The War Before the War

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Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0735224137
Total Pages : 482 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis The War Before the War by : Andrew Delbanco

Download or read book The War Before the War written by Andrew Delbanco and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-11-05 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book Selection Winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award Winner of the Lionel Trilling Book Award A New York Times Critics' Best Book "Excellent... stunning."—Ta-Nehisi Coates This book tells the story of America’s original sin—slavery—through politics, law, literature, and above all, through the eyes of enslavedblack people who risked their lives to flee from bondage, thereby forcing the nation to confront the truth about itself. The struggle over slavery divided not only the American nation but also the hearts and minds of individual citizens faced with the timeless problem of when to submit to unjust laws and when to resist. The War Before the War illuminates what brought us to war with ourselves and the terrible legacies of slavery that are with us still.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

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Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781985383814
Total Pages : 104 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (838 download)

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Book Synopsis The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 by : Charles River Charles River Editors

Download or read book The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes stories about the fugitive slave law and accounts about it *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading Despite the attempt to settle America's slavery issue with the Missouri Compromise in 1820, the young nation kept pushing further westward, and with that more territory was acquired. After the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, the sectional crisis was brewing like never before, with California and the newly-acquired Mexican territory now ready to be organized into states. The country was once again left trying to figure out how to do it without offsetting the slave-free state balance that was already dividing the nation. With the new territory acquired in the Mexican-American War, pro and anti-slavery groups were at an impasse. The Whig Party, including a freshman Congressman named Abraham Lincoln, supported the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in all territory acquired from Mexico, but the slave states would have none of it. Even after Texas was annexed as a slave state, the enormous new territory would doubtless contain many other new states, and the North hoped to limit slavery as much as possible in the new territories. The Compromise of 1850 was authored by the legendary Whig politician Henry Clay. In addition to admitting California to the Union as a free state to balance with Texas, it allowed Utah and New Mexico to decide the issue of slavery on the basis of what became known as "popular sovereignty," which meant the settlers could vote on whether their state should be a free state or slave state. Though a Whig proposed popular sovereignty in 1850, popular sovereignty as an idea would come to be championed by and associated with Democratic Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas. The Compromise also abolished the slave trade - though not the existence of slavery itself - in Washington, D.C. The Whigs commended the Compromise, thinking it was a moderate, pragmatic proposal that did not decidedly extend the existence of slavery and put slow and steady limits on it. Furthermore, it made the preservation of the Union the top priority. However, even though it added a new free state, many in the North were upset that the Compromise also included a new Fugitive Slave Act, which gave slaveholders increased powers to recapture slaves who had fled to free states by providing that a slave found in a free state could be ordered captured by police or federal marshals and returned to the slaveholder without any trial or due process whatsoever. In addition, no process was provided for the accused escaped slave to prove that he was actually free. This outraged most Northerners, who saw it as an unconstitutional infringement on the rights of their states and the rights of the individual accused of being an escaped slave. It also raised the specter of southern slave owners extending grip over the law enforcement of Northern states. Some states even refused to comply. In Wisconsin, a rioting anti-slavery crowd freed an escaped slave who had been recaptured by federal marshals. When the leader of the riot was imprisoned, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision, the Wisconsin Legislature simply refused to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act or enforce it. Similarly, other Northern states passed laws restricting the ability of federal marshals or bounty hunters to recapture escaped slaves, and they also made it illegal for state officials to help recapture escaped slaves or use state jails for that purpose. . As fate would have it, the refusal of Northern states to strictly apply the new fugitive slave law would be explicitly cited in several of the Southern states' articles of secession in late 1860 and early 1861. In that regard, the Fugitive Slave Act ended up being one of the main tipping points that finally split the nation in two.

The Captive's Quest for Freedom

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108418716
Total Pages : 531 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis The Captive's Quest for Freedom by : R. J. M. Blackett

Download or read book The Captive's Quest for Freedom written by R. J. M. Blackett and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 531 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the impact fugitive slaves had on the Fugitive Slave Law and the coming of the American Civil War.

