J. Kameron Carter
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195152791
- eISBN:
- 9780199870578
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195152791.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
Here this chapter engages the work of Albert Raboteau, the elder statesman of contemporary African American religious history, particularly his early work, Slave Religion (1978). The ambiguity of ...
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Here this chapter engages the work of Albert Raboteau, the elder statesman of contemporary African American religious history, particularly his early work, Slave Religion (1978). The ambiguity of this text, which is emblematic of the field, lies in its impression that black religion generally and Afro‐Christianity particularly is a reflex of race, an (essentialist) echo of “Africanity” or “blackness” itself. Thus, black cultural nationalism is at the root of black religion. However, such a reading of black faith only lodges it within, rather than seeing it as trying to disrupt, modernity's racial imagination.The chapter then reexamine Raboteau's early work in light of his post‐Slave Religion work, inspired as it is by icon theology. Raboteau can now historically call attention to how Afro‐Christianity disrupts the racial gaze. The book later refines and presses Raboteau's fledgling and sketchy insights in a theologically robust direction.Less
Here this chapter engages the work of Albert Raboteau, the elder statesman of contemporary African American religious history, particularly his early work, Slave Religion (1978). The ambiguity of this text, which is emblematic of the field, lies in its impression that black religion generally and Afro‐Christianity particularly is a reflex of race, an (essentialist) echo of “Africanity” or “blackness” itself. Thus, black cultural nationalism is at the root of black religion. However, such a reading of black faith only lodges it within, rather than seeing it as trying to disrupt, modernity's racial imagination.The chapter then reexamine Raboteau's early work in light of his post‐Slave Religion work, inspired as it is by icon theology. Raboteau can now historically call attention to how Afro‐Christianity disrupts the racial gaze. The book later refines and presses Raboteau's fledgling and sketchy insights in a theologically robust direction.
THELMA WILLS FOOTE
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195165371
- eISBN:
- 9780199871735
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195165371.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter shows that the disciplinary mechanism of antiblack racism became a key instrument of governance in colonial New York City. It notes that New York City's Slave Revolt of 1712 was the act ...
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This chapter shows that the disciplinary mechanism of antiblack racism became a key instrument of governance in colonial New York City. It notes that New York City's Slave Revolt of 1712 was the act of unculturated native Africans and other slaves, who from their own distinctive worldviews, regarded colonial New York's institution of slavery as an unjust social relation. It demonstrates the specter of interracial sexual desire, especially in households where slave owners and their families lived under the same roof with black Africans.Less
This chapter shows that the disciplinary mechanism of antiblack racism became a key instrument of governance in colonial New York City. It notes that New York City's Slave Revolt of 1712 was the act of unculturated native Africans and other slaves, who from their own distinctive worldviews, regarded colonial New York's institution of slavery as an unjust social relation. It demonstrates the specter of interracial sexual desire, especially in households where slave owners and their families lived under the same roof with black Africans.
Paul Lane and Kevin C. MacDonald (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
The role and consequences of slavery in the history of Africa have been brought to the fore recently in historical, anthropological, and archaeological research. Public remembrances — such as ...
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The role and consequences of slavery in the history of Africa have been brought to the fore recently in historical, anthropological, and archaeological research. Public remembrances — such as Abolition 2007 in Great Britain, which marked the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and which this book also commemorates — have also stimulated considerable interest. There is a growing realisation that enslavement, whether as part of a sliding scale of ‘rights in persons’ or due to acts of violence, has a history on the African continent that extends back in time long before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The nature of such enslavement is obscured by the lack of resolution in historical sources before the middle of the second millennium ad. Ground-breaking archaeological research is now building models for approaching slave labour systems via collaboration with historians and the critical scrutiny of historical data. Generally, such new research focuses at the landscape scale; rather than attempting to find physical evidence of slavery per se, it assesses the settlement systems of slavery-based economies, and the depopulation and abandonment that followed from wars of enslavement. This book offers chapters on recent archaeological studies of slavery, slave resistance and its contemporary commemoration, alongside archaeological assessments of the economic, environmental, and political consequences of slave trading in a variety of historical and geographical settings.Less
The role and consequences of slavery in the history of Africa have been brought to the fore recently in historical, anthropological, and archaeological research. Public remembrances — such as Abolition 2007 in Great Britain, which marked the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and which this book also commemorates — have also stimulated considerable interest. There is a growing realisation that enslavement, whether as part of a sliding scale of ‘rights in persons’ or due to acts of violence, has a history on the African continent that extends back in time long before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The nature of such enslavement is obscured by the lack of resolution in historical sources before the middle of the second millennium ad. Ground-breaking archaeological research is now building models for approaching slave labour systems via collaboration with historians and the critical scrutiny of historical data. Generally, such new research focuses at the landscape scale; rather than attempting to find physical evidence of slavery per se, it assesses the settlement systems of slavery-based economies, and the depopulation and abandonment that followed from wars of enslavement. This book offers chapters on recent archaeological studies of slavery, slave resistance and its contemporary commemoration, alongside archaeological assessments of the economic, environmental, and political consequences of slave trading in a variety of historical and geographical settings.
