A fascinating early Marxist study on the US Civil War (the fact that 1913 is ‘early’ says a lot about the deficiencies of many US radicals of the time) by pioneering Marxist historian Herman Schlüter (1851-1919). Schlüter was born in Schleswig-Holstein and joined the left wing of German Social Democracy as a teen and helped publish newspapers and magazines of the SPD. Schlüter emigrated to the US in 1889 where he joined the editorial board of the New Yorker Volkszeitung, and and the Socialist Labor Party. Later he joined the Socialist Party, which he represented at the Amsterdam Congress of the Second International in 1904. An anti-opportunist and anti-revisionist, he contributed to the debate in Marxism in both Germany and the US. However, it is Schlüter’s historical works, mainly of the proletarian movement in the US and England, that are his lasting legacy.

Lincoln, Labor, and Slavery: A Chapter from the Social History of America by Herman Schlüter. Socialist Literature Company, New York. 1913.

Contents: Preface, I. ECONOMIC ANTAGONISM AND POLITICAL STRUGGLE, Historical Review, Economic Contrast, Political Struggle, II. THE WORKINGMEN AND CHATTEL SLAVERY, The Industrial Workers of the North and Slavery, The German Workingmen in America and Slavery, The White Workingmen of the South, The Workingmen of England and Negro Slavery, III. FREE LABOR BEFORE THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES THE OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR AND THE LABOR MOVEMENT, General Condition of the Labor Movement, The Attitude of the Workingmen towards the War, Effects of the War on Labor, ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE WORKING CLASS, The English Workingmen and the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and the Workingmen of England, Lincoln’s Attitude towards the Working Class, VI. THE INTERNATIONAL WORKINGMEN’S ASSOCIATION AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, Address of the General Council to Abraham Lincoln, Address of the General Council of the International Workingmen’s Association to President Andrew Johnson, Address of the General Council to the People of the United States, VIL THE LABOR MOVEMENT DURING THE CIVIL WAR, The Draft Riot in New York, Laws Against Labor Organizations, Military Interference in Labor Troubles, White Slavery. 237 pages.

PDF of full book: https://archive.org/download/lincolnlaborand00schlgoog/lincolnlaborand00schlgoog.pdf