Id like to welcome yall here to politics and prose. My name is allen watke and im then events staff here where we host klose to a thousand author events a year at three locations. For everything confirm you can go to the website at politics prose. Com or pick up a monthly printed calendar. Before we get started id like to ask everyone to please silence your cellphones so not to disrupt the event. And when we get to the q a, if you could line up at themake crow phone at the pillar lat would be great because were audio recording and cspan for booktv is filming as well. So wed really like to have your questions in there following the q a well have a signing at the table and if you could just leave your chairs where we are because we have a couple mored reading today. So today were very excited to welcome robert c plumb, celebrate his back the bert angel, five women who changed civil war america. Collective biography of five extraordinary women who came to National Prominence during the civil war, documenting howl the conflict left openings for women to assume roles usually held by men, and showing the depth of their passion and commitment. Plumb recounts hairout tubmans tireless work in the underdowntown railroad. Teaching in massachusetts from a cook position in washington she gone the work to her establish thing american red cross. Chronicle is Harriet Beecher stowe, staunch abolitionism, to write uncle toms cab yip and julia ward hoe was inspired by military actions to write the battle him of the republic know and hill advocate for a national day of thanksgiving. Plumb is the author of your brother in arms, Union Soldiers odyssey, and has written for Montgomery County historical so its journal, the Washington Post and the Washington Post magazine. Among others. So, please join me in welcoming to politics and pros, robert c. Plumb. [applause] thank you very minute, allen, for that kind and warm introduction. I feel like at politics and prose its like if youre a musician get invited to play at carnegie hall. If you have been invited to walkout bob book here its rafaely wonderful and especially wonderful for me because this book was released on march 1st , which most of you im sure if not all of you know that march is womens history month, and also it coincides with 100th anniversary of the signing and approval of the 19th amendment which gave women the right to vote. Unfortunately the five women ill talk about died early in the 20th century so never got a chance to vote but certainly the things they did during the course of the American Civil War paved the way for sufficientage that came later suffrage that came later after the 20th 20th century remember what im going to do today is to give you just sort of a snapshot of who the five women were and then read brief passages from my book that kind of flesh out a little built of some of the important things that occurred. And then im going to sort of sum it up by talking about what i think are the ten most critical characteristics that these women possessed that allowed them to do the things they did during the war. The war was tough enough also it was to do things but the fact they were women gave them an additional hurdle that all of them overcame. Not once did did the fact they were women deter them and i think it just gave them more energy to do what they did. The books title comes from abraham lincolns first inaugural speech in march of 1861 he knew what was going 0 happen when the took over as president the war was going to tear the country apart and he edged that in his inaugural address and said well have to rely on those better angels of our nature in order to bring that country bring this country back together after the war was over. And certainly the five women ill talk about played major roles to bring the union together and to ensure that the union succeeded. The five women just very briefly, Harriet Tubman, who took her role primarily in the antebellum period before the war started in 1849, she freed herself, people call it selfliberation. She freed herself but then even more astounding she came back again and again to dorchester county, maryland to free enslaved people and guide them north. Most people agree there are probably 70 to 80 people she freed during the course of 14 years. And an extraordinary thing by anyones imagination. Harriet Beecher Stowe was a writer but it wasnt until she wrote Uncle Toms Cabin that she blue open the whole story of slavery. Not only with facts and figures and information but with a compelling narrative. She brought alive the characters in the book, some very favorable, some some not to favorable. It hit the bookshelves of america just like no other thing had done in the past. It sold over 100,000 copies the first week it was out. It start out as a serial in a magazine, and it got such popularity during that course of this year, running as serial it was turn interest a book in 1852. The next person i want to talk it julia ward howe. A poet in the early 1860s, when the war had just begun, she came to washington with her husband, dr. Samuel gridley howe, a piece of work himself and not shy about talking about his ability to do great things. She came and sort of was in the backseat while he was off doing things on official washington with the Sanitary Commission which is sort of a early version of the red cross. She went in a wagon with some friend across the potomac and watched the Union Soldiers parade and do their military kinds of things. On the way back they were surrounded be Union Soldiers and