Racism is still prominent in our society, but during the Civil War, the prejudice against blacks was much more prominent. March, by Geraldine Brooks focuses of Mr. March, a firece abolitionist and his life through his twenties to the later years of his life. It explores his time as a chaplain for the Union, and the conflicts he dealt with in both his personal life and the continuous fight for the end of slavery. Brooks uses the physical and mental wounds the fight for the rights of blacks to show what both white and black people faced during the Civil War. Throughout the book, the historical battle abolitionists and slaves fought jumps through the pages in the form of both injuries they sustained, and personal difficulties that were placed upon them. During the 1800s, especially during the Civil War, it didn’t matter if you were white, any positive association …show more content…
As March’s wife Marmee came into his hospital room, she witnessed his “sunken chest...all wasted and unrecognizable, too frail to even withstand an embrace” (Brooks p.226). Though he did not obtain theses injuries from battle, throughout his time as a chaplain at the Oak Landing plantation as a teacher for slaves, his health declined. Brooks referred to the historical attacks that occurred at estates where free blacks worked. When the “guerillas”, violent confederate men who captured blacks, came to Oak, they not only killed the servants, but also Ethan Canning, the white owner of this plantation. Though this squirmish technically wasn’t a battle in the war, the oppressed who fought the guerrillas were still fighting for the rights of blacks, and risked their lives for it, so they too should be considered soldiers. March once again proved that anyone who was a supporter of the freedom of slaves was and would be attacked and punished for their