Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant · Concept
Slavery and Racial Justice
Grant condemns the Mexican War as unjust and the Confederate cause as one of the worst ever fought, and later advocates for the rights of freedmen, including his support for annexing Santo Domingo as a refuge for Black Americans.
Grant condemns the Mexican War as unjust and the Confederate cause as one of the worst ever fought, and later advocates for the rights of freedmen, including his support for annexing Santo Domingo as a refuge for Black Americans.
Grant mentions a settler with one female slave at Goliad, and the brutal massacres at the Alamo and Goliad that fueled Texan cruelty, implicitly touching on the racial and social tensions of the era.
Grant states the war was 'one of conquest, in the interest of an institution,' implicitly criticizing the expansion of slavery.
Grant discusses the institution of slavery as the root of the conflict, the fears of emancipation, and the eventual liberation of four million slaves, while noting that social equality was not a necessary outcome.
The chapter details the organization of freedmen to harvest crops, creating a self-sustaining system that provided wages and care, an early step toward emancipation and economic independence.
Characters
Chapters
- Corpus Christi and the March to the Rio Grande
- Chapter XI: The Battles for Mexico City
- Resignation—Private Life—Life at Galena—The Coming Crisis
- The Campaign Against Vicksburg
- Assuming the Command at Chattanooga—Opening a Line of Supplies—Battle of Wauhatchie—On the Picket Line
- Arrival of the Peace Commissioners—Lincoln and the Peace Commissioners—An Anecdote of Lincoln—The Winter Before Petersburg—Sheridan Destroys the Railroad—Gordon Carries the Picket Line—Parke Recaptures the Line—The Line of Battle of White Oak Road
- Morale of the Two Armies—President Lincoln Visits Richmond—President Lincoln's Assassination—President Johnson's Policy
- Conclusion
