1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910996478503321

Autore

Harrold Stanley

Titolo

American abolitionism : its direct political impact from colonial times into Reconstruction / / Stanley Harrold

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Charlottesville : , : University of Virginia Press, , 2019

Baltimore, Maryland : , : Project MUSE, , 2019

©2019

ISBN

9780813942308

0813942306

9780813942292

0813942292

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xi, 286 pages)

Collana

A nation divided: studies in the Civil War era

Disciplina

326.80973

Soggetti

Slavery - Political aspects - United States - History

Abolitionists - United States - History

Antislavery movements - United States - History

United States Politics and government 1783-1865

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Direct Abolitionist Engagement in Politics, 1688-1807 -- Continuity and Transition, 1807-1830 -- Escalation, 1831-1840 -- The Rise and Fall of the Abolition Lobby, 1836-1845 -- Discord, Relationships, and Free Soil, 1840-1848 -- Physical Action, Fugitive Slave Laws, and the Free Democratic Party, 1845-1852 -- Abolitionists and Republicans, 1852-1860 -- Political Success and Failure: An Ambiguous Denouement, 1860-1870.

Sommario/riassunto

This ambitious book provides the only systematic examination of the American abolition movement's direct impacts on antislavery politics from colonial times to the Civil War and after. As opposed to indirect methods such as propaganda, sermons, and speeches at protest meetings, Stanley Harrold focuses on abolitionists' political tactics-petitioning, lobbying, establishing bonds with sympathetic politicians-and on their disruptions of slavery itself.   Harrold begins with the



abolition movement's relationship to politics and government in the northern American colonies and goes on to evaluate its effect in a number of crucial contexts--the U.S. Congress during the 1790s, the Missouri Compromise, the struggle over slavery in Illinois during the 1820s, and abolitionist petitioning of Congress during that same decade. He shows how the rise of "immediate" abolitionism, with its emphasis on moral suasion, did not diminish direct abolitionists' impact on Congress during the 1830s and 1840s. The book also addresses abolitionists' direct actions against slavery itself, aiding escaped or kidnapped slaves, which led southern politicians to demand the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, a major flashpoint of antebellum politics. Finally, Harrold investigates the relationship between abolitionists and the Republican Party through the Civil War and Reconstruction.