The evangelical war against slavery and caste : the life and times of John G. Fee /

John G. Fee (1816-1901) is an enigmatic figure in the antislavery movement. A slaveholders son, who spent almost all of his life in his home state of Kentucky, Fee became a convert to abolitionism while attending Lane Seminary in Cincinnati in the early 1840s. He then returned home, determined to play a leading role in making Kentucky a free state. Originally a New School Presbyterian minister, Fee left that denomination because it admitted slaveowners to membership, and eventually founded a Christian Union movement that attempted to dissolve all denominational boundaries. Education was another of Fee's priorities; he established a series of interracial schools, the most important of which was Berea College. During the Civil War, Fee worked with the freed people. After the war, he was an uncompromising proponent of full equality and civil rights. Howard concludes that although Fee's life is inspiring today, his ultimate impact, even in Kentucky, is hard to determine. The work rests on thorough research in an impressive range of primary sources. Recommended for upper-division undergraduates and above, and for libraries with interests in abolitionism and religious history. T. D. Hamm Earlham College