Author: Dana Neacsu

p. 131/2: Who, when, and why did he say: “God grant I may never be blind”?

p.133/34: Who was Gorham? Who were the Crosswhites? Why did Gorham say (and to whom): “Charles T. Gorham, write it in capital letters.”

p. 135/36: What was H.B. Brown history with the Republican Party? How was his professional career’s beginning indebted to politics?

p. 137/8 What was H.B. Brown’s view of Wigwam?

p. 139/40 What precedent-setting lawsuit got H.B. Brown’s attention?

p. 140/1 What were the facts in Day v. Owen?

p. 141: What notable difference did the author mention between H.B. Brown and Day?

p.142. Where did Day obtain his college education? Why? What was his role in the NNC?

p.143: What was the consequence of an all-Republican Michigan Supreme Court Bench on Day’s case?

p. 144: Why did H.B. Brown thanked the Lord in his mercy on his last journal entry for 1861?

p. 145/6: Why was H.B. Brown excited that Sumter/Sumpter was attacked the very next morning after his appointment as Deputy U.S. Marshal?

p. 147: What was H.B. Brown obliged to advocate? What was the “Oh!” for?

p. 148: What was H.B.B’s job in 1862?

p. 149: What did H.B.B do in 1863? What about 1864?

p. 150 Whose war ended for the price of $850?

1. p. 107 What happened on a cool October night that brought together the Harlan’s household, whites and blacks, in prayer?
2. p. 108. The Know Nothings were skirting the slavery issue, focusing instead on immigration and economic issues. Why?
3. p. 109/111 During his run for Congress, what was James Harlan’s position on slavery?
4. p. 112/13 What was the Douglas’ Doctrine?
5. p. 114/15 When he lost by a mere 67 votes, what did John Harlan decide to do? Contest the election?
6. 116/7 How many did Abraham Lincoln win? Where were they situated? And what happened with the ballot in 10 of the states he lost?
7. p. 118 What were Harlan’s worries about Kentucky after the Lincoln’s win?
8. p. 119 Harlan was considered a traitor because he chose Lincoln’s side. Why?
9. How did he follow in his father’s clandestine footsteps?
10. p. 120/1 In what gun operation was Harlan involved?
11. p. 121/2 What importance did Lincoln give Kentucky in terms of preserving union?

12. p. 122 Lincoln believed that if Kentucky was lost from the Union, other states would secede. Which states?

13. p. 123 How did the war reach Louisville?

14. p. 124/8 What was John Harlan’s involvement in the war? What was his cause?

p. 90 What are your thoughts about the New Orleans Guide created by a New York journalist in 1853. Does it make you think of some particular German Laws from the 1900s?

p. 91/92. What is the New Orleans, January 8th celebration about?

p. 93. Who were the people Andrew Jackson called “noble-hearted, [and] generous”?

p. 94. What can we say about the 1/8 parade and its annual procession, in 1860, as opposed to 1851?

p. 95. Who were the gens de couleur libre?

p. 96. Why was military service attractive to all?

p. 96/7. What was the Spanish Law coartacion about?

p. 98. What does it mean that the Plessy children were quarteron libre?

p.98/9. What were the rights of free people of color in 1860 New Orleans?

p. 100 What was remarkable about “Old Jordan,” and why this name (no last name)?

p. 101. What did the Louisiana Supreme Court decide in 1856?

p. 101/02. What did the law about “voluntary” slavery offer?

p. 69-70: Who are Emma, and Albion Tourgee, and why is Donati’s Comet mentioned in … Ohio?

p. 71: What is remarkable about Kingsville Academy (go to 75: “we shall all come out some distinguished Literati, as we are near a flourishing academy?

p. 72: What “grand privilege” did Albion see in making it on his own?

p. 73/74: What do we learn about life in Massachusetts and in Ohio in mid-19th century?

p. 76: ANy thoughts why Milton was allowed to be read by Albion but not Scott?

