Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 180
Trim: 6 x 9¼
978-0-7425-5096-4 • Paperback • October 2009 • $38.00 • (£29.00)
978-1-4422-0061-6 • eBook • October 2009 • $36.00 • (£28.00)
Gary J. Kornblith is professor of history at Oberlin College. He is the editor of The Industrial Revolution in America and co-editor of Teaching American History.
Section I: Slavery and Sectional Strife in the Early American Republic, 1776–1821: A Critical Narrative
Chapter 1: The Rise of Slavery in Colonial British America
Chapter 2: Imperial Crisis, Independence, and the Reevaluation of Slavery
Chapter 3: Revolutionary Outcomes: Early Abolition and its Limitations
Chapter 4: Slavery, Sectionalism, and the Federal Constitution
Chapter 5: A More Perfect Union? The Problems of Slavery and Sectionalism in the Redesigned Republic
Chapter 6: The War of 1812 and Era of Good Feelings
Chapter 7: The Missouri Crisis
Section II: Primary Documents
Chapter 8: Controversy Over Slavery on the Eve of Revolution
Chapter 9: The Spirit of 1776
Chapter 10: The Challenge to Slavery at the State Level
Chapter 11: The Spirit of 1787
Chapter 12: The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Federalism
Chapter 13: Federal Action against the Atlantic Slave Trade
Chapter 14: Proposals for the Colonization of Free Blacks
Chapter 15: The Missouri Crisis
Because Gary Kornblith's new book combines a short, informed narrative with unusually well chosen documents, it comprises an excellent choice for undergraduate assignments on the crucial first phase of the U.S. slavery controversy.
— William W. Freehling, author of The Road to Disunion
Gary Kornblith's wonderful new book provides an invaluable survey of the documents and debates that shaped antislavery discussion in the early republic. Teachers will love Kornblith's wide selection of primary sources while even academic specialists will learn from his wise and judicious introductions. A terrific addition to the scholarly resources now available on slavery and politics in early national society.
— Richard S. Newman, author of Freedom's Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers
Kornblith's concise narrative is a perfect introduction to a set of documents that will allow my students the opportunity to debate the issue of slavery as a cancer that ate away at the fiber of the American nation. A much needed undergraduate text.
— Gary A. DiNallo, Southern Connecticut State University
Informed by decades of scholarship and teaching, Gary Kornblith presents a sorely needed collection of documents on the politics of slavery and antislavery in the era of the American Revolution and the Early Republic. Opening with an introduction that will stand for years as the best short analysis of the subject, Kornblith's judiciously assembled documents will enliven both teaching and research on one of our nation's most perplexing historical problems.
— John L. Brooke, Ohio State University