Perhaps the First Frank Biography of a Slaveholding-“Abolitionist”
Anne E. Marshall, Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2025). Hardcover. 294pp, 6X9”: $39.95. ISBN: 978-1-469690-99-5.
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“The nineteenth-century Kentucky antislavery reformer Cassius Marcellus Clay is generally remembered as a knife-wielding rabble-rouser who both inspired and enraged his contemporaries. Clay brawled with opponents while stumping for state constitutional changes to curtail the slave trade. He famously deployed cannons to protect the office of the antislavery newspaper he founded in Lexington.” This point is clarified in the “Introduction”: Clay “fortified his printing office with lead panels and two four-pounder cannons. After only two months of the True American’s publication, a mob of proslavery citizens still managed to dismantle its office.” Clay probably paid this mob to take this office apart because this paper probably was not selling well in the South, and Clay proved he was on the other side when he “enlisted in the Mexican-American War” shortly thereafter, “a conflict he had previously denounced as a proslavery fight” (2). This weekly newspaper only saw a handful of issues in 1845 before the Lexington office was mob-closed. Then, it claimed to have relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio starting in September 30, 1845, but kept carrying the “Lexington” dateline until it closed without an explanation with its October 21, 1846 issue. The latter 1846 closing-date was a few months after Clay began volunteering for the “proslavery” War. Apparently, he exclaimed that he was threatened by enemies in Cincinnati, and “had sent to Cincinnati for the cannon that had once guarded his True American office”, threatening to attack anybody who stood against him with extreme deadly force (138). Clay’s flip-flopping was part of his desperate struggles to make money, as by 1856 he was forced to default on “debt repayments” when his associated “Cincinnati-based bank failed” (122). An example of how Clay managed to hurt and seemingly help abolitionists is when he wrote a letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer anti-accusing his “friend” Fee of “distributing biblical tracts to enslaved people in an effort to incite insurrection” (117). Clay was saying Fee did not do this, but he was doing this while advertising this false propaganda to those who had not heard this rumor against Fee.
In my 18-19th century re-attribution study, I explain how Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) puppeteering “King George IV” (by ghostwriting for him as proven with stylometry, and handwriting-analysis), he kept outwardly writing anti-slavery pamphlets under his own byline, such as Abolition of the African Slave Trade (1808), while subverting this movement as a spy and blocking the speed of its progress. Clarkson is likely to have been ghostwriting for “Clay” in America, and the sudden closure of this antislavery newspaper was probably due to Clarkson’s death in 1846, as opposed to any rational reason related to Clay’s ongoing life. If this was the case; the True American is likely to have been ghostwritten and printed in England and merely shipped to “Cincinnati” and “Lexington” with names of these cities credited to maximize local sales.
“Despite attempts on his life, he helped found the national Republican party and positioned himself as a staunch border state ally of Abraham Lincoln.” Lincoln had to beg southern governors and generals to defend themselves against Confederate troops, as their initial response was to refuse to engage, and to let the Confederacy take over. This showcased how having people who were only pretending to be anti-slavery while in fact being slave-holders meant profiteering interests of slave-owners won many battles that made the US one of the last places in the world where slavery was belatedly outlawed.
“During the Civil War, he served as US minister to Russia, working to ensure that European allies would not recognize the Confederacy. And yet he was a slave owner until the end of the Civil War. Though often misremembered as an abolitionist, Clay was like many Americans of his time: interested in a gradual end to slavery but largely on grounds that the institution limited whites’ ability to profit from free labor and the South’s opportunity for economic advancement. In the end, Clay’s political positions were far more about protecting members of his own class than advancing the cause of Black freedom. This vivid and insightful biography reveals Cassius Clay as he was: colorful, yes, but in many ways typical of white Americans who disliked slavery in principle but remained comfortable accommodating it. Reconsidering Clay as emblematic rather than exceptional, Anne E. Marshall shows today’s readers why it took a violent war to finally abolish slavery and why African Americans’ demands for equality struggled to gain white support after the Civil War.”
I hope that my research is indirectly rubbing off on this field because this is one of the first times I am seeing a scholarly book that is this critical of an “abolitionist”. Past studies I have seen have been echoing celebrations of canonical “abolitionists” without similarly questioning their motives, and if they might have been countering abolitionist efforts while pretending to support them. This is a good step towards the truth. This book is well-researched throughout. I found its references to be very helpful in me figuring out just what Clay was up to. I found I had to do just a bit of outside research to figure out just how long the Cincinnati office was functioning for. Just what these newspaper offices were like, and just how a mob dismantled one of them could have been covered in greater detail for my taste. Despite what I wish had been included, this is a strong study that should enrich those who read it to learn things they did not previously know about abolitionism. It is thus recommended for researchers of these topics, and for libraries that serve such researchers and concerned members of the public.
--Pennsylvania Literary Journal: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-summer-2025/

“Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform” is an interesting book. Right away, my radar was like, wait a minute — I always knew that Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., and a quick check of his bio reveals that he was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Senior, who was himself named in honour of the guy that *this* book si about, the staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay. The Clay of this book was he was appointed by Abraham Lincoln to be the U.S. minister to Russia, and he influenced Russian support for the Union during the Civil War. So definitely an interesting guy, suffice it to say. It was while at Yale in the 1830s that he heard the famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison speak. His lecture inspired the Clay of this book to join the anti-slavery movement. And although Clay advocated for gradual legal change vs. the “abolition of slavery NOW” that Garrison did, he worked hard to see his beliefs through to getting to the same result he wanted, which was to end slavery in America. He is one of the most interesting figures in American history, certainly, and not as well known as he should be. He survived multiple assassination attempts and also published an anti-slavery newspaper, True American, in Kentucky which, I don’t think I have to emphasize, is quite a remarkable feat given the climate at the time. He took many safeguards to prevent people from breaking into his office and damaging the printing equipment. So he also set up a publishing center in Cincinnati, Ohio, as an extra bit of insurance. Served in the Mexican-American War, opposed the annexing of Texas. He was also a huge supporter of Lincoln.

So where does this book come in? “Clay’s story encourages us to reappraise the successes and failures of antislavery politics beyond the Civil War,” according to the author. The book’s goal is to help readers better understand why the Civil War led to emancipation “but did not translate into enduring equality and justice for African Americans.”

In terms of the readability, it’s definitely a more academic book that will do better in academic library settings and for those who are very into the topic and want to know more about Clay but also Clay in the context of both the antebellum era leading up to the Civil War, and then through the Civil War, and afterwards. It’s a really interesting book for people who know more about William Lloyd Garrison and the other prominent figures of the abolitionist movement in America in the mid 1800s, but may not have heard of Clay. Having said that, it is very granular in its details, so a reader REALLY needs to be interested in the topic at hand otherwise they may find it a bit dense and heavy.

Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform by Anne E. Marshall is an incredibly detailed account of a historical figure I had never even heard of before picking up this book. Clay is a fascinating and contradictory character. He is colorful, bold, and deeply complex. From engaging in duels to founding a newspaper and diving into politics, he definitely led a dramatic and eventful life.

Marshall does an excellent job of capturing every facet of Clay’s journey, perhaps a bit too well. At times, it felt like she was providing a near day-by-day chronicle, which made the book a bit of a slow burn. This isn’t a breezy read; it's dense with information, and at times, it felt like the narrative would never end.

I’d consider this more of a leisurely, long-term read rather than one you try to finish in a few sittings. If you're planning to dive in, know that you might need to take breaks or even reread sections to fully absorb the depth of material. That said, if you're interested in lesser-known figures from American history or enjoy complex biographies, this book is worth the time and effort.