Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant · Theme
Slavery and Racial Justice
How Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant develops 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.
Where it surfaces
- Corpus Christi and the March to the Rio Grande
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.
- Chapter XI: The Battles for Mexico City
Grant states the war was 'one of conquest, in the interest of an institution,' implicitly criticizing the expansion of slavery.
- Resignation—Private Life—Life at Galena—The Coming Crisis
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 Campaign Against Vicksburg
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.
- Assuming the Command at Chattanooga—Opening a Line of Supplies—Battle of Wauhatchie—On the Picket Line
Grant reflects that the South was burdened by slavery, an institution that degraded labor and kept the governing class enervated, and argues the South benefited from defeat.
- 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
Lincoln's demand for abolition as a non-negotiable condition for peace underscores the centrality of slavery to the conflict.
- Morale of the Two Armies—President Lincoln Visits Richmond—President Lincoln's Assassination—President Johnson's Policy
Grant analyzes the role of enslaved people in the Southern war effort and describes the political battle over enfranchisement, ultimately supporting immediate black suffrage.
- Conclusion
Grant identifies slavery as the cause of the war and discusses the political and social conflicts it generated.