she was struck by two things. One was the fact they were very young. Some not much older than her own children. And secondly they started singing, and what they start singing was, john brown residents body, and everybody abe freed a very rousing marching tune but one of the persons who accompanied her across the potomac was her minister from massachusetts and he said, youll know, harriet, you could do a better job writing something than that. Thats really kind of denigrating to john brown. She Postal Service that and when she went back to the hotel she woke up in the mid of the night, grabbed some paper and started writing, writing, poem on scraps of paper. Then he next morning she made a few tweaks to it but basically it was what it was going to be. The battle hymn of the republic. Was pushed a little later, the first of the next year, and harpers weekly. It took off. Soldiers were singing it as they marched. Civilians were moved by its lyrics and its finally bringing to the forefront what the union cause was really about. At the beginning of the war the cause was to some extent bringing the union back together. That i may be a fine unifying argument but hardly raise peoples spirit. When she talked but dying to set men free, suddenly the whole purpose of the war took on a new tone. That coupled with the emancipation proclamation set the union off on a new track. The next person i want to talk but very briefly is claire are barton. We tend to think of clara barton as a nurse some she did do nursing duties busts i think her real strength was her ability to get medical supplies, which were soarly needed at the beginning of the war, out. The field where they were needed most. I think she was a medical logistics giantus, and that doesnt have quite the wring it to that maybe nursing does but it is true. When she took a wagon train of medical supplies out to the battlefield in 1862, the doctors on the field, the surgeons, were binding wounds with corn husks they got from the nearby cornfield. They had unout of bandages and sheets from a nearby farm house, so she was in the right place at the right time. She once said, my place is just behind the cannon, meaning right where the action was and she lived up to that. The next person i want to talk about, the fifth is probably the least well known among the ones ive mentioned and that is Sarah Josepha hale was famous because she was the successful editor of becames magazine, first the womens journal and then the womens book that she was the editor of. She also was great at attracting american writers, and giving them credence inmer publication and also she paid them which back in those days a lot of people who were running magazines picked up stuff and just ran it. The copyright laws were pretty loose. She had for a long time favored causes using her magazine as kind of a launching platform. She raised money, believing that women needed to be educated in colleges. She raised money for Vassar College in poughkeepsie, new york, and established the college. She also raised money for the mt. Vernon ladys association so washingtons home could be rennovated. It had fallen in great disrepair. So womens advocate and also very much a part of american history. She was born the only one of the five im talk about who was born in the 1700s. She was born right after washington took office so she had perhaps a little bit of an older version of what was appropriate in the way of womens rights. What id like to do now is just read some sections sections of k that might give you a flavor of these women, and then follow that at the end with my listing of characteristics or qualities of these women that i think allowed them to do the things they do, and did. So first well start with Harriet Tubman. Harriet tubman crossed the Mason Dixon Line into pennsylvania and free freedom after an arizona dues journey alone. Accomplished with courage and still, once in pennsylvania, tubman later admitted to her biographer, when i found i had crossed that line i looked at my hands to see if i was the same person. The was such a glory over everything. The sun came like gold through the trees. And over the fields. And i felt like i was in heaven. End of quote. Yet she conned that her freedom was not without some apprehension. She finished this quote by saying, i had crossed the line. I was free. But there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land. And then some concept of her technique she used. The path thats hear yet tubman used to guide her runway slave took advantage of the timbered areas, inlets, estuaries and swamps that made up the escape record along with tidal marshes and creeks theyve happened provide cover for small bands of runaways on the way to the north and freedom. Tubman made use of these natural features and traveled primarily at night by the stars. She reported that she could, quote, tell time by the stars, and find her with a by natural signs as well as any hunter. Along with her knowledge of nate tour and having a ingenious mind she was will to use force if called for. She routinely carried a pistol with her and was prepared to use it against any slave catchers or any runaway who would, if caught, be force told reveal their escape routes. Tubman was ready to sacrifice a reluctant runway for the good of the group, dental fugitives would tell in tails theres. No recorded instances of tubman having fired her fire mayor at eat the slave catch owes runway slaves but give us an indication of the resolution this woman ahead. The next person id like to talk