The ragged road to abolition : slavery and freedom in New Jersey, 1775-1865 / James J. Gigantino II.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gigantino, James J., II, 1983-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--New Jersey--History.

Slavery.

Slavery--New Jersey--Legal status of slaves in free states--History.

Antislavery movements--New Jersey--History.

Antislavery movements.

New Jersey--History--1775-1865.

New Jersey.

Slavery--Legal status of enslaved persons in free states.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

359 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, ©2015.

Summary:

The Ragged Road to Abolition chronicles the experiences of slaves and free blacks, as well as abolitionists and slaveholders, during slavery's slow northern death. Abolition in New Jersey during the American Revolution was a contested battle, in which constant economic devastation and fears of freed blacks overrunning the state government limited their ability to gain freedom. New Jersey's gradual abolition law kept at least a quarter of the state's black population in some degree of bondage until the 1830s. The sustained presence of slavery limited African American community formation and forced Jersey blacks to structure their households around multiple gradations of freedom while allowing New Jersey slaveholders to participate in the interstate slave trade until the 1850s. Slavery's persistence dulled white understanding of the meaning of black freedom and helped whites to associate "black" with "slave," enabling the further marginalization of New Jersey's growing free black population. By demonstrating how deeply slavery influenced the political, economic, and social life of blacks and whites in New Jersey, this illuminating study shatters the perceived easy dichotomies between North and South or free states and slave states at the onset of the Civil War.--Publisher description.

Contents:

Debating Abolition in an Age of Revolution

Sustaining Slavery in an Age of Freedom

Abolishing Slavery in the New Nation

Not Quite Free

Slavery, Freedom, and Citizenship in the New Republic

Slavery in Motion

Colonization and Gradualism's Persistence

Creating a Free Life

Debating Slavery's End.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-335) and index.

Local Notes:

The Pennsylvania Abolition Society Complementary Collection.

ISBN:

9780812246490

0812246497

9780812223583

0812223586

OCLC:

876466695

Publisher Number:

40024209714

40024214041