The Slave's Cause

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300182082
Total Pages : 809 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis The Slave's Cause by : Manisha Sinha

Download or read book The Slave's Cause written by Manisha Sinha and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-23 with total page 809 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Traces the history of abolition from the 1600s to the 1860s . . . a valuable addition to our understanding of the role of race and racism in America.”—Florida Courier Received historical wisdom casts abolitionists as bourgeois, mostly white reformers burdened by racial paternalism and economic conservatism. Manisha Sinha overturns this image, broadening her scope beyond the antebellum period usually associated with abolitionism and recasting it as a radical social movement in which men and women, black and white, free and enslaved found common ground in causes ranging from feminism and utopian socialism to anti-imperialism and efforts to defend the rights of labor. Drawing on extensive archival research, including newly discovered letters and pamphlets, Sinha documents the influence of the Haitian Revolution and the centrality of slave resistance in shaping the ideology and tactics of abolition. This book is a comprehensive history of the abolition movement in a transnational context. It illustrates how the abolitionist vision ultimately linked the slave’s cause to the struggle to redefine American democracy and human rights across the globe. “A full history of the men and women who truly made us free.”—Ira Berlin, The New York Times Book Review “A stunning new history of abolitionism . . . [Sinha] plugs abolitionism back into the history of anticapitalist protest.”—The Atlantic “Will deservedly take its place alongside the equally magisterial works of Ira Berlin on slavery and Eric Foner on the Reconstruction Era.”—The Wall Street Journal “A powerfully unfamiliar look at the struggle to end slavery in the United States . . . as multifaceted as the movement it chronicles.”—The Boston Globe

The Counterrevolution of Slavery

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Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 0807860972
Total Pages : 379 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)

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Book Synopsis The Counterrevolution of Slavery by : Manisha Sinha

Download or read book The Counterrevolution of Slavery written by Manisha Sinha and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2003-06-19 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this comprehensive analysis of politics and ideology in antebellum South Carolina, Manisha Sinha offers a provocative new look at the roots of southern separatism and the causes of the Civil War. Challenging works that portray secession as a fight for white liberty, she argues instead that it was a conservative, antidemocratic movement to protect and perpetuate racial slavery. Sinha discusses some of the major sectional crises of the antebellum era--including nullification, the conflict over the expansion of slavery into western territories, and secession--and offers an important reevaluation of the movement to reopen the African slave trade in the 1850s. In the process she reveals the central role played by South Carolina planter politicians in developing proslavery ideology and the use of states' rights and constitutional theory for the defense of slavery. Sinha's work underscores the necessity of integrating the history of slavery with the traditional narrative of southern politics. Only by taking into account the political importance of slavery, she insists, can we arrive at a complete understanding of southern politics and the enormity of the issues confronting both northerners and southerners on the eve of the Civil War.

Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad

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Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393244385
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

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Book Synopsis Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad by : Eric Foner

Download or read book Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad written by Eric Foner and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-01-19 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America's history. Now, making brilliant use of extraordinary evidence, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian once again reconfigures the national saga of American slavery and freedom. A deeply entrenched institution, slavery lived on legally and commercially even in the northern states that had abolished it after the American Revolution. Slaves could be found in the streets of New York well after abolition, traveling with owners doing business with the city's major banks, merchants, and manufacturers. New York was also home to the North’s largest free black community, making it a magnet for fugitive slaves seeking refuge. Slave catchers and gangs of kidnappers roamed the city, seizing free blacks, often children, and sending them south to slavery. To protect fugitives and fight kidnappings, the city's free blacks worked with white abolitionists to organize the New York Vigilance Committee in 1835. In the 1840s vigilance committees proliferated throughout the North and began collaborating to dispatch fugitive slaves from the upper South, Washington, and Baltimore, through Philadelphia and New York, to Albany, Syracuse, and Canada. These networks of antislavery resistance, centered on New York City, became known as the underground railroad. Forced to operate in secrecy by hostile laws, courts, and politicians, the city’s underground-railroad agents helped more than 3,000 fugitive slaves reach freedom between 1830 and 1860. Until now, their stories have remained largely unknown, their significance little understood. Building on fresh evidence—including a detailed record of slave escapes secretly kept by Sydney Howard Gay, one of the key organizers in New York—Foner elevates the underground railroad from folklore to sweeping history. The story is inspiring—full of memorable characters making their first appearance on the historical stage—and significant—the controversy over fugitive slaves inflamed the sectional crisis of the 1850s. It eventually took a civil war to destroy American slavery, but here at last is the story of the courageous effort to fight slavery by "practical abolition," person by person, family by family.

