Race and Liberty in the New Nation: Emancipation in Virginia from the Revolution to Nat Turner's Rebellion"By examining how ordinary Virginia citizens grappled with the vexing problem of slavery in a society dedicated to universal liberty, Eva Sheppard Wolf broadens our understanding of such important concepts as freedom, slavery, emancipation, and race in the early years of the American republic. She frames her study around the moment between slavery and liberty - emancipation - shedding new light on the complicated relations between whites and blacks in a slave society." "Wolf argues that during the post-Revolutionary period, white Virginians understood both liberty and slavery to be racial concepts more than political ideas. Through an in-depth analysis of archival records, particularly those dealing with manumission between 1782 and 1806, she reveals how these entrenched beliefs shaped both thought and behavior. In spite of qualms about slavery, white Virginians repeatedly demonstrated their unwillingness to abolish the institution." "The manumission law of 1782 eased restrictions on individual emancipation and made possible the liberation of thousands, but Wolf discovers that far fewer slaves were freed in Virginia than previously thought. Those who were emancipated posed a disturbing social, political, and even moral problem in the minds of whites. Where would ex-slaves fit in a society that could not conceive of black liberty? As Wolf points out, even those few white Virginians who proffered emancipation plans always suggested sending freed slaves to some other place. Nat Turner's rebellion in 1831 led to a public debate over ending slavery, after which discussions of emancipation in the Old Dominion largely disappeared as the eastern slaveholding elite tightened its grip on political power in the state." "This well-informed and carefully crafted book outlines important and heretofore unexamined changes in whites' views of blacks and liberty in the new nation. By linking the Revolutionary and antebellum eras, it shows how white attitudes hardened during the half-century that followed the declaration that "all men are created equal.""--BOOK JACKET. |
Contents
Ambivalence in the Revolutionary Era I | 7 |
The Practice of Manumission 17821806 | 39 |
Race and the Problem of Emancipation 17821806 | 85 |
Slavery and Emancipation Become Political Issues in the 1820s | 162 |
Virginia and the Nation | 235 |
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Race and Liberty in the New Nation: Emancipation in Virginia from the ... Eva Sheppard Wolf No preview available - 2009 |
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abolition Accomack County Deeds acts of manumission African Americans amendment antislavery Archives Division argued arguments Asks for removal Baptist Church bill Botetourt County century Charles City County Chesterfield County citizens color committee commonwealth court debate declared deeds of manumission discussion early eastern economic emancipation end slavery Fauquier County free black population free blacks Free Negro freed slaves freedom Freehling George Tucker House of Delegates ibid James JHD begun Lancaster County leaders legislators legislature liberated liberty manumission law manumitters masters Mecklenburg Mecklenburg County Methodist northern number of manumissions number of slaves owners percent person petition petitioners Piedmont political property rights proslavery Quakers race racial rebellion remain removal of free Revolution Revolutionary Richmond Enquirer Samuel Johnson slave trade slaveholders slaveowners slavery in Virginia slavery's Southern speech statute suffrage Thomas Jefferson Tidewater tion University Press Virginia Gazette vote western white Virginians William women Wythe
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Page 258 - Society shall be called the American Society for colonizing the free people of colour of the United States.