The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War

by Joanne B. Freeman

Overview

"One of the best history books I've read in the last few years." —Chris Hayes

The Field of Blood recounts the previously untold story of the violence in Congress that helped spark the Civil War.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
ONE OF SMITHSONIAN'S BEST HISTORY BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Historian Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the U.S. Congress. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that the Capitol was rife with conflict in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery.

These fights didn’t happen in a vacuum. Freeman’s dramatic accounts of brawls and thrashings tell a larger story of how fisticuffs and journalism, and the powerful emotions they elicited, raised tensions between North and South and led toward war. In the process, she brings the antebellum Congress to life, revealing its rough realities—the feel, sense, and sound of it—as well as its nation-shaping import.

Funny, tragic, and rivetingly told, The Field of Blood offers a front-row view of congressional mayhem and sheds new light on the careers of John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and other luminaries, as well as introducing a host of lesser-known but no less fascinating men. The result is a fresh understanding of the workings of American democracy and the bonds of Union on the eve of their greatest peril.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250234582
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	09/10/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	86,406
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Joanne B. Freeman, a professor of history and American studies at Yale University, is a leading authority on early national politics and political culture. The author of the award-winning Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic and editor of The Essential Hamilton and Alexander Hamilton: Writings, she is a cohost of the popular history podcast BackStory.

Table of Contents

Introductions: Tobacco-Stained Rugs and Benjamin Brown French
1. The Union Incarnate for Better and Worse: The United States Congress
2. The Mix of Men in Congress: Meeting Place of North and South
3. The Pull and Power of Violence: The Cilley-Graves Duel (1838)
4. Rules of Order and the Rule of Force: Dangerous Words and the Gag Rule Debate (1836-1844)
5. Fighting for the Union: The Compromise of 1850 and the Benton-Foote Scuffle (1850)
6. A Tale of Two Conspiracies: The Power of the Press and the Battle over Kansas (1854-1855)
7. Republicans Meet the Slave Power: Charles Sumner and Beyond (1855-1861)
Epilogue: "I Witnessed It All"

Editorial Reviews

A New York Times Notable Book of 2018
An NPR Best Book of 2018
One of Smithsonian's Best History Books of 2018

Finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize
Semifinalist for the PEN/ John Kenneth Galbraith Award

"Given the enormous literature on the Civil War era, it’s difficult for a historian to say something genuinely new, but Freeman has managed to do just that . . . Freeman is a meticulous researcher and a vivid writer, and The Field of Blood makes for entertaining reading." —Eric Foner, The London Review of Books

"An impressive feat of research . . . Freeman's story [. . .] has elements of both horror and slapstick . . . The Field of Blood [. . . ] feels current. The political discourse it documents, if not the level of political violence, is alarmingly familiar in our own time . . ." —Andrew Delbanco, The Nation

"Superb . . . Freeman has written a smartly argued, diligently researched, even groundbreaking book." —Eric Herschtal, The New Republic

"Absorbing, scrupulously researched . . . Freeman uncovers the brawls, stabbings, pummelings, and duel threats that occurred among United States congressmen during the three decades just before the Civil War.... Men and women crowded the Congressional galleries with the expectation of seeing entertaining outbreaks, much the way fans of professional wrestling or hockey do today . . . But Freeman never loses sight of the fact that fighting in Congress was far more than a sport." —David S. Reynolds, The New York Times Book Review

“A superb, serious, authoritative, lively, occasionally amusing work of scholarly bravura . . . Freeman’s research is prodigious, her scholarship unimpeachable. By shifting her gaze from the conventionally cited causes of the Civil War, she has deepened our understanding of its coming. ” —James M. Banner, Jr., The Weekly Standard

"Fascinating . . . [Field of Blood] demonstrates the historic truth of an observation by black activist H. Rap Brown in the 1960s: ‘Violence is a part of America’s culture; it is as American as cherrypie.’ . . . [Joanne B.] Freeman’s book goes far toward explaining why there was a Civil War." —H.W. Brands, The Wall Street Journal

"In her vivid and remarkable new book . . . Joanne B. Freeman puts dozens of forgotten episodes of political violence into stark context . . . Freeman's wry touch and appreciation for the absurdities of politics – and politicians – give the book a burst of energy and readability. Most vitally, the story she tells has heightened relevance in our own tumultuous era." —Randy Dotinga, Christian Science Monitor

