Notes Concerning the Author
Howard Ray White (1938 – ____) was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of two school teachers. He received a degree in chemical engineering at Vanderbilt University and worked in that profession until retiring in 2,000 at age 62. His main avocation over the past 20 years has been the study of and understanding of American political history with a focus on the politics that produced sectionalism, state secession and what he calls “The Federal Invasion of the Confederacy.” As White learned our history, especially an understanding of the lives and character of key political leaders, he wrote. The result was his 4-volume chronological and narrative history, Bloodstains, An Epic History of the Politics that Produced and Sustained the American Civil War and the Political Reconstruction that Followed. Click on the link below to see our review of the Bloodstains series:
Continuing his work in relating the history of the Southern people, White is presently Director of Operations for the Society of Independent Southern Historians, where non-academics and “independent-minded” academics come together to present our truthful history and preserve the best writings of the past.
Abstract
The most influential literary contribution to the politics of the northern States during the mid-to-late 1850’s — helping incite State Secession and a horrific four-year War that killed 360,000 Federal invaders of the Confederacy — was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1851-52, just before the onset of “Bleeding Kansas.”
Likewise, that war’s most influential music/poetry contribution — morally justifying, in the minds of many northern States people, the military conquest of the Confederacy and the huge death toll suffered — was Julia Ward Howe’s poem “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (1861), inspired by the then-recent Federal army camp folk song, John Brown’s Body, which was an intentional mockery of a very popular, traditional South Carolina church revival song, “Say Brothers,” its music and lyrics written by William Steffe a few years earlier. The “Battle Hymn” is handed down to us today as “lyrics by Julia Ward Howe and music by William Steffe.”
The two essays in this booklet are excerpted from Howard Ray White’s four volume history, titled, “Bloodstains, an Epic History of the Politics that Produced and Sustained the American Civil War and the Political Reconstruction that Followed.” This booklet and other works by the writer are available as e-books and as print books on Amazon.com.
In the mid-1800’s women were not to be leaders in politics and religion, but Harriet Beecher Stowe and Julia Ward Howe did just that. Of Harriet, daughter of Lyman Beecher and sister of Henry Ward Beecher, both influential Abolitionists/ministers/educators, Sinclair Lewis would write: “Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the first evidence to America that no hurricane can be so disastrous to a country as a ruthlessly humanitarian woman.” The same could be equally said of Julia Ward Howe, a close friend of Senator Charles Sumner, married to Boston Abolitionist leader Samuel Howe — one of the “Secret Six” financial supporters of the notorious John Brown. You have to search far and wide to find a song more hateful than “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
The horrific War Between the States killed 360,000 men in the Federal invasion force and 260,000 men fighting in defense of the Confederate States of America.
Availability of the Booklet
This booklet of 44 pages can be obtained at Amazon as a paperback or as a Kindle e-book. The writer can supply a paperback version if you email him at howardraywhite@gmail.com . To view this book on Amazon, click on the link below:
HRW