Thank you, McFarland, for providing this book for review consideration in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished The Plot To Perpetuate Slavery: How George McClellan, Southern Spies And A Confidence Man Nearly Derailed Emancipation, by Phil Raycraft.

As its title indicates, this book purports to be about a plot by General McClellan, southern spies and a con man to sabotage the Emancipation Proclamation and perpetuate slavery. According to the author, this is a story that has been “hidden for more than 160 years.” If that was the case, this would be a landmark book on the Civil War. But, the only reasonable conclusion I can make is it was a story that wasn’t told because there was nothing there to tell.

The first half of the book was seemingly random stories of seemingly random people in Maryland, almost, if not all of them, secessionists. About halfway through, a plot to sabotage the Emancipation Proclamation comes up, just in a few paragraphs and we are told that McClellan was originally against it but then changed his mind. The plot seems to be a plan to negotiate peace. Then, the book returns to its stories about other people. And, these weren’t even interesting random stories about interesting people.

I give this book an F. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an F equates to 1 star. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book finished reading this on September 18, 2024.