"Freeman's research, both archival and secondary, is stunning ... [her] prose is clear and accessible ... [a] superb volume, which should stand for years as one of the most important books on the antebellum era." —Douglas R. Egerton, Civil War Book Review

“Compelling and enlightening . . . Freeman’s pathbreaking book should be read by anyone interested in Congress, the Civil War or American history in general.” —Roger Bishop, BookPage

“Leavened by the author’s wry wit, the book is a page turning triumph of narrative history, deeply researched and persuasively argued. It explains, more lucidly than ever before, “the wrenching experience of plotting a political path in a nation behind torn in two.” —Brian Matthew Jordan, New York Journal of Books

“With narrative flair and scholarly gravitas, Joanne Freeman has given us a powerful and original account of a ferociously divided America. For readers who think things in the first decades of the 21st century have never been worse, Freeman’s portrait of a tempestuous and tumultuous U.S. Congress offers a sobering and illuminating corrective. She shows us that the battles of the Civil War began not at Fort Sumter but in the U.S. Capitol, providing a new and compelling angle of vision on the origins of what Lincoln called our ‘fiery trial.’”
—Jon Meacham, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The American Lion

“In 1861, Americans grimly set to slaughtering the better part of a million of their fellow citizens. It was the most extraordinary break in the nation’s history—and Joanne Freeman charts its approach in an extraordinary new way. With insightful analysis and vivid detail, she explores the human relationships among congressmen before the Civil War, and finds a culture of astonishing violence. In fistfights, duels, and mass brawls, her innovative account detects steps toward disunion—and changes how we think about political history.” —T.J. Stiles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Custer’s Trials

“Joanne B. Freeman’s erudition—and humor—are their own accomplishment, but it’s remarkable a masterful work on the disruptive state of the Union arrives precisely at this time. There could be no better guide. I’m left wondering whether America is in a state of disrepair or still in the process of being born.” —Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family

“Those who deplore the hyperpartisanship and decline of civility in contemporary American politics as unprecedented need to know more history. As Joanne Freeman makes clear in this compelling account, party strife, personal honor, and above all the slavery controversy brought unparalleled mayhem to the floors of Congress in the generation before the Civil War. Southern bullying and growing Northern resistance in the House and Senate foreshadowed the battlefields of 1861-1865.” —James McPherson, emeritus professor of history Princeton University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom

“Joanne Freeman puts us on the tumultuous and touchy floor of Congress during its most contentious and momentous years. In a story researched and written with bold energy, she chronicles a young America brawling its way toward war. The personalities and conflicts of long-forgotten duels and fights leap to life, speaking to our own time with surprising relevance.” —Edward L. Ayers, author of The Thin Light of Freedom, winner of the Lincoln Prize

“Joanne Freeman of Yale calls attention to the scandalously frequent role of violence in the United States Congress across 28 tense years culminating in the Civil War. She describes many varieties of Congressional violence, including bullying, fighting in the halls of Congress, fisticuffs, guns, knives, duels and threats of duels. With painstaking research, she penetrates the conspiracy of silence imposed by sources frequently reluctant to publicize the embarrassing truth. The reader is surprised that such an important story should have waited so long to be told.” —Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of What Hath God Wrought

“Congress in the 19th Century was a violent place to work. Legislators let out their sectional rage on each other, throwing punches and wielding weapons, in an institution that made our current politics look downright tame. In her riveting narrative, Joanne Freeman unpacks this volatile world to explain why the relations between elected officials became so brutal.” —Julian Zelizer is a political historian at Princeton University and author of The Fierce Urgency of Now

"[Freeman] excavates a little-discussed aspect of American history in this scholarly but brisk and accessible account . . . French’s long-standing friendship with the unmemorable Franklin Pierce provides fresh insight into the political culture of the time, and the descriptions of the tragicomic Cilley-Graves duel and the horrific caning of Charles Sumner are detailed and thoughtful . . . Freeman grants followers of modern politics a look back at another fascinating, impassioned period of change in which Congress became full of 'distrust, defensiveness, and degradation,' mimicking the constituents at home." —Publisher's Weekly

"A finely researched and well-written examination of the often overlooked legislative breakdown that preceded the Civil War." —Booklist

"A thought-provoking and insightful read for anybody interested in American politics in the lead up to the Civil War." —Library Journal (Starred Review)

From the Publisher

…absorbing, scrupulously researched…Like other good historical works, The Field of Blood casts fresh light on the period it examines while leading us to think about our own time. Although incidents like the Sumner caning and the Cilley duel are familiar, the contexts in which Freeman places them are not. Nor are the new details she supplies. She enriches what we already know and tells us a lot about what we don't know.

