Thank you all for coming out tonight and supporting your local independent and Employee Owned bookstore. [applause] before we begin tonight i want to mention other programming we have coming up on thursday per code next week on tuesday we host former poet laureate along with a few contributors for his new anthology next wednesday we are hosting for the atlantis boston history many more events coming up you can find more information up by the registers when you pick up 19 century protest book page magazine well written in interviews that deserves a livelier but this is a general audience too vividly portrays this is essential reading for how the us became what it is today Holly Jackson and associate professor of massachusetts bostons in the New York TimesWashington Post and boston globe as well as other venues the author of one previous book a scholarly study of family values in 19 century American Literature and culture living in cambridge massachusetts we are glad to have one have her here tonight. [applause] thank you so much for coming out tonight. It is so good to see you all. It is just such an Important Institution and to make some purchases tonight and with the cookbook and a book of poems and childrens books. From 1817 through 1877 if you are not immersed it can sound read more remote. And that echoes so clearly in her own moment that it must be sound familiar. People who drive the story were americans that were outraged by the idea of federal agents hunting refugees by Sexual Assault on women by the 1 percent who had outside control of the government the implement of a real crisis that the country was on the wrong track. So they set out to accomplish legal reforms with the 19th century activism we are all familiar with but more importantly i wanted to write about people who wanted a deeper and cultural transformation to reeducate the conscience of the American Public to see inequality as a moral failure and as a national disgrace. So the protest is individual lifestyle choices and Consumer Choices they figured out ways to put pressure on the economy and Public Opinion and elected officials and it went all the way up to the armed coup. There is a paradoxical relationship that is at the heart of this just to give you an idea they want to overthrow society but they did this in the name of americas political values and that is a attention to try to capture in the title and that informs the whole book. And in a second American Revolution they thought of the first American Revolution that was fought by their fathers and grandfathers it starts in the moment of the founding generation so the question of meaning going forward. The first American Revolution is political the goal is to break away from england and establish a new political system but the people in my book thought a social revolution was absolutely necessary as a followup to make good on the idea of the initial revolution had articulated and they succeeded is the argument that i make and it certainly imperfect and i try to show to the singular lead turbulent conditions but it actually shifts in this. So the first half of the book the big story is that the rise of radical antiSlavery Movements which was the First Political project that brought together americans across race class and gender on the official scale to inspire a much broader and more textured culture. Once institution of slavery which was centuriesold in the United States and supported at every level, once that was called into question basically nothing was off the table for interrogation. Removed from the beginning of anti slavery into our broader interrogation of sex and marriage and family and private property and capitalism. In the first part of the book i establish the network of access that i follow through the remainder of the century and that includes leaders of free black communities in philadelphia and boston , Francis Wright who is this charismatic character who is a cautionary tale a local hero who is conventionally known as the leader of the anti Slavery Movement and headquarters were in boston he did a better job of the Coalition Work youll also find socialist on utopia communism and another thing i want to specify is that this Global Culture of dissent was meant in this moment by a reactionary opposition that as people started to articulate a real idea of how things there were there was a huge backlash that i see them than just responders. But then with civil war and we reconstruction it is a watershed moment but i also talk about how it transformed the acts because if they were a pacifist came to condone violence or even participate in violence. There was where a deputy federal agent was killed and that community here in boston was either through political channels or these moral persuasion channels that kicked off a very violent decade and another figure that has transformed this. Martin delaney who was ready to abandon the United States and create a project to take African Americans to a new nation in africa he started the rally about serving in the military and reconstruction government and was part of john browns raid before that. So this period of reconstruction there is an unprecedented opportunity for social reengineering. But it ends tragically especially for africanamericans in the south and workers and immigrants out west. The figures that i follow had accomplished so much that really it had seemed impossible and if most people thought it was impossible and crazy but at the same time in this. We see a breakdown of their values are rethinking the fundamental strategies and the splintering of the coalition relationships between movements that had defined in the previous. And with a conclusion of the value of what they succeeded and their failures and reviewed their Ambitious Goals that remain hours to pursue. So i will read a short passage its around three pages long and i can read more after we talk some more if you want but this takes place in the late 18 fifties on the brink of the civil war a big meeting of reformers in vermont. There are like free love dance parties and conventions for people would just hammer out the strategy and argue because it captures the