John Milton’s dictating Paradise Lost to his daughters

OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast
Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above th' Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhime.
And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
Before all Temples th' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know'st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad'st it pregnant: What in me is dark
Illumin, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justifie the wayes of God to men.

Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe.

p. 76-77. What do we learn about Ohio’s own North-South divide?

p. 78-80. How is Albion described? What are his memorable features?

p. 81. What does Albion believe about his privileges? Where they earned or where they an accident?

p. 82-86. What is remarkable about Albion’s and Emma’s courtship?

p. 86-87: What caused Albion believe that “in a courtroom the weak could become stronger”? Are these his thoughts or the author’s?

p. The Law School at the University of Rochester offered Albion his chance to “cultivate steadiness of character.” Why was that goal important?

p. 47: What can we say about Luxenberg’s style: appropriate for a work of non-fiction?

p. 48: What type of relationship did Henry Brown and his mother seem to have (contrast with the relationship between Henry Brown and his father – last paragraph p. 49)

p. 49: Did the events mentioned on p. 49 – last paragraph – are familiar to you?

p. 50-51; What can we say about Henry’s feelings for Mary Brown and Billings Brown?

p.52 What was the title of Brown’s winning essay, and what is your opinion about his take on public amusements?

p. 53. When you read that HB, a Yale Graduate, spent too many hours and too much money on whiskey punches and larger beer, did you involuntarily think about a (relatively) recently appointed Supreme Court Justice, like I did?

p. 54-55- 56; A year of European travel; NYC ante bellum; Clayton’s no law authorising granting passports to colored people.

p. 57. Do you think that a certificate of protection” was equally efficient? The word citizen appeared nowhere on the certificate.

p. 58-59. What did Charles Robinson mean by the statement that “the 1856 presidential election would determine the country’s future.” Think about “Bleeding Kansas”.

p. 59-61. What do you make of the parallel between the voyage and sea and the presidential elections of 1856 as a prelude to the future of the country?

61-62 The United States Supreme Court held in Dred Scott that slavery was not a federal but a state issue. How do you square that decision with federal citizenship?

p. 63. How do you interpret “dismissed for want of jurisdiction” on the case cover?

p.64. When explaining his rasist decision, justice taney ignored the Massachusetts’ 1843 interracial law. Why do you think taney did that?

p. 65. Do you believe that the reasoning in Dred Scott was more a matter of taste rather than law? Explain.

p. 66. Could you think of anyone today whose occupation might be “gentleman”?

Chapter 2: Harlan of Kentucky

p. 25. What detail regarding the age of Malvina Shanklin inspires some confusion about the mores of that time, in today’s reader?

p. 26. What commonality do you see between John Marshall Harlan and yourself, if any?

p. 27. What was one the cultural meanings of the Ohio River before the Civil War?

p. 28. What can we say about the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850?

p. 29. What happened when a steamer captain on his way from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, brought Douglas and Remond into the dining room?

p. 30. Who was Robert Harlan?

p. 31. What did a Louisville Daily Journal advertisement say?

p. 32. How old was Mallie when John Harlan proposed?

p. 33. Please explain, Mallie’s uncle “would rather have seen me in my grave than have me marry a Southern man and go to live in the South.”

p. 34-36. What detail from Harlan’s teenage years impressed you?

p.36-37. What represented the constitutional “radical error” the author mentions?

p.38. What does it mean that “in the Harlan household, slavery relied on the rule of law?”

p.39-40. What represented the “Know Nothings?”

p.40-41. What is remarkable about John Harlan’s induction (secret oath)?

p. 42. The 20-30 miles distance between towns was viewed as grueling for the young Harlan. Why?

p. 43.What caused “Bloody Monday”?

p.44. What can be said about the Know Nothing strategy during the 1855 elections?

p.45. What was Mallie’s wedding present, given to her at the Harlan homestead?