Mary Wills
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781789620788
- eISBN:
- 9781789629668
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781789620788.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
After Britain’s Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, a squadron of Royal Navy vessels was sent to the West Coast of Africa tasked with suppressing the thriving transatlantic slave trade. Drawing ...
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After Britain’s Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, a squadron of Royal Navy vessels was sent to the West Coast of Africa tasked with suppressing the thriving transatlantic slave trade. Drawing on previously unpublished papers found in private collections and various archives in the UK and abroad, this book examines the personal and cultural experiences of the naval officers at the frontline of Britain’s anti-slavery campaign in West Africa. It explores their unique roles in this 60-year operation: at sea, boarding slave ships bound for the Americas and ‘liberating’ captive Africans; on shore, as Britain resolved to ‘improve’ West African societies; and in the metropolitan debates around slavery and abolitionism in Britain. Their personal narratives are revealing of everyday concerns of health, rewards and strategy, to more profound questions of national honour, cultural encounters, responsibility for the lives of others in the most distressing of circumstances, and the true meaning of ‘freedom’ for formerly enslaved African peoples. British anti-slavery efforts and imperial agendas were tightly bound in the nineteenth century, inseparable from ideas of national identity. This is a book about individuals tasked with extraordinary service, military men who also worked as guardians, negotiators, and envoys of abolition.Less
After Britain’s Abolition of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, a squadron of Royal Navy vessels was sent to the West Coast of Africa tasked with suppressing the thriving transatlantic slave trade. Drawing on previously unpublished papers found in private collections and various archives in the UK and abroad, this book examines the personal and cultural experiences of the naval officers at the frontline of Britain’s anti-slavery campaign in West Africa. It explores their unique roles in this 60-year operation: at sea, boarding slave ships bound for the Americas and ‘liberating’ captive Africans; on shore, as Britain resolved to ‘improve’ West African societies; and in the metropolitan debates around slavery and abolitionism in Britain. Their personal narratives are revealing of everyday concerns of health, rewards and strategy, to more profound questions of national honour, cultural encounters, responsibility for the lives of others in the most distressing of circumstances, and the true meaning of ‘freedom’ for formerly enslaved African peoples. British anti-slavery efforts and imperial agendas were tightly bound in the nineteenth century, inseparable from ideas of national identity. This is a book about individuals tasked with extraordinary service, military men who also worked as guardians, negotiators, and envoys of abolition.
Manuel Barcia
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780300215854
- eISBN:
- 9780300252019
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300215854.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
The Yellow Demon of Fever unravels the story of the uninterrupted Atlantic struggle between humans and often terrifying and puzzling diseases, a struggle that generated a vast amount of information ...
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The Yellow Demon of Fever unravels the story of the uninterrupted Atlantic struggle between humans and often terrifying and puzzling diseases, a struggle that generated a vast amount of information at a time when transatlantic means of communication were significantly enhanced. It seeks to demonstrate that while the enforcement of abolitionist policies in the Atlantic contributed to the eventual ending of the transatlantic slave trade, it also led to an increase in the suffering of those who were enslaved and sent into the transatlantic slave trade.
The book also argues that slave traders’ worries about the health of their human cargoes, as well as anti–slave trade patrol officers’ concerns about the health of their prizes—both related to the maximization of profits—generated transatlantic discussions and dialogues about the diseases they encountered and the best ways to fight them.
The Yellow Demon of Fever exhaustively examines the personal experiences of ordinary Atlantic people who were daily exposed to deadly and debilitating diseases and illnesses, and who were forced to resist and fight them as best they could, often sharing old and new knowledge on the characteristics of these deadly enemies and on how to confront them. Ultimately, it argues that the ways in which these historical actors dealt with and fought against a bewildering array of diseases were central elements in the transformations of medical cultures that took place in the illegal period throughout the Atlantic world.Less
The Yellow Demon of Fever unravels the story of the uninterrupted Atlantic struggle between humans and often terrifying and puzzling diseases, a struggle that generated a vast amount of information at a time when transatlantic means of communication were significantly enhanced. It seeks to demonstrate that while the enforcement of abolitionist policies in the Atlantic contributed to the eventual ending of the transatlantic slave trade, it also led to an increase in the suffering of those who were enslaved and sent into the transatlantic slave trade.
The book also argues that slave traders’ worries about the health of their human cargoes, as well as anti–slave trade patrol officers’ concerns about the health of their prizes—both related to the maximization of profits—generated transatlantic discussions and dialogues about the diseases they encountered and the best ways to fight them.