counterculture that i really wanted to emphasize how we see ideas and personnel overlapping that generally we study in isolation. But i also like this moment because it shines a light on how those overlap and collaborations just cannot work in practice because one interpersonal drama but on the other hand there were real and necessary insignificant disagreements and you will see that here. During the course of the short passage there may be terms that are unfamiliar with 19th century activists culture i just want to do find those for you. So spiritualism was not our radical Political Movement and they dont figure significantly outside this passage. You may have heard 19th century that people were communicating with the dead ouija boards spirit mediums. Free love is a big subject going from 18 twenties through the 18 seventies there was a lot of varieties for basically the movement to reform or abolish the institution of marriage which actually went with socialism and anti slavery that i tried to highlight another important controversial part of antislavery they were radical pacifist but more than that they completely rejected the American Government and wanted nothing to do with the legal system they would not vote or serve in the military or in a court of law. And then finally those who come out who are also abolitionist but specifically the northern churches it was outrageous they were not the absolute vanguard of abolition so they withdrew from their own churches. But that wasnt enough so this one guy Stephen Foster was famous for direct action protest he would do on sunday morning in which he would go into a church and step up to the congregation quietly but that when the minister got up to Start Talking he would rise in the audience and deliver a barn burning speech until the people in the congregation would grab him and he would just go limp and they would have to carry him out he was beat up every time kicked and he went to jail it was a crime to interrupt a Church Service in New Hampshire but he did anyway. He is one of my favorite figures in the book. In the last week of june 1858 stepping off the train and the small bustling town. Shorthaired women and longhaired men conspicuous hat and checkered suits as a New York Times reporter would write people of all sorts of shapes white and black and partially black that convened to discuss abolitionist and free trade fighting the vacant lot they bought root beer and gingerbread to set up booths and then gathered under a tent from 100 feet across but the bunting sagged heavily. They talked all day late into the evening from the interludes. The counterculture pipes came out of the woodwork the times reporter claim to walk into one gathering in a hotel parlor just as freestyle poetry was interrupted by an adolescent in a trance mumbling in spirit. The conventions revolution affirmed spirit communication and rejected war they stated the American Union was wrong in the formation and was a curse ever since the influence of the radical evolution nest one abolitionist but the most impassioned remarks pertain to sham marriages and abortion and the gender politics. It turns out to be the nti slavery cause because he could not stand to be at home with his wife. [laughter] he confided in his journal no marriage love is between us its been many years since we slept in the same bed was tortured by the side of happy couples and newborns for what he was denied he felt he was trapped in his marriage. But it presented other opportunities passionate affairs with multiple women in europe who didnt question the traditional standards of marriage who just wanted intimacy. Will still actively at work mary jan parentage calls sex to be taken up for full reform with his no government principle shifted to private life says no human or social custom will make a true marriage. s call for the immediate abolition of the majority encompassed not only is with power of government and churches but institution of marriage as well. All participants in the Free Convention to those external authorities to be abolished after those freethinkers one after the abolition and an advocate for native americans with no traction from the crowd as it drops from one with a manhattan commune the new year time supporter would see a good looking woman rise. Women are bought and paid for marriage slavery was matched spiritual slavery and the enslavement of the invention and seemed to compete that can be proved worse in the slavery of the body. Stephen foster was there as well waiting two days for such speeches in the discussions with an open mind saying the real problem with gender inequality was truly the egalitarian marriage does not work for others the way it had worked for him and then try an experiment of a different kind. By saturday afternoon foster was tired of listening to all the talk and left tired and furious he rose to address the convention in the same spirit with which he harangued unsuspecting churchgoers and to have the selfstyled reformers to be comfortable frankly there was so much talk he wanted action. My heart has been pained as i listen to this discussion which has going long i call upon you in the name of 4 million slaves to go to work talking about communications beyond the grave besides millions of living people bound and chained how could they speak abstractly quicks in the very moment enslaved women were raped in newborn babies torn away from others and sold at auction . To splinter activist energy it was an offshoot of something apolitical in response to make his commitment clear let me say here and now i never intend come what may not until the last shackle falls. And those that have become inescapable even in the rhetoric he warned i was there with you as god is my witness if you go to the grave with this crime upon your soul fosters remarks suggest something on the precipice of which they in the entire country catered in a few short years all americans we living in the shadow of death and slavery would end in apocalyptic bloodshed when a National Crisis the abolitionist had long desired finally arrived. [applause] so let me hear from you what interest you . Is anything that you learned