Miles to Go

This epilogue examines the breakdown (but not the disappearance) of the struggle for equal rights after the Civil War. Reform-minded New Englanders dispersed in various directions. Some focused on the newly liberated freedmen to the south and on reconstructing that region. Others concentrated on such causes as women's rights, temperance, and labor. No one denied that forms of racism persisted in New England, but many shared Garrison's belief that the basic work for equal rights had been accomplished or soon would be and welcomed the opportunity to invest in their own lives. And some of the black leaders died far too soon. The book concludes with a brief examination of why New England was in advance of the rest of the nation in providing equal rights but far from an equal society.