The Yellow Demon of Fever exhaustively examines the personal experiences of ordinary Atlantic people who were daily exposed to deadly and debilitating diseases and illnesses, and who were forced to resist and fight them as best they could, often sharing old and new knowledge on the characteristics of these deadly enemies and on how to confront them. Ultimately, it argues that the ways in which these historical actors dealt with and fought against a bewildering array of diseases were central elements in the transformations of medical cultures that took place in the illegal period throughout the Atlantic world.
Matthew Pinsker
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056036
- eISBN:
- 9780813053806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056036.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter reexamines the legal and sometimes violent contest between antislavery and proslavery forces regarding enforcement of the federal fugitive slave code in the urban North. It argues that ...
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This chapter reexamines the legal and sometimes violent contest between antislavery and proslavery forces regarding enforcement of the federal fugitive slave code in the urban North. It argues that recent scholarship on this subject has made clearer that northern vigilance committees and abolitionists were remarkably successful in pursuing various legal and political strategies on the ground, even in cities with strong anti-black, proslavery sentiment and even after passage of the draconian Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Relying on personal liberty statutes, sympathetic juries, targeted mobbing, and a host of other tactics, the vigilance movement largely succeeded not only in frustrating slave catchers on northern territory but also in protecting their own operatives from violence and legal repercussions.Less
This chapter reexamines the legal and sometimes violent contest between antislavery and proslavery forces regarding enforcement of the federal fugitive slave code in the urban North. It argues that recent scholarship on this subject has made clearer that northern vigilance committees and abolitionists were remarkably successful in pursuing various legal and political strategies on the ground, even in cities with strong anti-black, proslavery sentiment and even after passage of the draconian Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Relying on personal liberty statutes, sympathetic juries, targeted mobbing, and a host of other tactics, the vigilance movement largely succeeded not only in frustrating slave catchers on northern territory but also in protecting their own operatives from violence and legal repercussions.
Sylviane A. Diouf
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056036
- eISBN:
- 9780813053806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056036.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Unlike their African forebears, most American maroons in the antebellum period did not look for freedom in remote hinterland locations. Instead, they settled in the borderlands of farms or ...
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Unlike their African forebears, most American maroons in the antebellum period did not look for freedom in remote hinterland locations. Instead, they settled in the borderlands of farms or plantations—and they went to the woods to stay. If not caught by men or dogs, and depending on their health, survival skills, and their families’ and friends’ level of involvement, runaway slaves could live there for years. These “borderland maroons” have become the most invisible refugees from slavery, although their (white and black) contemporaries were well aware of their existence. As is true for most American maroons, their lives have remained partially unknown, but several individuals who later got out of the South, or had loved ones who went to the woods, described that experience in slave narratives such as autobiographies and memoirs. In addition, detailed and intimate information about their existence can be found in the recollections of the formerly enslaved men and women gathered by the Works Progress Administration. This chapter builds upon the previous two contributions by exploring the lives of “borderland maroons” in the antebellum South with a particular emphasis on the (slave family) networks that sustained them indefinitely as refugees from slavery.Less
Unlike their African forebears, most American maroons in the antebellum period did not look for freedom in remote hinterland locations. Instead, they settled in the borderlands of farms or plantations—and they went to the woods to stay. If not caught by men or dogs, and depending on their health, survival skills, and their families’ and friends’ level of involvement, runaway slaves could live there for years. These “borderland maroons” have become the most invisible refugees from slavery, although their (white and black) contemporaries were well aware of their existence. As is true for most American maroons, their lives have remained partially unknown, but several individuals who later got out of the South, or had loved ones who went to the woods, described that experience in slave narratives such as autobiographies and memoirs. In addition, detailed and intimate information about their existence can be found in the recollections of the formerly enslaved men and women gathered by the Works Progress Administration. This chapter builds upon the previous two contributions by exploring the lives of “borderland maroons” in the antebellum South with a particular emphasis on the (slave family) networks that sustained them indefinitely as refugees from slavery.
Fred I. Greenstein and Dale Anderson
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151991
- eISBN:
- 9781400846412
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151991.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, American Politics
This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Franklin Pierce, focusing on six realms: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and ...
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This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Franklin Pierce, focusing on six realms: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. Pierce won the Democratic Party's 1852 presidential nomination after a forty-eight ballot impasse in which none of the party's top three leaders was able to muster the two-thirds vote needed to become the Democratic flag bearer. A gregarious nonentity, he took office amid growing anger over the Fugitive Slave Act and passed on to his successor an acutely polarized nation. Pierce's historical reputation is captured in a survey of sixty-four historians conducted by C-SPAN in which he ranked fortieth in a field of forty-two.Less
This chapter assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Franklin Pierce, focusing on six realms: public communication, organizational capacity, political skill, policy vision, cognitive style, and emotional intelligence. Pierce won the Democratic Party's 1852 presidential nomination after a forty-eight ballot impasse in which none of the party's top three leaders was able to muster the two-thirds vote needed to become the Democratic flag bearer. A gregarious nonentity, he took office amid growing anger over the Fugitive Slave Act and passed on to his successor an acutely polarized nation. Pierce's historical reputation is captured in a survey of sixty-four historians conducted by C-SPAN in which he ranked fortieth in a field of forty-two.
