Taking our understanding of political antislavery into largely unexplored terrain; Jonathan H. Earle counters conventional wisdom and standard historical interpretations that view the ascendance of free-soil ideas within the antislavery movement as an explicit retreat from the goals of emancipation or even as an essentially proslavery ideology. These claims; he notes; fail to explain free soil's real contributions to the antislavery cause: its incorporation of Jacksonian ideas about property and political equality and its transformation of a struggling crusade into a mass political movement.Democratic free soilers' views on race occupied a wide spectrum; but they were able to fashion new and vital arguments against slavery and its expansion based on the party's long-standing commitment to egalitarianism and hostility to centralized power. Linking their antislavery stance to a land-reform agenda that pressed for free land for poor settlers in addition to land free of slavery; Free Soil Democrats forced major political realignments in New York; New Hampshire; Massachusetts; and Ohio. Democratic politicians such as David Wilmot; Marcus Morton; John Parker Hale; and even former president Martin Van Buren were transformed into antislavery leaders. As Earle shows; these political changes at the local; state; and national levels greatly intensified the looming sectional crisis and paved the way for the Civil War.
#541720 in Books 2000-05-31 2000-05-31Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.50 x .89 x 6.25l; 1.17 #File Name: 0807848778392 pages
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Overlooked Aspect of American HistoryBy Desert RatAn excellent and informative book. We were all taught in elementary school (in the US; anyway) about the Pilgrims at Plymouth and about the Virginia colony. But before those came Barbados; the Windward Isles and Jamaica. The initial English effort for new world colonies was the Caribbean rather than the mainland to the north. The history of that area is colorful -- pirates; privateers; buccaneers; fast money and early death. In comparison New England and Virginia were cake walks. The social; political and economic development of those islands took a different course from the thirteen colonies best described as as down right brutal. The English who went there didn't come so much to create a new society but to get in; get rich and get out. Life expectancy was low even for those at the top of the social hierarchy. For indentured servants and slaves it was even lower.And speaking of slaves; the Caribbean was where the English first began using slave to any significant degree. The motivation was sugar. Sugar was the get-rich-quick commodity of the 16thand 17th century. Tobacco; indigo and cotton were also cash crops but the profit margin was lower and it does not appear that utilizing slave vs indentured or free labor had as distinct an economic advantage. If you wanted to get rich fast in 1630-1750 you invested in a sugar plantation (don't forget the byproducts molasses and especially rum) and after the land itself the the most essential asset you had to buy were people.The author; Dunn; was faced with a major difficulty when writing this book -- there is sparse documentation from the period. Profits more than prosperity drove the early English settlers in islands. Despite this the author has been able to construct a reasonably convincing narrative of the development of the English planter system from inception to maturity by the early 18th century. While little is known about the lives of the English in the time and place even less is known about the slaves. This in itself probably tells you something about the conditions of the slaves.If the reader is interested in how and why black slavery in the Americas came to be this book is a good place to start. However; many questions will remain open and may never have an answer we can comprehend.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. As I have just done a major research project on ...By MM GoodwinAs I have just done a major research project on the history of slavery here in my county on the Eastern Shore of Maryland; this book has been enormously helpful with the background and connections of the Caribbean slave trade to that of the Chesapeake Bay. I am most thankful for this scholarly work!1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. Five StarsBy CharlesA must read