The Slave Catchers

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Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469610078
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

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Book Synopsis The Slave Catchers by : Stanley W. Campbell

Download or read book The Slave Catchers written by Stanley W. Campbell and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this thoroughly researched documentation of a historically controversial issue, the author considers the background, passage, and constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law. The author's relation of public opinion and the executive policy regarding the much disputed law will help the reader reach a decision as to whether the law was actually a success or failure, legally and socially. Originally published in 1970. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

Poems on Slavery

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 52 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (18 download)

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Book Synopsis Poems on Slavery by : Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Download or read book Poems on Slavery written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and published by . This book was released on 1842 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The New Fugitive Slave Law. Speech in Reply to Hon. S. A. Douglas

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 20 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis The New Fugitive Slave Law. Speech in Reply to Hon. S. A. Douglas by : Edwin C. LARNED

Download or read book The New Fugitive Slave Law. Speech in Reply to Hon. S. A. Douglas written by Edwin C. LARNED and published by . This book was released on 1850 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The New Fugitive Slave Law. Speech of Edwin C. Larned, Esq

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 16 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (191 download)

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Book Synopsis The New Fugitive Slave Law. Speech of Edwin C. Larned, Esq by : Edwin Channing Larned

Download or read book The New Fugitive Slave Law. Speech of Edwin C. Larned, Esq written by Edwin Channing Larned and published by . This book was released on 1850 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America

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Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813065798
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America by : Damian Alan Pargas

Download or read book Fugitive Slaves and Spaces of Freedom in North America written by Damian Alan Pargas and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume introduces a new way to study the experiences of runaway slaves by defining different “spaces of freedom” they inhabited. It also provides a groundbreaking continental view of fugitive slave migration, moving beyond the usual regional or national approaches to explore locations in Canada, the U.S. North and South, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Using newspapers, advertisements, and new demographic data, contributors show how events like the Revolutionary War and westward expansion shaped the slave experience. Contributors investigate sites of formal freedom, where slavery was abolished and refugees were legally free, to determine the extent to which fugitive slaves experienced freedom in places like Canada while still being subject to racism. In sites of semiformal freedom, as in the northern United States, fugitives’ claims to freedom were precarious because state abolition laws conflicted with federal fugitive slave laws. Contributors show how local committees strategized to interfere with the work of slave catchers to protect refugees. Sites of informal freedom were created within the slaveholding South, where runaways who felt relocating to distant destinations was too risky formed maroon communities or attempted to blend in with free black populations. These individuals procured false documents or changed their names to avoid detection and pass as free. The essays discuss slaves’ motivations for choosing these destinations, the social networks that supported their plans, what it was like to settle in their new societies, and how slave flight impacted broader debates about slavery. This volume redraws the map of escape and emancipation during this period, emphasizing the importance of place in defining the meaning and extent of freedom. Contributors: Kyle Ainsworth | Mekala Audain | Gordon S. Barker | Sylviane A. Diouf | Roy E. Finkenbine | Graham Russell Gao Hodges | Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie | Viola Franziska Müller | James David Nichols | Damian Alan Pargas | Matthew Pinsker A volume in the series Southern Dissent, edited by Stanley Harrold and Randall M. Miller

The Princeton Fugitive Slave

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Publisher : Fordham Univ Press
ISBN 13 : 0823285359
Total Pages : 261 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (232 download)

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Book Synopsis The Princeton Fugitive Slave by : Lolita Buckner Inniss