Margot Minardi
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195379372
- eISBN:
- 9780199869152
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379372.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter examines how black Bay Staters in the 1850s strove to claim “manhood” and “citizenship” by representing themselves and their ancestors as agents in history. This endeavor was especially ...
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This chapter examines how black Bay Staters in the 1850s strove to claim “manhood” and “citizenship” by representing themselves and their ancestors as agents in history. This endeavor was especially pressing after 1850, when the Fugitive Slave Act made African Americans vulnerable to slave catchers, even on the professedly free ground of the North. In this context, Crispus Attucks, who had largely been forgotten in early national commemorations of the Revolutionary War, assumed his place as black America's finest example of patriotism and heroism. The leading figure in the effort to recover the agency of Attucks and other black patriots was William Cooper Nell, an abolitionist, integrationist, and historian who published The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution in 1855. This chapter interprets the revival of interest in black Revolutionary heroism in the context of the struggle for African American civil rights in Massachusetts, with particular attention to the effort to allow black men to serve in the militia.Less
This chapter examines how black Bay Staters in the 1850s strove to claim “manhood” and “citizenship” by representing themselves and their ancestors as agents in history. This endeavor was especially pressing after 1850, when the Fugitive Slave Act made African Americans vulnerable to slave catchers, even on the professedly free ground of the North. In this context, Crispus Attucks, who had largely been forgotten in early national commemorations of the Revolutionary War, assumed his place as black America's finest example of patriotism and heroism. The leading figure in the effort to recover the agency of Attucks and other black patriots was William Cooper Nell, an abolitionist, integrationist, and historian who published The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution in 1855. This chapter interprets the revival of interest in black Revolutionary heroism in the context of the struggle for African American civil rights in Massachusetts, with particular attention to the effort to allow black men to serve in the militia.
Sophie White
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781469654041
- eISBN:
- 9781469654065
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469654041.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
In eighteenth-century New Orleans, the legal testimony of some 150 enslaved women and men--like the testimony of free colonists--was meticulously recorded and preserved. Questioned in criminal trials ...
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In eighteenth-century New Orleans, the legal testimony of some 150 enslaved women and men--like the testimony of free colonists--was meticulously recorded and preserved. Questioned in criminal trials as defendants, victims, and witnesses about attacks, murders, robberies, and escapes, they answered with stories about themselves, stories that rebutted the premise on which slavery was founded.
Focusing on four especially dramatic court cases, Voices of the Enslaved draws us into Louisiana’s courtrooms, prisons, courtyards, plantations, bayous, and convents to understand how the enslaved viewed and experienced their worlds. As they testified, these individuals charted their movement between West African, indigenous, and colonial cultures; they pronounced their moral and religious values; and they registered their responses to labor, to violence, and, above all, to the intimate romantic and familial bonds they sought to create and protect. Their words--punctuated by the cadences of Creole and rich with metaphor--produced riveting autobiographical narratives as they veered from the questions posed by interrogators.
Carefully assessing what we can discover, what we might guess, and what has been lost forever, Sophie White offers both a richly textured account of slavery in French Louisiana and a powerful meditation on the limits and possibilities of the archive.Less
In eighteenth-century New Orleans, the legal testimony of some 150 enslaved women and men--like the testimony of free colonists--was meticulously recorded and preserved. Questioned in criminal trials as defendants, victims, and witnesses about attacks, murders, robberies, and escapes, they answered with stories about themselves, stories that rebutted the premise on which slavery was founded.
Focusing on four especially dramatic court cases, Voices of the Enslaved draws us into Louisiana’s courtrooms, prisons, courtyards, plantations, bayous, and convents to understand how the enslaved viewed and experienced their worlds. As they testified, these individuals charted their movement between West African, indigenous, and colonial cultures; they pronounced their moral and religious values; and they registered their responses to labor, to violence, and, above all, to the intimate romantic and familial bonds they sought to create and protect. Their words--punctuated by the cadences of Creole and rich with metaphor--produced riveting autobiographical narratives as they veered from the questions posed by interrogators.
Carefully assessing what we can discover, what we might guess, and what has been lost forever, Sophie White offers both a richly textured account of slavery in French Louisiana and a powerful meditation on the limits and possibilities of the archive.
