Militant Reconciliation: Richard Realf and the Poetry of Abolition-Democracy

Abstract:W. E. B. Du Bois writes that during the Civil War and Reconstruction, a fervor for the ideals of democracy "swept the land with its music and poetry." But studies of the poetry of the period (at least by white poets) typically offer a more muted account, reinforcing the view that race—specifically, white supremacy—held writers back from confronting the moment's prodemocratic possibilities. To understand the emergence of abolition-democracy with more clarity, we can look to the poet Richard Realf, a British-born antislavery activist, Union soldier, and Reconstruction administrator. It is worthwhile to elevate Realf's poetry alongside that of other white Union soldiers supportive of the Radical Republicans (like Ambrose Bierce, George Henry Boker, Henry Howard Brownell, Brett Harte, and George Nichols) because his poems trace the long development of abolition-democracy from Bleeding Kansas in the 1850s through its devolution after the Panic of 1873. They articulate with stridency a utopic vision of abolition-democracy as a horizon of possibility. They strive to cultivate a class-conscious solidarity for its further development. In so doing, they challenge simple narratives about US democracy foundering on race.