The growing mission of deliverance and judgement in the New England literary mind 1834-1860

Many New Englanders in 1861 eagerly greeted the outbreak of the American Civil War. Although they had had very little direct experience with the South, they strongly believed in a divine duty to rescue the slaves and inflict God's judgement on the Southern whites. The purpose of this paper is to trace the development of this social myth in Northern thought through the literary works and other writings of New England literary men.