Corey M. Brooks
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226307282
- eISBN:
- 9780226307312
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226307312.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Political History
This book tells the story of how abolitionist activists built the most transformative third-party movement in American history and set in motion changes that eventuated in the rise of the Republican ...
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This book tells the story of how abolitionist activists built the most transformative third-party movement in American history and set in motion changes that eventuated in the rise of the Republican Party, and ultimately, the Civil War and the abolition of American slavery. Because of the longstanding bifurcation between studies of the antislavery movement and studies of the sectional conflict, political abolitionists’ vital role in both has been too frequently overlooked. This book corrects this disconnect and shows how political abolitionists, working first through the Liberty Party and then the Free Soil Party, reshaped national politics. Savvy third-party leaders pioneered and disseminated the politically critical but often-misunderstood Slave Power concept, which this book reframes as an argument about party politics. Identifying the Second Party System of Whigs and Democrats as the mainstay of the Slave Power’s supremacy, political abolitionists insisted that only a party independent of slaveholder influence could overthrow the Slave Power’s control of the federal government. Through a series of shrewd electoral, lobbying, and legislative tactics, the Liberty and Free Soil Parties wielded power far beyond their numbers and helped reorient national political debate around slavery. Focusing especially on the U.S. Congress, political abolitionists popularized their Slave Power argument and helped generate controversy over slavery’s westward expansion to destroy the Second Party System and erect the Republican Party as the first major party independent of the Slave Power.Less
This book tells the story of how abolitionist activists built the most transformative third-party movement in American history and set in motion changes that eventuated in the rise of the Republican Party, and ultimately, the Civil War and the abolition of American slavery. Because of the longstanding bifurcation between studies of the antislavery movement and studies of the sectional conflict, political abolitionists’ vital role in both has been too frequently overlooked. This book corrects this disconnect and shows how political abolitionists, working first through the Liberty Party and then the Free Soil Party, reshaped national politics. Savvy third-party leaders pioneered and disseminated the politically critical but often-misunderstood Slave Power concept, which this book reframes as an argument about party politics. Identifying the Second Party System of Whigs and Democrats as the mainstay of the Slave Power’s supremacy, political abolitionists insisted that only a party independent of slaveholder influence could overthrow the Slave Power’s control of the federal government. Through a series of shrewd electoral, lobbying, and legislative tactics, the Liberty and Free Soil Parties wielded power far beyond their numbers and helped reorient national political debate around slavery. Focusing especially on the U.S. Congress, political abolitionists popularized their Slave Power argument and helped generate controversy over slavery’s westward expansion to destroy the Second Party System and erect the Republican Party as the first major party independent of the Slave Power.
Daniel W. Crofts
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781469627311
- eISBN:
- 9781469627335
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469627311.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
This landmark book examines a little-known episode in the most celebrated aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s life: his role as the “Great Emancipator.” Lincoln always hated slavery, but he also believed it ...
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This landmark book examines a little-known episode in the most celebrated aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s life: his role as the “Great Emancipator.” Lincoln always hated slavery, but he also believed it to be legal where it already existed, and he never imagined fighting a war to end it. In 1861, as part of a last-ditch effort to preserve the Union and prevent war, the new president even offered to accept a constitutional amendment that barred Congress from interfering with slavery in the slave states. Lincoln made this key overture in his first inaugural address. This book unearths the hidden history and political maneuvering behind the stillborn attempt to enact the other thirteenth amendment, the polar opposite to the actual Thirteenth Amendment of 1865 that ended slavery. It sheds light on an overlooked element of Lincoln’s statecraft and presents a relentlessly honest portrayal of America’s most admired president. It rejects the view advanced by some Lincoln scholars that the wartime momentum toward emancipation originated well before the first shots were fired. Lincoln did indeed become the “Great Emancipator,” but he had no such intention when he first took office. Only amid the crucible of combat did the war to save the Union become a war for freedom.Less
This landmark book examines a little-known episode in the most celebrated aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s life: his role as the “Great Emancipator.” Lincoln always hated slavery, but he also believed it to be legal where it already existed, and he never imagined fighting a war to end it. In 1861, as part of a last-ditch effort to preserve the Union and prevent war, the new president even offered to accept a constitutional amendment that barred Congress from interfering with slavery in the slave states. Lincoln made this key overture in his first inaugural address. This book unearths the hidden history and political maneuvering behind the stillborn attempt to enact the other thirteenth amendment, the polar opposite to the actual Thirteenth Amendment of 1865 that ended slavery. It sheds light on an overlooked element of Lincoln’s statecraft and presents a relentlessly honest portrayal of America’s most admired president. It rejects the view advanced by some Lincoln scholars that the wartime momentum toward emancipation originated well before the first shots were fired. Lincoln did indeed become the “Great Emancipator,” but he had no such intention when he first took office. Only amid the crucible of combat did the war to save the Union become a war for freedom.