from the Coalition Building at that time could apply to Coalition Building efforts now . Yes. There are examples that are incredibly inspiring people working together across movements and then there are also a lot of just cringe were the moments of failure that are a cautionary tale in the book. The first part of the book there are these free black communities for years have been doing this work of civil rights and anti slavery agitation in their communities than white activists come on scene, the first example is francis right she had every opportunity she knew people in common and was aware of what philadelphia was doing she could collaborate and understand that basically she wanted her own grand adventure in her own idea how things should be and ended up and it ended badly she founded socialist and then she enslaved them on the commune shipping them to haiti although by that time the Africanamerican Community the haitian Immigration Movement so that i think is a lesson to see whos doing the work and to follow the leadership of the people who have skin in the game. And the bestknown moment is when these movements were the antiSlavery Movement turned into a land grab and gave them who was the right to vote first there was really a bad moment there. And thats probably the best example. I read this book i love this book there is a tons of things that i learned but there was a moment when reparations happened people actually got a mule and then we fucked it up. [laughter] sorry cspan. [laughter] you are absolutely right. In the wake of the civil war even while it was still going o on, there was programs in the south for land redistribution and this is understood many leaders said it was a number one priority what they could do generational longlasting sustainable to pass down and would also help with womens suffrage there were parcels of land thousands of akers and president johnson came and put an end to it and then we could pass that legislation which was amazing and then had stop to that part of it there was still a massive support even putting petitions before Congress Thousands of signatures but actually suffrage was an easier concession because i think its easy to take away practice but the idea is ill get these communities they sure look after themselves with the vote but of course that was not possible in the context that followed. What did you learn about leadership . Thats a really good question. Inspirational leadership was important there are a few of these colts that had charismatic leaders he would imagine but in terms of actual Political Movements many of the most inspirational leaders that succeeded where others failed that they could position themselves for the black community in boston picking at work they were already doing like the most groundbreaking radical newspaper of the century early subscribers were africanamericans many were africanamericans and also he brought people in. He championed women to put them back into leadership positions with this farreaching insistence on human rights and to sit in silence of protest of any Antislavery Convention but the most important abolition leaders in the world but was that there are not speak and people would try to applaud him and so for those in the coalition that he cared about so one example of leadership stands out and of those decisions. So people speaking out about Sexual Violence so who is speaking out about it. Thats a great question i love the part also are in an area right now celebrating the passage of the 19th amendment of the womens suffrage amendment and it such an important time to think about the role but in another way we think of the 19th century Womens Movement as a Suffrage Movement that was latebreaking in my mind was turning its focus and a singleminded way in just that moment and before that that is the entirety i cover in the group social powers they were a Womens Liberation Movement and talking about Sexual Violence and marriage from that respectable wing of the womens Rights Movement and lovers have this in common that women had to be in power to have command of their own bodies but the institution of marriage and if they were free lovers and a backdoor to critique the institution so now marital rape is outlawed but at the time this is controversial to talk about in public. And with voluntary motherhood and with those dangerous consequences at the time and to care for these children and when that conception can take place. And for the control advocates and so that movement and free love over rap overlap in that private sphere. That public political focus so now thinking about that psychological and private from the 18 forties and the rest of the century. That people need to know this that we all need to know this right now . I have been studying this. For a long time College Professor working in this area since 2008. And all the way through this research that i did not know even as i suppose it expert i felt like these stories are resonant right now thats why i thought broader readership. Think if you have read the book you can help me out john brown is in their a lot of the leader stuff i did not know the book ends in 1877 a very incredibly violent time in American Life there was workers strike starting with Railway Workers in pennsylvania but flashed across the country in almost turned into a revolution in one of two instances in the book where the president of the United States to play the military to put down the protest the military came out and killed 100. Restored order it is the first time the government had been put to use to protect corporate interest of the railroad corporations and that set the tone for the relationship between corporate and the government so i was less familiar with the Labor Movement so i learned a lot by weaving that into the story. In terms of the squabbles about what free speech means now versus then what remains consistent . Thank you for asking. She has asked skiing about free speech and activist speech and in public one of the main ways one of the many forms of opposition activists take was a real crackdown around speech so all those believed in the power of the written word and speaking