about is Harriet Beecher stowe. She novel, Uncle Toms Cabin, took on slavery as it had never been explained before. Harriet Beecher Stowes detailed human s of cruelty and surveilling feet towardded welldrawn characters characterd the sympathy or revulsion of readers. Neither northerners or southern proponents of slavery were spared, which she based on her belief that slavery was, quote, evil and only evil, end of quote. Clergyman who su a biblical justification for slavery were treated with equal disdain. Referring referring to book, longfellow wrote never there has been such a late from slavery advocates bombarded the press with claims the book was filled with distortions, exaggerations and lies. The scenes that depicted cruelty to slave were atypical of normal behavior among slavedholers. Water than count ever the oxes sow imemployed a different strategy help produced a publication that explained the credibility of her characters, the voracity of the scenes described, and the body of law that existed to protect the institution of slavery. It appeared under the rather ponderous title a key to Uncle Toms Cabin presenting the original facts and documents upon which the story is founded, together with corroborative statements that truth. Hard to put that on a tshirt. But it got the point across. Her approach to the document was to support her case with facts and examples of real people writing pro slavery journalists and clergy, and then theres newspaper classified adds offering reward forking runway slaves. In the court of Public Opinion, stowe confounder he critics with the facts, the data, the legal find examination documented examples of cruelty and human malfeasance towards other human beings. The raw reality of enslaved humans was pulled out into the open by a determined 41yearold mother who was outraged at how fellow human beings were being treated in a nation founded on the basis all men being created equal the power of Uncle Toms Cabin to change Public Opinion but the true nature of slavery and the need to end it is indisputable. Abraham lincoln was reported to have said, when first meeting Harriet Beecher stowe in the white house, youre the little woman who wrote the book that method this great war. The next person is Harriet Beecher is julia ward howe. Motivation in time of war represents a combination of circumstances. The civil war was no exception. Victories on the battlefield and inspired sense of purpose, and visionary effective leadership must come bane to inspire both the soldiers who fight and the citizens who support them. And the early stages of the war, 1861 to nearly 1863, with few exceptions, was a time when Union Victories were rare and union more real morale what at its nader. For the union the sense of purpose was rekindled by the emancipation proclamation and julia ward howes moving anthem. Northern victories in 1863, later coupled with lincolns bold moves to change the leadership of the union army in the spring of 1864, would coalesce to turn the corn for the a union victory. This destiny was anticipate net the haunting words of howes anthem. He has sounds forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat, he itself selling out the hearts of men before the judgment seed, oh, be swift my soul to answer, be jubilant my feet. The next person id like to talk about was some examples claire clara barton. Pursuing her desorry to take supplies the wars front and caring for soldiers she approached the head of the quartermaster depot of the strict of columbia. Calling on him and his austere office. Rutger initially rebuffed her barton persisted and announces she had three warehouses of supplies, ready to go to the frontlines. Bartons passionate plea backed by the three warehouses of evidence, of her able to deliver, caused the gruff colonel relent. Hard to argue with the facts. He gave barton the use of a wagon and driver as well as signed permission to take government transportation, including passage by boat, to union depot in virginia. Also, to her delight, he obtained a pass for her signed by the surgeon general, along with a small party of assistants, barton tracked to the fredericksburg, virginia, area, and distributed supplies. He tacoma complete he returned to washington to accumulate more supplies. Following the success of the second battle of manassas, the army of Northern Virginia under the leadership of general robert e. Will you leyland an invasion of maryland, barclay catching her breath after the devastation resulting from manassas, barton was even more convinced she was needed on the battlefield and that she had to be in place just before and during a battle to be effective. Through an anonymous but reliable source she learned of the confederates move into maryland on september 1, 1862. She quickly approached her now patron saint, colonel rutger to obtain a wagon and a pass so she could ven sure Harpers Ferry re she anticipated casualties would be sent he grands the request and on sunday, september 14th september 14th she and her assistant, cornelius wells, loaded the wagon, the army provide, with bandages, canned foods, lanterns and crucial materials and then departed for frederick, maryland. By september 16th barton, wells, the loned teamster and their wagn of supplies reached the army at the potomac. There was barton later wrote, an impending sense of grade school. The air was soggy and non noxious, all made and used by the press of human flesh human beings and animals. For the first time barton was where she longed to be, that is at the very brink