate Stone was 20 years old when the war broke and when she started her journal. She lived in Louisiana at the time with her young mother and numerous siblings in a prosperous plantation where they owned as many as 150 slaves. On the other hand, Frederick Douglass was 43 when the war started and published his third autobiography The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass in 1881, the first in which he evokes the civil war era. The aim of this essay will be to focus on the historical interest of these two novels insisting on how relevant and informative they are about the period.
[...] First is being a man, opposes him to Stone as gossip was the daily pleasure of women in the 19th century especially among the bourgeoisie. Men were usually more interested in talking politics. That is actually what Douglass mainly focused on. Where Stone gave a historical but also sociologic insight of the war, Douglass really mainly focused on discussing political issues. In that way, Stone's journal seems more comprehensive as a journal, however, as he focuses on politics, Douglass' contribution on the matter are of a superior quality as he is able to offer a more critical and reliable inputs on the subject. [...]
[...] Douglass on the other hand, acknowledges the division within the North and is aware of the fact that the reasons of the war are not easily defined, that all northerners do not consider the war an antislavery war: “McClellan, in command of the army, had been trying, apparently, to put down the rebellion without hurting the rebels, certainly without hurting slavery.”[7] He possessed that critical perception that allowed him to understand precisely that the war broke for economic reasons and that the preservation of the Union was the number one priority; slavery was at first a side issue. [...]
[...] She was extremely worried of her brother not getting a promotion: oh the disappointment that he is still only captain I fear now he will never be promoted.”[16] This constant war pressure seems to be a microcosm of the whole South. In fact, the example of M. Valentine is revealing of that idea. He did not believe in the well-founded of this war and forbade his son from participating in it and is of course criticized by Kate: him, the whole affair is a grand humbug, the enthusiasm and patriotism of the South something to be mocked and sneered at. [...]
[...] However, these doubts on the reliability of the information are a huge part of what makes Stone's journal so authentic and testify of how information was circulating in the war era. As far as Douglass' autobiography is concerned, it seems safe to say that, having been written under different circumstances, most his statements are reliable. He wrote his memoir under no pressure and was able to look back on events with more critical distance. As a conclusion it is possible to say that both these memoirs have something to bring some light on the period. [...]
[...] In fact, he was already one of the most famous Blacks of the nation, while Stone was still anonymous. This considered, his actions in the war had a greater impact than Stone's. If Stone had some knowledge and interest for the political system, Douglass had a real access to the political world and extremely good connections. He was able to obtain an appointment with President Lincoln himself to talk about black soldiers' ill-treatment and eventually obtained the president's promise to deal with it. [...]
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