The struggle for equality; [electronic resource] abolitionists and the Negro in the Civil War and Reconstruction, by James M. McPherson.

"Bibliographical essay": p. 433-450.

The election of 1860 -- Secession and the coming of war -- The emancipation issue : 1861 -- Emancipation and public opinion : 1861-1862 -- The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment -- The Negro : innately inferior or equal? -- Freedmen's education : 1861-1865 -- The creation of the Freedmen's Bureau -- Men of color, to arms! -- The quest for equal rights in the North -- The ballot and land for the freedmen : 1861-1865 -- The reelection of Lincoln -- Schism in the ranks : 1864-1865 -- Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction : 1865 -- The Fourteenth Amendment and the election of 1866 -- Military reconstruction and impeachment -- Education and confiscation : 1865-1870 -- The climax of the crusade : the Fifteenth Amendment.