After the long and agonizing struggle of the Civil War, with its lukewarm resolution of the issue of slavery, why did the nation fail in its efforts to take the next steps toward full citizenship for the formerly enslaved? Martinez examines the politics of race relations in the nineteenth century, from Lincoln’s struggles with his personal conscience and with the Radical Republicans to economic, social, and political factors that contributed to unfulfilled promises of Reconstruction and the political atmosphere that resulted in severe injustices codified into law. Martinez focuses on the Radical Republicans, particularly Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, and Benjamin Wade, and a host of fiery figures who fomented the issue of racial justice, including William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, Wendell Phillips, and Frederick Douglass. This is a compelling look at the heat and vituperation still evident in contemporary politics, with historical particularities of the nineteenth century, and the underlying issues of race that resonate today. Photos and illustrations, including political cartoons, offer a feel for the political sensibilities of the time.

Booklist

In this unflinching portrait, personalities come alive; the policies, philosophies, visions, aspirations, and foibles of political leaders provide high drama as well as compelling history. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of the history of politics during a critical half century of changing race relations.

Orville Vernon Burton, Clemson University

J. Michael Martinez, in Coming for to Carry Me Home, offers a sweeping yet incisive history of the politics of race in the tumultuous years between the rise of abolitionism and the advent of Jim Crow. The strength of Martinez’s narrative is the rich mixture of ways the author invites readers to feel the tensions and experience the ambiguities of known and unknown Americans who struggle with the nation’s most enduring moral dilemma.

Ronald C. White Jr., author of A. Lincoln: A Biography

In Coming for to Carry Me Home: Race in America from Abolitionism to Jim Crow, J. Michael Martinez claims that "the story of Abraham Lincoln and the Radical Republicans could be understood and appreciated only in the broader context of nineteenth-century race relations." Martinez has written a very nice examination of how the issue of race influenced and directed politicians, antislavery advocates, and policy makers from the years before the war through the end of Reconstruction.

Journal of Southern History