Lorien Foote
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469630557
- eISBN:
- 9781469630571
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469630557.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
When escaped Union prisoners travelled through South Carolina, they received food, information, shelter, and guidance from slaves, who interpreted the mass escapes through their religious beliefs as ...
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When escaped Union prisoners travelled through South Carolina, they received food, information, shelter, and guidance from slaves, who interpreted the mass escapes through their religious beliefs as a sign of the jubilee. These encounters accelerated the collapse of slavery because slaves recognized the mass escapes as an opportune moment for escalated resistance against the Confederate state. Interactions with slaves challenged the racial attitudes of escaped Union prisoners. Planter resistance to slave impressment undermined Confederate defense of South Carolina and created conditions that allowed slaves to aid escaped prisoners.Less
When escaped Union prisoners travelled through South Carolina, they received food, information, shelter, and guidance from slaves, who interpreted the mass escapes through their religious beliefs as a sign of the jubilee. These encounters accelerated the collapse of slavery because slaves recognized the mass escapes as an opportune moment for escalated resistance against the Confederate state. Interactions with slaves challenged the racial attitudes of escaped Union prisoners. Planter resistance to slave impressment undermined Confederate defense of South Carolina and created conditions that allowed slaves to aid escaped prisoners.
Andrew Pearson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781382837
- eISBN:
- 9781781383957
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781382837.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This book is an examination of the South Atlantic island of St Helena’s involvement in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. In the decades after 1807, British anti-slavery revolved around ...
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This book is an examination of the South Atlantic island of St Helena’s involvement in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. In the decades after 1807, British anti-slavery revolved around Sierra Leone, but following the establishment of a British Vice-Admiralty court at St Helena in 1840, this dynamic radically changed. The island became a new hub of naval activity in the region, acting as a base for the West Africa Squadron and a principal receiving depot for captured slave ships and their human cargo. During the middle decades of the nineteenth century over 25,000 ‘recaptive’ or liberated Africans were landed at St Helena. This book provides an account and evaluation of this episode. It begins by considering the geo-political events that brought St Helena into the fray of abolition, and the manner in which colonial policy set in London meshed with practical reality in the distant South Atlantic. The greater part of the book focuses closely on St Helena. It examines the relationship between the Royal Navy and the island during this period of slave-tradesuppression, the operation of the ‘depots’ that were set up to receive the liberated Africans, and the medical treatment that was afforded to them. The lives of the survivors, both in the immediate and longer-term, is also considered, from the limited settlement that occurred on St Helena, to their wider diaspora across the Atlantic world.Less
This book is an examination of the South Atlantic island of St Helena’s involvement in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. In the decades after 1807, British anti-slavery revolved around Sierra Leone, but following the establishment of a British Vice-Admiralty court at St Helena in 1840, this dynamic radically changed. The island became a new hub of naval activity in the region, acting as a base for the West Africa Squadron and a principal receiving depot for captured slave ships and their human cargo. During the middle decades of the nineteenth century over 25,000 ‘recaptive’ or liberated Africans were landed at St Helena. This book provides an account and evaluation of this episode. It begins by considering the geo-political events that brought St Helena into the fray of abolition, and the manner in which colonial policy set in London meshed with practical reality in the distant South Atlantic. The greater part of the book focuses closely on St Helena. It examines the relationship between the Royal Navy and the island during this period of slave-tradesuppression, the operation of the ‘depots’ that were set up to receive the liberated Africans, and the medical treatment that was afforded to them. The lives of the survivors, both in the immediate and longer-term, is also considered, from the limited settlement that occurred on St Helena, to their wider diaspora across the Atlantic world.
Sarah Gilbreath Ford
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781496829696
- eISBN:
- 9781496829740
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496829696.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter focuses on Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) and Hannah Crafts’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative (written circa 1858 and published 2002). Although Jacobs and Crafts ...
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This chapter focuses on Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) and Hannah Crafts’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative (written circa 1858 and published 2002). Although Jacobs and Crafts depict their personal experiences in slavery, they infuse their stories with gothic tropes to employ the power of fictionality. Gothic damsels in distress are beset by lascivious slaveholders and traders who are cast as monstrous villains. While the damsels are haunted by the law’s pronouncement of them as merely property, they find refuge in haunted spaces, thereby claiming a different kind of ownership. This spectral possession is then doubled by the authors, Jacobs and Crafts, who shape their narratives as literary property they themselves can own.Less
This chapter focuses on Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) and Hannah Crafts’s The Bondwoman’s Narrative (written circa 1858 and published 2002). Although Jacobs and Crafts depict their personal experiences in slavery, they infuse their stories with gothic tropes to employ the power of fictionality. Gothic damsels in distress are beset by lascivious slaveholders and traders who are cast as monstrous villains. While the damsels are haunted by the law’s pronouncement of them as merely property, they find refuge in haunted spaces, thereby claiming a different kind of ownership. This spectral possession is then doubled by the authors, Jacobs and Crafts, who shape their narratives as literary property they themselves can own.
