The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government's Relations to SlaveryMany leading historians have argued that the Constitution of the United States was a proslavery document. But in The Slaveholding Republic, one of America's most eminent historians refutes this claim in a landmark history that stretches from the Continental Congress to the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Fehrenbacher shows that the Constitution itself was more or less neutral on the issue of slavery and that, in the antebellum period, the idea that the Constitution protected slavery was hotly debated (many Northerners would concede only that slavery was protected by state law, not by federal law). Nevertheless, he also reveals that U.S. policy abroad and in the territories was consistently proslavery. Fehrenbacher makes clear why Lincoln's election was such a shock to the South and shows how Lincoln's approach to emancipation, which seems exceedingly cautious by modern standards, quickly evolved into a "Republican revolution" that ended the anomaly of the United States as a "slaveholding republic." |
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User Review - nbmars - LibraryThingThis book is essential for anyone trying to understand the federal government’s approach to slavery, both before and after the Civil War. In this detailed and masterful review of every Congressional ... Read full review
The slaveholding republic: an account of the United States government's relations to slavery
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictWas the Constitution, one of our nation's most revered documents, designed to provide for the protection of slavery, the country's greatest disgrace? This study, begun by Pulitzer Prize-winning author ... Read full review
Contents
| 3 | |
| 15 | |
Slavery in the National Capital | 49 |
Slavery in American Foreign Relations | 89 |
The African Slave Trade 1789 To 1842 | 135 |
The African Slave Trade 1842 To 1862 | 173 |
The Fugitive Slave Problem to 1850 | 205 |
The Fugitive Slave Problem 1850 to 1864 | 231 |
Slavery in the Federal Territories | 253 |
The Repubucan Revolution | 295 |
Conclusion | 339 |
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Common terms and phrases
abolition abolitionist action Adams African amendment American antislavery approved argument August authority became become bill blacks Britain British called carried Civil claim clause Columbia committee compromise Cong Congress Constitution continued Convention course Court Cuba debate December decision Democratic District Douglas effect effort emancipation enforcement example fact federal followed force foreign freedom fugitive slave Henry History House Ibid importation included institution interest issue James Jefferson John July Justice later legislation letter Lincoln majority March means never North northern Northwest Ordinance officers owners party passed Pennsylvania persons political president problem proposed proslavery protection question Relations remained Republican resolution secretary seemed Senate Serial sess ships slave trade slaveholding slavery soon South southern Speeches Suppression territories Texas tion treaty Union United University Press vessels Virginia vols vote Washington York
Popular passages
Page 207 - There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; Provided, always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid.
Page 17 - He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither.
Page 319 - Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what either party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone can claim it. \Vhither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.
Page 127 - I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida Point, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.
Page 94 - All territory, places and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war, or which may be taken after the signing of this treaty, excepting only the islands hereinafter mentioned, shall be restored without delay, and without causing any destruction or carrying away any of the artillery or other public property originally captured in the said forts or places, and which shall remain therein upon the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, or any slaves or other private...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slavery |
| Author | the late Don E. Fehrenbacher |
| Editor | Ward M. McAfee |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 2002 |
| ISBN | 0198032471, 9780198032472 |
| Length | 480 pages |
| Subjects | › › History / General History / United States / General Political Science / Civil Rights Political Science / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |