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A review by aegagrus
North Star Country: Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom by Milton Sernett
3.75
As a resident of what was once the Burned-Over District, I thoroughly appreciated this. Although North Star Country is fairly narrow in focus and mostly chronological in structure, its ten chapters did not always seem to comprise a cohesive throughline. To greater or lesser extents, each chapter seemed unique in its purpose and methods.
Chapter 1 described the unique spiritual environment of central and western New York during the Second Great Awakening. Thanks to a combination of Charles Grandison Finney's style of revivalism and the cultural influence of congregationalist New Englanders moving into the region, the region's religious culture was fervent, but typified by a highly-demanding, highly-idealistic, inward-looking moral perfectionism (in contrast to the more charismatic revivalism emerging elsewhere). Moving into Chapter 2, Sernett explains that this spiritual milieu was the basis on which Garrisonian abolitionists put down roots in the region and eventually displaced the advocates of recolonization. The Garrisonians' philosophy of "moral suasion" demanded that those complicit in slavery be convinced of the error of their ways, publicly repent, and change their behavior out of genuine conviction. It was an ethically uncompromising but practically unrealistic stance, rejecting political action in favor of an untarnished clarion call of conviction. I found these chapters very useful in contextualizing the very specific kind of "radicalism" the Garrisonians embodied, which is somewhat alien to our own context.
Chapters 3 and 4 describe the nascent abolitionist movements in the region beginning to meddle with organizational politics, breaking with the New England Garrisonians to establish the small Liberty Party, grappling with the promise and limitations of single-issue electoral politics, and agitating within their communities and churches, notably forming many "comeouter" congregations which explicitly broke with the organized Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian bodies of the time. Sernett does a good job recounting these internecine debates and struggles, as well as the characters involved -- by this time, many noteworthy abolitionists (both Black and white) called the region home, including Frederick Douglass, who had moved to Rochester. Notably, though, all of this politicking occurs in the context of a still-marginal movement -- even when the abolitionists did field candidates under their Liberty ticket, their electoral success was extremely limited and eventually swallowed up by the larger (and less firmly anti-slavery) Free Soil movement. While the political narrative is compelling, and Sernett does make some effective points about the role of Black abolitionists in rejecting the anti-political approach earlier expounded by Garrison and his allies, he doesn't spend much time here laying out the medium- or long-term implications of this marginal politicking in terms of actually convincing people or altering outcomes.
Chapter 5 moves away from the political fringes to describe how anti-slavery sentiment became more widespread in Upstate cities after the Fugitive Slave Law of 1851, most notably Syracuse, where the famous "Jerry Rescue" and other acts of popular resistance to slave hunters and federal agents took place. Sernett distinguishes between the ardently abolitionist instigators of these vigilante actions and the crowds gathering in their support, many of whom harbored more resentment towards southern interference than antipathy towards slavery itself; however, I found myself wishing for more exploration as to how often and how easily the latter evolved into the former. Chapters 6 through 8 follow in a similar vein of describing specific cities and towns and their role in the national abolitionist project, describing Douglass' base of operations in Rochester, Harriet Tubman's base of operations in Auburn, the local influence of Samuel J. May in Syracuse, and the way in which John Brown used Upstate New York as a space in which to network with prominent abolitionists, develop plans, and raise money, in between his missions to Kansas and eventually to Harper's Ferry. These chapters also contain some very effective descriptions of how the relatively small but vocal Black communities in many of these cities organized and played a key role in the cities' overall character and the landscape of anti-slavery agitation.
Chapters 9 and 10, which are primarily devoted to the experience of Black and white Upstate New Yorkers leading up to and during the Civil War, are well-constructed, but somewhat more general, and provided the fewest specific takeaways or themes.
To turn to the book as a whole. I deeply appreciate the way Sernett recontextualizes many towns, cities, and landmarks with which I'm familiar in the light of their important history, when the corridor down the Erie Canal from Utica to Buffalo had a profound religious, cultural, and political impact on the nation. I did find myself wanting more in terms of a thesis being advanced, a theme or argument being developed across the entire set of chapters, and specific implications or takeaways, especially for Chapters 6-10, which feature some of the book's most direct and memorable storytelling but also seem to provide the least in terms of a conceptual or narrative upshot.
Ultimately, however, I think I have been somewhat jaded by the norm in academic history to claim a revolutionary perspective or insight, even when one is not readily apparent. Sernett does not hide why he constructed North Star Country the way he did, seeing it primarily as a project of stewardship; a way of recognizing, honoring, and preserving the history of a region in which he too resides. While this imperative may lead to a book which has less of a unique perspective on its own, and may at times seem to present a bit of a patchwork of topics, considering Sernett's book in the light of his stated priorities, it is hard to term it anything but a great success.