Judie Newman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199585489
- eISBN:
- 9780191728969
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199585489.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter discusses the strategies which Harriet Beecher Stowe mobilized from her religious background in order to further the abolitionist cause. In Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) revivalist and ...
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This chapter discusses the strategies which Harriet Beecher Stowe mobilized from her religious background in order to further the abolitionist cause. In Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) revivalist and camp-meeting religion informs character and action. Dred (1856) focuses on the struggles between self-serving American pro-slavery clergy, heroic abolitionist ministers, and prophetic African-American Christianity, dramatized in the context of the role reversals of a camp-meeting. The Christian Slave (1855), a dramatized reading or ‘closet drama’, written for Mary Webb, one of the first African American dramatic performers, developed the role reversal topos of abolitionist closet drama (as did Herman Melville's Benito Cereno) for abolitionist purposes.Less
This chapter discusses the strategies which Harriet Beecher Stowe mobilized from her religious background in order to further the abolitionist cause. In Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) revivalist and camp-meeting religion informs character and action. Dred (1856) focuses on the struggles between self-serving American pro-slavery clergy, heroic abolitionist ministers, and prophetic African-American Christianity, dramatized in the context of the role reversals of a camp-meeting. The Christian Slave (1855), a dramatized reading or ‘closet drama’, written for Mary Webb, one of the first African American dramatic performers, developed the role reversal topos of abolitionist closet drama (as did Herman Melville's Benito Cereno) for abolitionist purposes.
Joan D. Hedrick
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195096392
- eISBN:
- 9780199854288
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195096392.003.0018
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Harriet Beecher Stowe, a woman who disliked confrontations, who rode over unpleasantness with optimistic goodwill and turned aside anger with humor, found herself, as public opinion brewed over the ...
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Harriet Beecher Stowe, a woman who disliked confrontations, who rode over unpleasantness with optimistic goodwill and turned aside anger with humor, found herself, as public opinion brewed over the Fugitive Slave Law, consumed with a rage unlike anything she had ever experienced. Her intense feelings were the more oppressive for having no outlet. Men made the laws and shaped the public opinion of the land, and women who found themselves morally repelled by their work had little recourse. Women engaged in rather extraordinary acts of civil disobedience, provoked by laws that they themselves had had no part in making. As the temperance crusade moved from the podium to the ballot box with the passage of the first legal constraint on the liquor trade, the “Maine Law” of 1851, women who had been active in temperance societies keenly felt their disfranchisement.Less
Harriet Beecher Stowe, a woman who disliked confrontations, who rode over unpleasantness with optimistic goodwill and turned aside anger with humor, found herself, as public opinion brewed over the Fugitive Slave Law, consumed with a rage unlike anything she had ever experienced. Her intense feelings were the more oppressive for having no outlet. Men made the laws and shaped the public opinion of the land, and women who found themselves morally repelled by their work had little recourse. Women engaged in rather extraordinary acts of civil disobedience, provoked by laws that they themselves had had no part in making. As the temperance crusade moved from the podium to the ballot box with the passage of the first legal constraint on the liquor trade, the “Maine Law” of 1851, women who had been active in temperance societies keenly felt their disfranchisement.
Noeleen McIlvenna
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781469656069
- eISBN:
- 9781469656083
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469656069.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
During the half century after 1650 that saw the gradual imposition of a slave society in England’s North American colonies, poor white settlers in the Chesapeake sought a republic of equals. ...
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During the half century after 1650 that saw the gradual imposition of a slave society in England’s North American colonies, poor white settlers in the Chesapeake sought a republic of equals. Demanding a say in their own destinies, rebels moved around the region looking for a place to build a democratic political system. This book crosses colonial boundaries to show how Ingle's Rebellion, Fendall's Rebellion, Bacon's Rebellion, Culpeper's Rebellion, Parson Waugh's Tumult, and the colonial Glorious Revolution were episodes in a single struggle because they were organized by one connected group of people. Adding land records and genealogical research to traditional sources, Noeleen McIlvenna challenges standard narratives that disdain poor whites or leave them out of the history of the colonial South. She makes the case that the women of these families played significant roles in every attempt to establish a more representative political system before 1700. McIlvenna integrates landless immigrants and small farmers into the history of the Chesapeake region and argues that these rebellious anti-authoritarians should be included in the pantheon of the nation’s Founders.Less
During the half century after 1650 that saw the gradual imposition of a slave society in England’s North American colonies, poor white settlers in the Chesapeake sought a republic of equals. Demanding a say in their own destinies, rebels moved around the region looking for a place to build a democratic political system. This book crosses colonial boundaries to show how Ingle's Rebellion, Fendall's Rebellion, Bacon's Rebellion, Culpeper's Rebellion, Parson Waugh's Tumult, and the colonial Glorious Revolution were episodes in a single struggle because they were organized by one connected group of people. Adding land records and genealogical research to traditional sources, Noeleen McIlvenna challenges standard narratives that disdain poor whites or leave them out of the history of the colonial South. She makes the case that the women of these families played significant roles in every attempt to establish a more representative political system before 1700. McIlvenna integrates landless immigrants and small farmers into the history of the Chesapeake region and argues that these rebellious anti-authoritarians should be included in the pantheon of the nation’s Founders.
