Conscription, Conscientious Objection, and Draft Resistance in American History is the definitive history of conscription in America. It is the first book ever to consider the entire temporal sweep of conscription from pre-Revolutionary War colonial militia drafts through the end of the Vietnam era. Each chapter contains an examination of that era’s draft law, the actual workings of the conscription machinery, and relevant court decisions that shaped the draft in practice. In addition, the book describes the popular opposition to conscription: organized and unorganized, violent and nonviolent, public and clandestine, legal and illegal. Using sources never before utilized by historians, including government documents obtained in Freedom of Information Act requests, the book demonstrates how anti-conscription sentiment has been far deeper than is popularly appreciated.

Although the act of conscientious objection entered modern consciousness most strikingly as a result of the Vietnam War, Americans have long struggled to reconcile their politics, pacifist beliefs, and compulsory military service. While conscientious objection in the twentieth century has been well documented, there has been surprisingly little study of its long history in America's early conflicts, defined as these have been by accounts of patriotism and nation-building. In fact, during the period of conscription from the late 1650s to the end of the Civil War, many North Americans refused military service on grounds of conscience. In this volume, Peter Brock, one of the foremost historians of American pacifism, seeks to remedy this oversight by presenting a rich and varied collection of documents, many drawn from obscure sources, that shed new light on American religious and military history. These include legal findings, church and meeting proceedings, appeals by nonconformists to government authorities, and illuminating excerpts from personal journals. These accounts contain many poignant, often painful, and sometimes even humorous episodes that offer glimpses into the lives of conscientious objectors of the era. One of the most striking features to emerge from these documents is the critical role of religion in the history of American pacifism. Brock finds that virtually all who refused military service in this period were inspired by religious convictions, with Quakers frequently the most ardent dissenters. In the antebellum period, however, the pacifist spectrum expanded to include nonsectarians such as the famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, founder of the New England Non-Resistance Society. A dramatic, powerful portrait of early American pacifism, Liberty and Conscience presents not only the thought and practice of the objectors themselves, but also the response of the authorities and the general public.

The term "conscientious objector" was not in use during the Civil War, but the concept certainly existed. This engrossing volume studies the whole problem of objection to warfare on religious or moral grounds, as it existed during the Civil War. The author covers five major areas: the type of individuals and which religious denominations were actually opposed to the war on conscientious grounds; what efforts were made on behalf of objectors and what changes took place in their political status; the attitude of the civil and military authorities toward objectors; the number of objectors; and, finally, a comparison of the problem of conscientious objection in the Civil War with the same problem as it existed for the United States during World War I. The facts presented in this volume are of historical interest; the conclusions the author draws, however, are as relevant and important today as they have been during any period in American history.

Concluding observations with an overview of the issue are offered in the last chapter.