of a major battle. Where combat was imminent, where she could treat the wounds with minimal delay. The battle that unfold he over the next 24 hours would be bun of the bloodiest engagements of the civil war with horrifying casualties on both side. The battle where bartons friend, dr. James dunn n would confer on her in the name, the angel of the battlefield. And then finally, Sarah Josepha hale, the least known of the five im talk us about, for a person born during the formation of Constitutional Government in the United States, and having participated as chilled in the warm and inspiring celebration of communal feast, hale had a strong motivation to see the National Observance continue. And it started under George Washington and then fell into divvy. Perhaps even more than those who followed in later years, hale honored the Founding Fathers as those, quote, great men who knew no north or southunity, loyalty to the American Family and providential inspiration for the National Government where hale residents guiding prims for her campaign to help establish a national day of thanksgiving. On september 28, 1863, hale sad down again to write an american president. Her persistence and zeal was reflected in her letter. Undimmed by the fact her youngest daughter had died suddenly the previous may her letter is business, like, cites the support two of key governors, and invokes the support of her friend, secretary of state william seward. Her letter clearly set odd the importance of the role the president had to play in this proclamation. The president must have been impressed with the preparation of her case, less than a week following her letter the president s issued a proclamation that urged americans who observe the last thursday in november as a day of thanksgiving. Hale was delighted her work to secure a top level endorsement nor national day of thanksgiving was complete, with lincolns signature on an up ambiguous proclamation. Another tangible step on the path towards bringing the nation together for another bringing in the nation together under lincolns leadership. Final live i would like to just comment briefly on the qualities these women had. Americans, both men and women, faced daunting odd during the civil war years but women confronted the additional hurdle of overcoming centuryold stereotypes. Thousands upon thousands of women experienced the war personally or indirectly, during its four year duration. Loved ones were lot of, dailey routines turned upsidedown and property and worldly goods destroyed. Many women played crucial wars in the war effort in both the north and south and left record of important accomplishments in their wake, but few, however, achieved the significant and sustained results of the five better angels before, during and after the war. While we can acknowledge that being in the right place at the right time can sometimes play crucial role in achieving success, powerful defining characteristics set these five women apart from others. In the words of daniel wantster inning this founders of the United States years earlier, we would benefit from contemplating their example and studying their character. By exploring the shared and unique characteristics of the five angels. What are those pivotal characterrics of the five angels demonstrated and how did their response lead to success when odds were stacked so high against them. Ten critical characterrics, define the way these women were able to set themselves apart from their male and female counterparts in the 19th 19th century and helped them successfully navigate through the treacherous waters of the American Civil War. These characterrics, if youre sitting on the edge of your seat letting youll know what you need to do this coming week, clearly persistence was in their blood stream. Faith. Courage, courage of different sorts. Courage on the battlefield the courage of Sarah Josepha hale who was widowed at age 39 and raises her five children without marrying or depending on in nye person than herself. Another kind of courage. Selfassurance. Persuasiveness, assertiveness, resourcefulness, compassion, discipline, and sovereignty. We tend to think of sovereignty as nations but i think these women were sovereign. That is, they were free from external control and they had autonomy through most of their lives. Id like to conclude with a quote from clara barton which especially appropriate given what you just heard. She wrote after the end of the war so she had me memory of the war fresh in her mind, but she also had enough time to think about what the context of that war was, and heres what she said. If were to speak of war, it would not be to show you the glories of conquering arms where but the miss chef and missll they view in their track us and how while they marched on with tread of iron and plumes proudry tossing in the breeze, someone must follow closely in their steps, crouching to the earth, toiling in the rain and dark in shelterless themselves november thought of pride or glory, fame or praise, or reward, hears break with pity, faces bathed in tears and hands in blood. This is the side which history never shows. I think, i hope at least in in small way this become addresses some of Clara Bartons concern but being lost to history. [applause] questions. Number one, how long did take you im using mr. Lambs technique. Number one, how long did it take you to write the book, and number two what were your sources, and number three, what was the most interesting and unexpected thing that you discovered. Whew. Okay. Do