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Abolitionism contended throughout its history with accusations of fanaticism. Throughout much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the reputation of Theodore Parker (1810-1860) has been tied to political and religious extremism. Parker served as a Unitarian minister in Boston and was a central figure in both the Transcendentalist and antislavery movements. This edition, edited by James K. Hosmer (1837-1927) and for many years the only available edition, contributed substantially towards a revisionist reputation that attributed excessive zeal to Parker and his writings. Hosmer, a distinguished professor of history at Johns Hopkins University and who served as a president of the American Library Association, was also the author of a white supremacist historical study entitled A Short History of Anglo-American Freedom (New York: Scribners, 1890). Such editorial background sheds light on the ideological origins of the mitigations of slavery and appreciation of its alleged civilizational benefits that Hosmer writes in the preface to the present work.

For a positive assessment of Parker's legacy, also published in 1910, see Stephen Wise, Theodore Parker: Preacher-Prophet.

- Joe Lockard