"Dear Master": Letters of a Slave Family (review)

270CIVIL WAR HISTORY to have forged a command system that secured a better quality of leadership than did the Union's. Lincoln, on the other hand, was "an intensely ambitious man who thought, acted, and moralized almost entirely within the confines of a political universe" (p. 83). The consequences of the war, Johnson says, are more important than its causes. The war that saved the Union and freed the slaves also had some dubious results: blacks are still unassimilated, concentrated capital influences a technological society, a gigantic central government affects the daily lives of citizens, and the twentieth century is drifting toward ethical relativism or cynicism. The balance sheet shows less progress than it once did. Unlike Holt's book, Johnson's rests upon published materials, nearly all of which are secondary. Though both books appear to be aimed at undergraduate readers, Holt's may go above the heads of some of his intended audience while Johnson's may hit some in their visceral regions. Both are distinguished by their clarity of style and force of interpretation. One should foster research in party politics in the 1850's; the other may revive the debate between friends of the Union and supporters of the Lost Cause. James A. Rawley University of Nebraska, Lincoln "Dear Master": Letters of a Shve Family. Edited by Randall M. Miller. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978. Pp. 281. $15.00.) This is an extraordinary book, not only because it so vividly reveals the hopes, ideals, religious values and family attitudes of one group of Virginia slaves—the Skipwiths, owned by John Hartwell Cocke—but also because the editor has so gracefully interwoven the lives of the slaves and their master with important questions concerning slavery and race relations in the nineteenth century. As the editor suggests, the Skipwith family (Peyton, his wife and children, his brother George and George's daughter Lucy) was an unusual group: literate, generally free from white control, and espousing the values of hard work, sobriety (except for George), and religious piety. And their owner, John Cocke, was an unusual master, comprehending with great sensitivity the inner feelings of his black charges and deeply committed to freeing them and transporting them to Africa, if, in his opinion, they could manage on their own. Yet, from this unique cast of characters emerges the typical struggles of Peyton Skipwith, who, after receiving his freedom papers, seeks to adjust to the alien environment and the "savage natives" of Liberia; and the predictable trials of George Skipwith, who, with the promise of freedom, attempts to manage a large plantation (owned by John Cocke) in Alabama; and the obvious despair of Lucy Skipwith, who, also with the promise of emancipation, tries valiantly but unsuc- BOOK REVIEWS271 cessfully to bring learning to her fellow slaves. If the letters are filled with lengthy descriptions of everyday activities (plowing, planting, weeding, harvesting), they are also filled with glimpses of the attitudes of black Americans toward their brethren in Africa, revelations about the deep impact of American values on privileged Negroes, and perhaps the best analysis yet of the ambiguous position of the black slave driver (cajoler, coaxer, commander). This well-edited volume, with its useful bibliography, is a most important addition to the literature of slavery and the Civil War era. Lohen Schweninger University of North Carolina, Greensboro The Trent Affair: A Diplomatic Crisis. By Norman B. Ferris. (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1977. Pp. xii, 280. $14.95.) The last Anglo-American crisis serious enough to threaten full-scale war occurred late in 1861, at a time when the Lincoln administration was digesting its bitter realization that the CivilWar would be long and hard. A Union naval officer, exercising the much-touted initiative of American military men, stopped a British mail packet and took off two Confederate agents bound for European posts. The Northern public, starved for victories, acclaimed Captain Charles D. Wilkes as a hero, but the British government demanded the release of the prisoners and prepared to fight. In a war with England American forces might haveseized Canada, which was almost defenseless, but a British blockade of Northern ports and a full military, political, and economic Anglo...