we have what was your first one . How long did i take. I thinkwriter will tell you its not just the writhing theres research, that cues up a lot of time and the dilemma that nonfiction writers have, Much Research do i do before its not necessary. Its overwhelming and i just need to get on with the job. Considering both research and writing and they tend to mix, probably three, three and a half no four years. What were my sources . I read every book i could get my hands on about those five women. Some of them have great biographies written about them, others dont have much, particularly Sarah Josepha hale and i absorbed that wont all the locations athlete women conducted their efforts. Ive been to clara barton house, to hairout tubmans location down in the Eastern Shore in door chester job and ive been to Harriet Tubmans home in new york where she died in the early 1900s so i observed all of that and those became influential how i prepared the book. What whats thing that struck me . That was most amazing . Well, youll know, all of these women irmothologial in wednesday but all had real flaws and i dont want to pick them apart but theyre real human beings. Clara barton had what i call the entrepreneurial problem. She started the red cross, but didnt want to let good of it, didnt want toter take her hand off shark started a company and reached Great Success but never wants to let somebody else take over. That was flaw. She could be a bit she would pull her rank. She was great friend withhenry wilson, a senator and he was not afraid to tell anybody, like rutger, you know, i dont think what youre telling me that senator wilson would approve of. So there was that aspect. And i could go on but i think enough said. They were human beings, real human beings. Bob, have a question. You have been fascinated by these five women, and theyre all notable but at any point had you considered others to include here and essentially runners up who might be worthy of us being aware of . Thats a there are many other women that i could tick off now who had lesser accomplishments in a sense but these were women who for me did extraordinary things over a long period of time and i couldnt find anybody else who had quite that longevity that i was looking for. And how many people my wife told me that three is not necessary lay good number. Its too few. You have to do five so i really focuses on doing five, and not to be silly but it turn out those five were the most notable people i came across with all my research. And i know any of you who have thoughts but the south korea, why didnt include them . I think what i wanted to do was draw attention to the union cause which was in real trouble and five women who believed passionately about it and did things. Not just the went on eventually to electric tour and write lecture and write books except for Harriet Tubman but they went out and accomplished things not just talk organize writing in diaries, not that thats nat important but i was struck by what accomplishments i use that word Accomplished Women they were. Hello. I have did these women know each other or interact with each in thats one question ask the second question is, were there men who especially helped them accomplish what they did . Husbands, other people that were in a sense complimentary and helped them instead of road blocks to help them do what they did. Okay. Again your quirts the was did they know each other, interring a. They did not. The only interaction im aware of is between Sarah Josepha hale who ran this incredibly successful magazine she ran some of Harriet Beecher stowes pieces, some of her fictional pieces. But other than corresponding, probably by pen and ink, they never met im aware of. Clara barton and Harriet Tubman both served in with the union army in fort wagner in south carolina. They both treated wounds soldiers there. Nowhere ick fine they ever crossed paths or had a conversation about that. I know one of the publishers was considering a book said i would love if they all sat in a room somewhere and had tea. That just didnt happen. Thats fantasy. Were men helpful . Esey, two of the women, Harriet Tubman went back to get her husband after she freed herself. He wouldnt come north. So she married much later in life there was no help there at all for Harriet Tubman. Harriet Beecher Stowe had a very newspapering husband, he was a theology instructor and helped here a number of times. In fact he said to her, youre not mrs. Harriet whatever his calvin e. Stowe, not you are Harriet Beecher stowe and he encouraged her to use that as her signature, which she did. He was very supportive all along the way. Julia ward howes husband was a parent. He would nope, he was a hinderance, very resentful of her and tried to block her she go got no help from any mail. Claire claire clara barnon never married bit she had contacts and she used the contacts, henry wilson, a senator. She worked with local congressman she was from massachusetts and they were helpful and she had a good rapport with them so they helped her a lot but on the whole she was on her own. She had to she won women over like rutger, cantankerous old army guy and he wanted to blow her out she was was so persistent and had three warehouses full of things. So he came around eventually. Very Joseph Y Hale was widowed at age 49. Never married again. The only person who helped here was the mon who bought her magazine, lewis godey, and he was supportive and helped her along the way, but she could have gone to another book and probably had at