Stauffer’s Black Hearts of Men historicizes and contextualizes the Radical Abolitionist movement through the interracial alliance between Gerritt …show more content…
Stauffer presents him as a benevolent man who was a major driving force in the movement due to his social status and political and economic power. He is remembered for his writings, often published under the guise of a black man, and for creating North Elba, also known as Timbucto, a northern city for freed persons, established to help them gain suffrage, social and economic power, and the ability to rise to the conditions of whites.4 However, generous and racially progressive his publicized actions, there existed a subconscious racism within him throughout the movement, which alongside his abrupt abandonment of the movement after the Raid on Harper’s Ferry, suggest that his racial politics were largely a