Contesting Slavery: The Politics of Bondage and Freedom in the New American Nation PDF
Preview Contesting Slavery: The Politics of Bondage and Freedom in the New American Nation
contesting slavery JeffersonianAmerica Jan Ellen Lewis, Peter S. Onuf, and Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Editors contesting slavery The Politics of Bondage and Freedom in the New American Nation Edited by John Craig Hammond and Matthew Mason University of Virginia Press CharlottesvilleandLondon University of Virginia Press ∫ 2011 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Firstpublished2011 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Contesting slavery : the politics of bondage and freedom in the new American nation / edited by John Craig Hammond and Matthew Mason. p. cm. — (Jeffersonian America) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-8139-3105-0 (cloth : acid-free paper) — isbn 978-0-8139-3117-3 (e-book) 1. Slavery—Political aspects—United States—History—18th century. 2. Slavery—Polit- ical aspects—United States—History—19th century. 3. Antislavery movements—United States—History—18th century. 4. Antislavery movements—United States—History— 19th century. 5. United States—Politics and government—1775–1783. 6. United States— Politics and government—1783–1865. 7. Sectionalism (United States)—History—18th century. 8. Sectionalism (United States)—History—19th century. I. Hammond, John Craig, 1974– II. Mason, Matthew. e446.c71 2011 326%.80973—dc22 2010037050 ForHallie,Hannah,andAddison Stacie,Emily,Hannah,andRachel andLanceandIra,too This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Foreword byPeterS.Onuf xi Introduction Slavery, Sectionalism, and Politics in the Early American Republic JohnCraigHammondandMatthewMason 1 PartI SlaveryandIdeology,ActionandInaction Necessary but Not Sufficient: Revolutionary Ideology and Antislavery Action in the Early Republic MatthewMason 11 Early Free-Labor Thought and the Contest over Slavery in the Early Republic EvaSheppardWolf 32 ‘‘Manifest Signs of Passion’’: The First Federal Congress, Antislavery, and Legacies of the Revolutionary War RobertG.Parkinson 49 ‘‘Good Communications Corrects Bad Manners’’: The Banneker- Jefferson Dialogue and the Project of White Uplift RichardNewman 69 Caribbean Slave Revolts and the Origins of the Gag Rule: A Contest between Abolitionism and Democracy, 1797–1835 EdwardB.Rugemer 94 PartII TheStateandSlavery Founding a Slaveholders’ Union, 1770–1797 GeorgeWilliamVanCleve 117 ‘‘Uncontrollable Necessity’’: The Local Politics, Geopolitics, and Sectional Politics of Slavery Expansion JohnCraigHammond 138 Contents Positive Goods and Necessary Evils: Commerce, Security, and Slavery in the Lower South, 1787–1837 BrianSchoen 161 Slave Smugglers, Slave Catchers, and Slave Rebels: Slavery and American State Development, 1787–1842 DavidF.Ericson 183 PartIII Slavery,Sectionalism,andPartisanPolitics ‘‘Hurtful to the State’’: The Political Morality of Federalist Antislavery RachelHopeCleves 207 Slavery and the Problem of Democracy in Jeffersonian America PadraigRiley 227 Neither Infinite Wretchedness nor Positive Good: Mathew Carey and Henry Clay on Political Economy and Slavery during the Long 1820s AndrewShankman 247 The Decline of Antislavery Politics, 1815–1840 DonaldJ.Ratcliffe 267 Commentary Conflict vs. Racial Consensus in the History of Antislavery Politics JamesOakes 291 Notes on Contributors 305 Index 309 viii Acknowledgments It has been a privilege to work with so many fine people and institutions in the preparation of this volume. Jim Oakes’s astute and insightful com- mentary at a 2007 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR) panel provided the rationale for this volume. Peter Onuf and Dick Holway at the University of Virginia Press have enthusiastically supported this project since we first pitched the idea to them. Peter, along with Don Ratcliffe, graciously served as unofficial, unindicted coeditors of the volume: both offered constant good advice about the shape and direction of the volume; both provided needed critical readings of the introduction. François Furstenberg also offered sharp criticism that forced us to rethink the intro- duction along with the significance of the volume. The outside readers for the University of Virginia Press also provided helpful criticism and support as this volume moved from conception to finished manuscript. Institutions as well as individuals provided important support. The Rocky Mountain Seminar in Early American History, sponsored by Brigham Young University, the University of Utah, and the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center in Salt Lake City provided a valuable forum for thinking about the focus of the collection at a critical time. The Sixteenth Annual Meeting of British American Nineteenth Century Historians provided an equally valuable opportunity to rethink our arguments as we readied the volume for publication. The Purdue Research Foundation provided a Sum- mer Faculty Development Grant that helped get this project started. Penn State University and Brigham Young University generously provided the time and support needed to see a project like this through to completion. That included support for Britt Wilkinson’s excellent services as a research assistant in the preparation of an early version of the manuscript by BYU’s History Department. Under the auspices of SHEAR, specialists in the early American republic continue to produce some of the best scholarship in American history, as indicated by the excellent essays in this volume. The robust, high quality of scholarship on the early republic is well represented by two of the persons to
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