The New York Times Book Review - David S. Reynolds

08/06/2018
History professor and podcaster Freeman (Affairs of Honor) excavates a little-discussed aspect of American history in this scholarly but brisk and accessible account. She draws extensively on the journals of Benjamin Brown French, who, as a clerk in the House of Representatives, had a front-row seat to the posturing, name-calling, dueling, and brawling that regularly erupted in Congress in the decades leading up to the Civil War. While members historically sparred along party and regional lines, the issue of slavery combined with bullying insults to various members’ masculinity led to frequent intimidation and violence. The journals also detail French’s transformation from an early Jacksonian Democrat to a weary Republican ready for the South’s departure, paralleling the evolution of other Northerners’ thinking. French’s long-standing friendship with the unmemorable Franklin Pierce provides fresh insight into the political culture of the time, and the descriptions of the tragicomic Cilley-Graves duel and the horrific caning of Charles Sumner are detailed and thoughtful. Freeman writes from the northern point of view, and the Southerners read as a monolithic group of bullies. Freeman grants followers of modern politics a look back at another fascinating, impassioned period of change in which Congress became full of “distrust, defensiveness, and degradation,” mimicking the constituents at home. Agent: Wendy Strothman, the Strothman Agency. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

If you think the country is divided now, then this entertaining audiobook might give you pause. It tells the story of the violence that erupted on the floor of Congress in the run-up to the Civil War. Joanne B. Freeman, Yale professor and noted lecturer, narrates her own book using her classroom experience to accentuate what’s important. Freeman’s voice is clear and accessible, and she occasionally smiles, laughs at her own jokes, and varies her pitch and tone to propel the story forward. At times she does sound as though she’s giving a lecture, but she quickly moves back into being a storyteller. She also swallows some words or drops the ends of sentences, but these are minor concerns. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile

If you think the country is divided now, then this entertaining audiobook might give you pause. It tells the story of the violence that erupted on the floor of Congress in the run-up to the Civil War. Joanne B. Freeman, Yale professor and noted lecturer, narrates her own book using her classroom experience to accentuate what’s important. Freeman’s voice is clear and accessible, and she occasionally smiles, laughs at her own jokes, and varies her pitch and tone to propel the story forward. At times she does sound as though she’s giving a lecture, but she quickly moves back into being a storyteller. She also swallows some words or drops the ends of sentences, but these are minor concerns. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2018 - AudioFile

2018-06-18
A hair-raising history of "extreme congressional discord and national divisiveness." No, not today, but rather before and during the Civil War, when violence among members of Congress was not uncommon.According to Freeman (History and American Studies/Yale Univ.; Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic, 2001, etc.), between the Jackson and Lincoln administrations, congressional sessions regularly featured "canings, duel negotiations and duels; shoving and fistfights; brandished pistols and bowie knives; wild melees in the House; and street fights with fists and the occasional brick. Not included in that number is bullying that never went beyond words." History buffs will recall the brutal 1856 caning of Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner by South Carolina's Preston Brooks, but Freeman emphasizes that this was just the tip of the iceberg. She emphasizes that, aided by the three-fifths rule, the South dominated the Congress before 1860, and its quasi-aristocratic macho culture accepted dueling, gunplay, and fisticuffs long after it became passé in the North. This had only a modest effect until the 1830s, when opposition to slavery became a national issue. Abolitionist arguments made the South crazy. By 1840, any expression of anti-slavery opinions was illegal in those states, so most Southerners never encountered them. Sent to Congress, they were outraged. Since Northerners disliked duels and often compromised to preserve party unity, Southerners considered them sissies. This encouraged "bullying"—Freeman's favorite term—in which Southerners threatened violence, confident that opponents, knowing the threat was genuine, would yield. As the author demonstrates, this sometimes failed because pugnacious Northerners existed, and personal insults led to lost tempers and brawls. Quiet descended with secession, when Southern representatives moved to the Confederate Congress in Richmond, where, ironically, violence flourished.Freeman leans heavily on journalists and diarists to deliver a vivid portrait of a dysfunctional government that—minus the literal bloodshed—has been compared to today's but was probably worse.

Kirkus Reviews