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6 - Overcoming Fate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 October 2024

Kenneth S. Sacks
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
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Summary

This is the great turning point in Emerson’s life. The chapter starts with a comparison to William Ellery Channing’s heroic arc of antislavery activism. Despite dying before the annexation of territories from Mexico that galvanized abolitionism, Channing, starting as a moderate like Emerson, progressed dramatically in his commitment. Where was Emerson in all this? (See Chapter 2.) Suddenly, in 1856 Emerson pivots and from then on rises spectacularly in the abolitionist world. Not because of violence done to Black bodies, but because of violence done to his White friend Charles Sumner and to White settlers in Kansas. The chapter analyzes why Emerson had contempt for most abolitionists and how he became one himself without the characteristics of those whom he disdained. William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience is an important text here. He used him as an example of someone undergoing a “soft” conversion.

Type
Chapter
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Emerson's Civil Wars
Spirit and Society in the Age of Abolition
, pp. 142 - 158
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Overcoming Fate
  • Kenneth S. Sacks, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book: Emerson's Civil Wars
  • Online publication: 25 October 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009504867.008
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  • Overcoming Fate
  • Kenneth S. Sacks, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book: Emerson's Civil Wars
  • Online publication: 25 October 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009504867.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Overcoming Fate
  • Kenneth S. Sacks, Brown University, Rhode Island
  • Book: Emerson's Civil Wars
  • Online publication: 25 October 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009504867.008
Available formats
×