The Abolitionists

Jonah Witherspoon comes from a family of Boston abolitionists. He graduates from West Point in 1859 and is disgusted by the need for war to free slaves. But the war brutalizes him and he loses his idealism. His story is intertwined with Irish immigrants who become involved with Boss Tweed in Manhattan, and with characters like Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, John Brown, the gender bending Emma Thompson and others.