“In this engrossing new book, Robert S. Levine has penned a nuanced and detailed study of the ‘hopes and frustrations of Reconstruction’ during Andrew Johnson’s presidency. While focusing on the relationship between Johnson and Frederick Douglass, the author also includes the views of numerous African American writers who witnessed Johnson’s transformation from self-styled ‘Moses to Black People’ to betrayer of Reconstruction.The Failed Promise is a lesson for our times as we continue to confront our nation’s unfulfilled promise of racial equality.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
Just finished The Failed Promise by Robert S. Levine. Non-Fiction. Audio version.
This book is about the relationship between Frederick Douglas and President Andrew Johnson.
Johnson, a Democratic Senator from the State of Tennessee was against Tennessee trying to leave the Union during the Civil War and was actually at one point very anti slavery, to the point that he freed the slaves that weren’t freed by the Emancipation Proclamation in his home State. Lincoln chose Johnson for his vice-presidential running mate in the election of 1864, and shortly after the war ended in 1865 he assumed the Presidency upon the death of Lincoln by assassination.