Chapter 1 described the unique spiritual environment of central and western New York during the Second Great Awakening. Thanks to a combination of Charles Grandison Finney's style of revivalism and the cultural influence of congregationalist New Englanders moving into the region, the region's religious culture was fervent, but typified by a highly-demanding, highly-idealistic, inward-looking moral perfectionism (in contrast to the more charismatic revivalism emerging elsewhere). Moving into Chapter 2, Sernett explains that this spiritual milieu was the basis on which Garrisonian abolitionists put down roots in the region and eventually displaced the advocates of recolonization. The Garrisonians' philosophy of "moral suasion" demanded that those complicit in slavery be convinced of the error of their ways, publicly repent, and change their behavior out of genuine conviction. It was an ethically uncompromising but practically unrealistic stance, rejecting political action in favor of an untarnished clarion call of conviction. I found these chapters very useful in contextualizing the very specific kind of "radicalism" the Garrisonians embodied, which is somewhat alien to our own context.
Chapters 3 and 4 describe the nascent abolitionist movements in the region beginning to meddle with organizational politics, breaking with the New England Garrisonians to establish the small Liberty Party, grappling with the promise and limitations of single-issue electoral politics, and agitating within their communities and churches, notably forming many "comeouter" congregations which explicitly broke with the organized Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian bodies of the time. Sernett does a good job recounting these internecine debates and struggles, as well as the characters involved -- by this time, many noteworthy abolitionists (both Black and white) called the region home, including Frederick Douglass, who had moved to Rochester. Notably, though, all of this politicking occurs in the context of a still-marginal movement -- even when the abolitionists did field candidates under their Liberty ticket, their electoral success was extremely limited and eventually swallowed up by the larger (and less firmly anti-slavery) Free Soil movement. While the political narrative is compelling, and Sernett does make some effective points about the role of Black abolitionists in rejecting the anti-political approach earlier expounded by Garrison and his allies, he doesn't spend much time here laying out the medium- or long-term implications of this marginal politicking in terms of actually convincing people or altering outcomes.
Chapter 5 moves away from the political fringes to describe how anti-slavery sentiment became more widespread in Upstate cities after the Fugitive Slave Law of 1851, most notably Syracuse, where the famous "Jerry Rescue" and other acts of popular resistance to slave hunters and federal agents took place. Sernett distinguishes between the ardently abolitionist instigators of these vigilante actions and the crowds gathering in their support, many of whom harbored more resentment towards southern interference than antipathy towards slavery itself; however, I found myself wishing for more exploration as to how often and how easily the latter evolved into the former. Chapters 6 through 8 follow in a similar vein of describing specific cities and towns and their role in the national abolitionist project, describing Douglass' base of operations in Rochester, Harriet Tubman's base of operations in Auburn, the local influence of Samuel J. May in Syracuse, and the way in which John Brown used Upstate New York as a space in which to network with prominent abolitionists, develop plans, and raise money, in between his missions to Kansas and eventually to Harper's Ferry. These chapters also contain some very effective descriptions of how the relatively small but vocal Black communities in many of these cities organized and played a key role in the cities' overall character and the landscape of anti-slavery agitation.
Chapters 9 and 10, which are primarily devoted to the experience of Black and white Upstate New Yorkers leading up to and during the Civil War, are well-constructed, but somewhat more general, and provided the fewest specific takeaways or themes.
To turn to the book as a whole. I deeply appreciate the way Sernett recontextualizes many towns, cities, and landmarks with which I'm familiar in the light of their important history, when the corridor down the Erie Canal from Utica to Buffalo had a profound religious, cultural, and political impact on the nation. I did find myself wanting more in terms of a thesis being advanced, a theme or argument being developed across the entire set of chapters, and specific implications or takeaways, especially for Chapters 6-10, which feature some of the book's most direct and memorable storytelling but also seem to provide the least in terms of a conceptual or narrative upshot.
Ultimately, however, I think I have been somewhat jaded by the norm in academic history to claim a revolutionary perspective or insight, even when one is not readily apparent. Sernett does not hide why he constructed North Star Country the way he did, seeing it primarily as a project of stewardship; a way of recognizing, honoring, and preserving the history of a region in which he too resides. While this imperative may lead to a book which has less of a unique perspective on its own, and may at times seem to present a bit of a patchwork of topics, considering Sernett's book in the light of his stated priorities, it is hard to term it anything but a great success.