Race and rights : fighting slavery and prejudice in the Old Northwest, 1830-1870 / Dana Elizabeth Weiner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weiner, Dana Elizabeth, author.

Series:

Northern Illinois University Press - Early American Places

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Antislavery movements--Northwest, Old--History--19th century.

African Americans--Legal status, laws, etc--Northwest, Old--History--19th century.

African Americans--Northwest, Old--Social conditions--19th century.

Race discrimination--Law and legislation--Northwest, Old--History--19th century.

Northwest, Old--Race relations--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (341 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

DeKalb, Illinois : NIU Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the Old Northwest from 1830 to 1870, a bold set of activists battled slavery and racial prejudice. This book is about their expansive efforts to eradicate southern slavery and its local influence in the contentious milieu of four new states carved out of the Northwest Territory: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. While the Northwest Ordinance outlawed slavery in the region in 1787, in reality both it and racism continued to exert strong influence in the Old Northwest, as seen in the race-based limitations of civil liberties there. Indeed, these states comprised the central battleground over race and rights in antebellum America, in a time when race's social meaning was deeply infused into all aspects of Americans' lives, and when people struggled to establish political consensus.Antislavery and anti-prejudice activists from a range of institutional bases crossed racial lines as they battled to expand African American rights in this region. Whether they were antislavery lecturers, journalists, or African American leaders of the Black Convention Movement, women or men, they formed associations, wrote publicly to denounce their local racial climate, and gave controversial lectures. In the process, they discovered that they had to fight for their own right to advocate for others. This bracing new history by Dana Elizabeth Weiner is thus not only a history of activism, but also a history of how Old Northwest reformers understood the law and shaped new conceptions of justice and civil liberties. The newest addition to the Mellon-sponsored Early American Places Series, Race and Rights will be a much-welcomed contribution to the study of race and social activism in nineteenth-century America.

Contents:

Introduction

Activist taproots : place, reform, and the quest for unity

Scrubbing at the "bloody stain of oppression" : a human rights movement against unjust laws, 1830-1849

"Stand firm on the platform of truth" : freedom of assembly and local antislavery organizations in the Old Northwest

"The palladium of our liberties" : freedom of the press in the Old Northwest, 1837-1848

"An odd place for navigation" : itinerant lecturers and freedom of speech, 1830-1849

Itinerant lecturers in a fracturing nation, 1850-1861

The potential for radical change : the turbulent 1850's, the Civil War, and resilient racism

Conclusion

Appendix A: Old Northwest population statistics, 1800-1870.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781501757433

1501757431

9781609090722

1609090721

OCLC:

867741078