The Struggle for Equality

James M. McPherson is the George Henry Davis '86 Professor of History Emeritus at Princeton University. His many books include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom and the New York Times bestseller Crossroads of Freedom.

Preface to the Princeton Classics Edition ix Preface xiii Key to Abbreviations xvii Introduction 3 I The Election of 1860 9 II Secession and the Coming of War 29 III The Emancipation Issue: 1861 52 IVEmancipation and Public Opinion: 1861-1862 75 V The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment 99 VI The Negro: Innately Inferior or Equal? 134 VII Freedmen's Education: 1861-1865 154 VIII The Creation of the Freedmen's Bureau 178 IX Men of Color, to Arms! 192 X The Quest for Equal Rights in the North 221 XI The Ballot and Land for the Freedmen: 1861-1865 238 XII The Reelection of Lincoln 260 XIII Schism in the Ranks: 1864-1865 287 XIV Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction: 1865 308 XV The Fourteenth Amendment and the Election of 1866 341 XVI Military Reconstruction and Impeachment 367 XVII Education and Confiscation 1865-1870 386 XVIII The Climax of the Crusade: the Fifteenth Amendment 417 Bibliographical Essay 433 Index 451