in public to make change and it worked. The government responded that was consistent as a radical antiSlavery Movement developed and they made pamphlets the south outlawed the distribution and then would clampdown on active speech the federal government and Congress Said that any proposal having to do with abolition could not be heard by the elected representative of the American People it would be automatically tabled. It is incredibly Important Movement that was growing with hundreds of thousands of people that congress set out right we will not consider it we will table all those proposals there was that in the criminalization and then later you see this again around of sanity laws it is illegal for the free lovers and womens rights to talk about sex at all or Birth Control one of the characters was locked up several times because of these of sanity laws log obscene laws and then when a mob comes to your house or they tar and feather you or beat you up in the street or murder you and throws you across the river some of it was the federal government passing a gag rule to mention the protest in boston that was on the president set one send the military that there was martial law so that crackdown on speech was a poor way to try to silence. From what you said i got the impression there was a lot of anger in the events you describe in your book. But also some people said to be righteously angry about things that are wrong and not settle for anything less. But lets also know when to use strategy and respect our fellow human beings just because they are human beings. Was there any of that or rowdiness . [laughter] across the board the reformers were just much less valued than the opposition they were throwing brick bats and for half of the. The book covers most of the people involved were violent. It also includes enslaved people carrying out violent uprisings but they were masters of frederick believed in the written and spoken word this should be familiar to you now but if people want to make social change whatever movement you think of there is a certain narrative that ends up being effective and you remember them. And they were masters of this to construct as part of this project of the american conscience to say this thing that was part of my life forever for hundreds of years i think is supported by the bible may be something in me says thats not right so that narrative to be an effective in 19th century history obviously you are seeing that with outrage but i was just thinking about that like the mother whale and the baby whale would not let go. So yes there were many rhetorical and textbased ways to go about this and people started to put pressure on the economy by walking off their jobs but also little micro decisions i will not let my kids have candy because sugar comes from slave plantations so some more defiantly refusing to be part of that exploitation even if it was just personal. What narrative do you see to propel people whatever the cause is . As i said the same strategies are still effective writing this book made me a little less cynical about the effect it can have so give me brick with a straw really is the government and the military but now i do understand these individual choices and the rigorous attempt to lead a life that you dont find disgusting and hypocritical so one thing that strikes me is that it took people who set i will work through the political system and make a new Political Party and say i have nothing to do with that because its corrupt and this guy that nobody saw coming and im going right to the capital with a gun. That just brings slavery to a head its a long time for americans to die in a war so this diffuse pressure coming from all angles where you feel that people are putting enough pressure on corporations so yes there are strategies that can be applied now i will read one more thing. With a question failure they really shaped this. Rather than just responding to them so the movement failures the communes that exist today to enslave the government but instead he was captured and executed so i wanted to reevaluate the ways that they failed but also how failure is inevitable to social justice work and it takes a certain kind of radical hope and a level of antagonism to have an almost certain failure so i will read the end of the book for those engaged in social protest the process requires the elements of the counterculture looking now at their portraits of lace collars preserved to forget they were hated and mocked and feared by most of their countrymen to overthrow americas life the activists knew their aims were utopian but they tried for them anyway all they accomplished was relenting help and antagonism rather than accept the role that they found it mostly a history of a certain kind of failure to capitalize on the wild ideas 19th Century America completed the telephone dating but that implausibility as well success carries inevitability not stray hail mary pass with the ideas that were dropped that the stories of the activists for those that have not come to be fully or yet so with what success can make radical the revolution . Not start with personal your choose but a crucial goal but their full ambitions you might not look to the perpetuity of their outcome but their principles and success to look at a different and better world when they face failure to try something it is easier to do nothing but they dared to begin. [applause] if you buy a book i will give you a button. [laughter] thank you holly and thank you for coming we will arrange the furniture and make assigning line thank you again. [applause] [applause] their parents had no idea what was happening and what they were hearing was not conjoined the death cult certainly not they were popular girls straight as and bright the girls the teachers admired but then they were exposed on instagram and twitter to a lot of messaging and propaganda about muslims being killed in palestine and the hate crimes a lot of them were visibly muslim girls wearing headscarves they were being persuaded that they cannot be european citizens so they were lured by the idea of the utopian society would have a role and be respected