"This book examines the contrast between progress on emancipation and the persistence of virulent racism and white supremacist attitudes in the Civil War North. It analyzes both northern politics and the racial attitudes and assumptions that were revealed in newspapers, books, and magazines. Its central arguments are about the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and the racism that flourished in Northern society and culture"--

"This book argues that racism and white supremacist attitudes in the North, and not just the opposition of Andrew Johnson, blocked the adoption of Black suffrage (for men) in 1865. The virulent, racist tactics of the Democratic Party, as well as racism among a minority of Republicans and the small size of the northern Black population helped explain why the vigorous efforts of northern Blacks, southern Blacks, abolitionists, and Radical Republicans...