publisher who would have just. Been just us a supportive. To helpful but that was basically what it was. Thank you. You really already answered my question but im going to purr suv it here by just changing a little bit. Okay. You explained why you have a northern are or union focus on this perfectly good reason. But im wondering, are you aware of any women in the south who might have made the grade here if for example, it occurs any woman in the south who was an outspoken abolitionist, or in print or wherever, might would be up against tremendous odds in that pursuit, and might make a candidate for your list there. Or she question is, are you aware of any women in the south who might have made the book and particular were abolitionis who spoke out . Im not. I did attend a work shop at yale with a woman who wrote other book called the abolitionist daughter about a southern who is a minister but its a work of fiction. I should probably ask her was it based on any factual. Nothing that dish dont even want to say a cursory but a fairly extensive look at what was happening in the south and who the people were. I did not turn up any. [inaudible question] they were. Yes. They were quakers, i believe. Thank you. Youre welcome. Hello. Id like your next book. Ow took the word out of my mouth. First of all your timing is perfect with International Womens day tomorrow. So wonderful. Bravo. Thank you. Had a question for you. When you start youre research on this book was this the book you envisioned or did it evolve into this as you dug into your research . Its hard for most authors to say at the beginning this is what i envisioned at the end. I hope it would kind of turn out this way but a lot of fits and starts along the way. How was i going to organize these women . Somebody at a workshop said just pick a year and write about that year. Will, didnt work. Maybe all the women came together. They didnt. So, i went with just now painfully obvious issue went chronologically and seemed like the dropped into the civil war timeline on a regular basis and made their contributions. So just jumped out and said, gosh, its chronological, dumby. Not that hard. But it took awhile to get there. When you started you had a vision of focusing putting a spotlight on the women. Absolutely. For that piece. Just so intrigued. Working on the other book. These women just kept coming up up again and again and theres a story here. And as ive said to a number of people when i went out to talk but my first book, when there are women in the audience they wanted to know what happened to this young man that wrote the letters, what happened to him after the war, what did he suffer because of the war. Thats the story. Gertrudestein, hemingways mentor and muse, said theres nothing as interesting as this American Civil War. She wrote that in 1920s ask kind of my guiding light. This is an interesting topic, just step back from the generals and the battles and so forth and see what was happening to the people involved. Excellent. Thank you. So my question is about the institution of slavery. I sent an article in atlantic a year ago that showed the map of the out and in this map the solid stateness which slavery was prevalent still shows things like discrimination, racism. So technically slavery is no longer there, but practically alive for like Americans Still very hard and so how do you see changes and evolution in us becoming maybe more human towards others . Well, thats an excellent question and i was i was equipped to answer it but certainly lifting the impediment of slavery, of enslaving human beings, went a long way. Still have to work out the relationships we have among ourselves. Whether they be black people or brown people or asia asian people. We flood to adopt a more tolerant attitude of everybody. That will come over time but the impediment of being slaved has been removed. Thank you. There is question i lived in southern georgia for a year and a half and at first it felt nice and sweet and then after several months it hits you, become local and you start noticing things. I uhhuh. I confess, im a yankee, bosh in the north, raided in the north, and i real request wasnt until i came south when i was in the service i saw different world, which opened up my eyes. Thank you. Not in a positive way. Yes, sir. You mentioned the ten positive characteristics. Im wondering if you were to consider the main negative characteristics of the five people you chose, what would you answer to that . Well, the negative characteristics are, if you flip them over they become positive. They were very adamant about why than wade to do. That would not give up. They were clara barton pulled rank. Wasnt afraid to tell somebody she knew or some wilson and that she would use his office. So, there was a little but of that going on, too. They were impatient. When clara barton brought the wagon train to anum she had to pass a train of Union Soldiers who had guns and am anythings and she went to the man in harm of the wogon trade and stayed like to jump ahead. He said no way. In the middle of the night 0 she got up and of they went. So the disobody the powers that be disobeyed the pours and be and didnt follow the strucks. Is that negative or positive . Thats a positive. Okay. Thank you everyone. [applause] we will now have a signing at the table. If you havent already purchased the book we aplenty at the register. If you leave your chairs where they are we have another meeting after this. Thank you very much. Booktv continues now on cspan2. Television for serious