A House Divided : The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865 / Mason I. Lowance.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Lowance, Mason I., editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--United States--Justification--History--Sources.

Slavery.

Antislavery movements--United States--History--Sources.

Antislavery movements.

Slavery--Political aspects--United States--History--Sources.

United States--Race relations--Political aspects--History--Sources.

United States.

United States--Politics and government--1783-1865--Sources.

United States--Politics and government--1775-1783--Sources.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (lxxi, 492 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This anthology brings together under one cover the most important abolitionist and--unique to this volume--proslavery documents written in the United States between the American Revolution and the Civil War. It makes accessible to students, scholars, and general readers the breadth of the slavery debate. Including many previously inaccessible documents, A House Divided is a critical and welcome contribution to a literature that includes only a few volumes of antislavery writings and no volumes of proslavery documents in print. Mason Lowance's introduction is an excellent overview of the antebellum slavery debate and its key issues and participants. Lowance also introduces each selection, locating it historically, culturally, and thematically as well as linking it to other writings. The documents represent the full scope of the varied debates over slavery. They include examples of race theory, Bible-based arguments for and against slavery, constitutional analyses, writings by former slaves and women's rights activists, economic defenses and critiques of slavery, and writings on slavery by such major writers as William Lloyd Garrison, John Greenleaf Whittier, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Together they give readers a real sense of the complexity and heat of the vexed conversation that increasingly dominated American discourse as the country moved from early nationhood into its greatest trial.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PROLOGUE

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

CHAPTER 1. The Historical Background for the Antebellum Slavery Debates, 1776-1865

CHAPTER 2. Acts of Congress Relating to Slavery

CHAPTER 3. Biblical Proslavery Arguments

CHAPTER 4. Biblical Antislavery Arguments

CHAPTER 5. The Economic Arguments Concerning Slavery

CHAPTER 6. Writers and Essayists in Conflict over Slavery

CHAPTER 7. Science in Antebellum America

CHAPTER 8. The Abolitionist Crusade

CHAPTER 9. Concluding Remarks and Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

0-691-18886-6

OCLC:

1132224736