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The forgotten emancipator : James Mitchell Ashley and the ideological origins of reconstruction / Rebecca E. Zietlow.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Zietlow, Rebecca E., author.
- Series:
- Cambridge historical studies in American law and society.
- Cambridge historical studies in American law and society
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Ashley, James Mitchell, 1824-1896.
- Ashley, James Mitchell.
- United States. Congress. House--Biography.
- United States.
- Legislators--United States--Biography.
- Legislators.
- Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877).
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (xiii, 202 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2018.
- Summary:
- Congressman James M. Ashley, a member of the House of Representatives from 1858 to 1868, and was the main sponsor of the Thirteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, which declared the institution of slavery unconstitutional. Rebecca E. Zietlow uses Ashley's life as a unique lens through which to explore the ideological origins of Reconstruction and the constitutional changes of this era. Zietlow recounts how Ashley and his antislavery allies shared an egalitarian free labor ideology that was influenced by the political antislavery movement and the nascent labor movement - a vision that conflicted directly with the institution of slavery. Ashley's story sheds important light on the meaning and power of popular constitutionalism: how the constitution is interpreted outside of the courts and the power that citizens and their elected officials can have in enacting legal change. The book shows how Reconstruction not only expanded racial equality but also transformed the rights of workers throughout America.
- Contents:
- James Ashley, the forgotten emancipator
- Antislavery constitutionalism and the meaning of freedom
- Free labor and wage slavery: the labor and antislavery movements
- Ashley's egalitarian free labor vision
- Ashley in Congress, 1859-1863
- The Thirteenth Amendment and a new republic
- Enforcing the Thirteenth Amendment: Reconstruction and a positive right to free labor
- After Congress: the old antislavery guard and the northern worker
- Epilogue.
- Notes:
- Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 10 Nov 2017).
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 1-108-54702-8
- 1-316-15505-6
- 1-108-54812-1
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