The science of abolition : how slaveholders became the enemies of progress / Eric Herschthal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Herschthal, Eric, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science--United States--History--19th century.

Science.

Slavery.

Antislavery movements.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (320 p.) : 10 b-w illus.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, Connecticut ; London, England : Yale University Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A revealing look at how antislavery scientists and Black and white abolitionists used scientific ideas to discredit slaveholders In the context of slavery, science is usually associated with slaveholders’ scientific justifications of racism. But abolitionists were equally adept at using scientific ideas to discredit slaveholders. Looking beyond the science of race, The Science of Abolition shows how Black and white scientists and abolitionists drew upon a host of scientific disciplines—from chemistry, botany, and geology, to medicine and technology—to portray slaveholders as the enemies of progress. From the 1770s through the 1860s, scientists and abolitionists in Britain and the United States argued that slavery stood in the way of scientific progress, blinded slaveholders to scientific evidence, and prevented enslavers from adopting labor saving technologies that might eradicate enslaved labor. While historians increasingly highlight slavery’s centrality to the modern world, fueling the rise of capitalism, science, and technology, few have asked where the myth of slavery’s backwardness comes from in the first place. This book contends that by routinely portraying slaveholders as the enemies of science, abolitionists and scientists helped generate that myth.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

One Stars and Stripes

Two Full Steam Ahead

Three A Natural History of Sierra Leone

Four Trials in Freedom

Five The Technological Fix

Six Antislavery in an Age of Science

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [253]-320) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-300-25855-0

OCLC:

1250090063