R. J. M. Blackett
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781469608778
- eISBN:
- 9781469611792
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9781469608785_Blackett
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which mandated action to aid in the recovery of runaway slaves and denied fugitives legal rights if they were apprehended, quickly became a focal point in the debate over ...
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The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which mandated action to aid in the recovery of runaway slaves and denied fugitives legal rights if they were apprehended, quickly became a focal point in the debate over the future of slavery and the nature of the union. This book uses the experiences of escaped slaves and those who aided them to explore the inner workings of the Underground Railroad and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, while shedding light on the political effects of slave escape in southern states, border states, and the North. It highlights the lives of those who escaped, the impact of the fugitive slave cases, and the extent to which slaves planning to escape were aided by free blacks, fellow slaves, and outsiders who went south to entice them to escape. Using these stories of particular individuals, moments, and communities, the author shows how slave flight shaped national politics as the South witnessed slavery beginning to collapse and the North experienced a threat to its freedom.Less
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which mandated action to aid in the recovery of runaway slaves and denied fugitives legal rights if they were apprehended, quickly became a focal point in the debate over the future of slavery and the nature of the union. This book uses the experiences of escaped slaves and those who aided them to explore the inner workings of the Underground Railroad and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, while shedding light on the political effects of slave escape in southern states, border states, and the North. It highlights the lives of those who escaped, the impact of the fugitive slave cases, and the extent to which slaves planning to escape were aided by free blacks, fellow slaves, and outsiders who went south to entice them to escape. Using these stories of particular individuals, moments, and communities, the author shows how slave flight shaped national politics as the South witnessed slavery beginning to collapse and the North experienced a threat to its freedom.
Elena A. Schneider
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781469645353
- eISBN:
- 9781469645377
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469645353.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
In 1762, British forces mobilized more than 230 ships and 26,000 soldiers, sailors, and enslaved Africans to attack Havana, one of the wealthiest and most populous ports in the Americas. They met ...
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In 1762, British forces mobilized more than 230 ships and 26,000 soldiers, sailors, and enslaved Africans to attack Havana, one of the wealthiest and most populous ports in the Americas. They met fierce resistance. Spanish soldiers and local militias in Cuba, along with enslaved Africans who were promised freedom, held off the enemy for six suspenseful weeks. In the end, the British prevailed, but more lives were lost in the invasion and subsequent eleven-month British occupation of Havana than during the entire Seven Years’ War in North America. The Occupation of Havana offers a nuanced and poignantly human account of the British capture and Spanish recovery of this coveted Caribbean city. The book explores both the interconnected histories of the British and Spanish empires and the crucial role played by free people of color and the enslaved in the creation and defense of Havana. Tragically, these men and women would watch their promise of freedom and greater rights vanish in the face of massive slave importation and increased sugar production upon Cuba's return to Spanish rule. By linking imperial negotiations with events in Cuba and their consequences, Elena Schneider sheds new light on the relationship between slavery and empire at the dawn of the Age of Revolutions.Less
In 1762, British forces mobilized more than 230 ships and 26,000 soldiers, sailors, and enslaved Africans to attack Havana, one of the wealthiest and most populous ports in the Americas. They met fierce resistance. Spanish soldiers and local militias in Cuba, along with enslaved Africans who were promised freedom, held off the enemy for six suspenseful weeks. In the end, the British prevailed, but more lives were lost in the invasion and subsequent eleven-month British occupation of Havana than during the entire Seven Years’ War in North America. The Occupation of Havana offers a nuanced and poignantly human account of the British capture and Spanish recovery of this coveted Caribbean city. The book explores both the interconnected histories of the British and Spanish empires and the crucial role played by free people of color and the enslaved in the creation and defense of Havana. Tragically, these men and women would watch their promise of freedom and greater rights vanish in the face of massive slave importation and increased sugar production upon Cuba's return to Spanish rule. By linking imperial negotiations with events in Cuba and their consequences, Elena Schneider sheds new light on the relationship between slavery and empire at the dawn of the Age of Revolutions.