Download or read book The Princeton Fugitive Slave written by Lolita Buckner Inniss and published by Fordham Univ Press. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study of the life of a Maryland slave, his escape to freedom in New Jersey, and the trials that ensued. James Collins Johnson made his name by escaping slavery in Maryland and fleeing to Princeton, New Jersey, where he built a life in a bustling community of African Americans working at what is now Princeton University. After only four years, he was recognized by a student from Maryland, arrested, and subjected to a trial for extradition under the 1793 Fugitive Slave Act. On the eve of his rendition, after attempts to free Johnson by force had failed, a local aristocratic white woman purchased Johnson’s freedom, allowing him to avoid re-enslavement. The Princeton Fugitive Slave reconstructs James Collins Johnson’s life, from birth and enslaved life in Maryland to his daring escape, sensational trial for re-enslavement, and last-minute change of fortune, and through to the end of his life in Princeton, where he remained a figure of local fascination. Stories of Johnson’s life in Princeton often describe him as a contented, jovial soul, beloved on campus and memorialized on his gravestone as “The Students Friend.” But these familiar accounts come from student writings and sentimental recollections in alumni reports—stories from elite, predominantly white, often southern sources whose relationships with Johnson were hopelessly distorted by differences in race and social standing. In interrogating these stories against archival records, newspaper accounts, courtroom narratives, photographs, and family histories, author Lolita Buckner Inniss builds a picture of Johnson on his own terms, piecing together the sparse evidence and disaggregating him from the other black vendors with whom he was sometimes confused. By telling Johnson’s story and examining the relationship between antebellum Princeton’s Black residents and the economic engine that supported their community, the book questions the distinction between employment and servitude that shrinks and threatens to disappear when an individual’s freedom is circumscribed by immobility, lack of opportunity, and contingency on local interpretations of a hotly contested body of law. Praise for The Princeton Fugitive Slave “Fascinating historical detective work . . . Deeply researched, the book overturns any lingering idea that Princeton was a haven from the broader society. Johnson had to cope with the casual racism of students, occasional eruptions of racial violence in town and the ubiquitous use of the N-word by even the supposedly educated. This book contributes to our understanding of slavery’s legacy today.” —Shane White, author of Prince of Darkness: The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire “Collectively, Inniss’s work provides an exciting model for future scholars of slavery and labor. Perhaps most importantly, Inniss skillfully and compassionately restores Johnson's voice to his own historical narrative.” —G. Patrick O'Brien, H-Slavery

Making Freedom

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Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469608782
Total Pages : 137 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

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Book Synopsis Making Freedom by : R. J. M. Blackett

Download or read book Making Freedom written by R. J. M. Blackett and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which mandated action to aid in the recovery of runaway slaves and denied fugitives legal rights if they were apprehended, quickly became a focal point in the debate over the future of slavery and the nature of the union. In Making Freedom, R. J. M. Blackett uses the experiences of escaped slaves and those who aided them to explore the inner workings of the Underground Railroad and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, while shedding light on the political effects of slave escape in southern states, border states, and the North. Blackett highlights the lives of those who escaped, the impact of the fugitive slave cases, and the extent to which slaves planning to escape were aided by free blacks, fellow slaves, and outsiders who went south to entice them to escape. Using these stories of particular individuals, moments, and communities, Blackett shows how slave flight shaped national politics as the South witnessed slavery beginning to collapse and the North experienced a threat to its freedom.

"The Higher Law," in Its Application to the Fugitive Slave Bill

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 20 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis "The Higher Law," in Its Application to the Fugitive Slave Bill by : John Chase Lord

Download or read book "The Higher Law," in Its Application to the Fugitive Slave Bill written by John Chase Lord and published by . This book was released on 1851 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Shadrach Minkins

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674029798
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Shadrach Minkins by : Gary Collison

Download or read book Shadrach Minkins written by Gary Collison and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On February 15, 1851, Shadrach Minkins was serving breakfast at a coffeehouse in Boston when history caught up with him. The first runaway to be arrested in New England under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, this illiterate Black man from Virginia found himself the catalyst of one of the most dramatic episodes of rebellion and legal wrangling before the Civil War. In a remarkable effort of historical sleuthing, Gary Collison has recovered the true story of Shadrach Minkins’ life and times and perilous flight. His book restores an extraordinary chapter to our collective history and at the same time offers a rare and engrossing picture of the life of an ordinary Black man in nineteenth-century North America. As Minkins’ journey from slavery to freedom unfolds, we see what day-to-day life was like for a slave in Norfolk, Virginia, for a fugitive in Boston, and for a free Black man in Montreal. Collison recreates the drama of Minkins’s arrest and his subsequent rescue by a band of Black Bostonians, who spirited the fugitive to freedom in Canada. He shows us Boston’s Black community, moved to panic and action by the Fugitive Slave Law, and the previously unknown community established in Montreal by Minkins and other refugee Blacks from the United States. And behind the scenes, orchestrating events from the disastrous Compromise of 1850 through the arrest of Minkins and the trial of his rescuers, is Daniel Webster, who through the exigencies of his dimming political career, took the role of villain. Webster is just one of the familiar figures in this tale of an ordinary man in extraordinary circumstances. Others, such as Frederick Douglass, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Harriet Jacobs, and Harriet Beecher Stowe (who made use of Minkins’s Montreal community in Uncle Tom’s Cabin), also appear throughout the narrative. Minkins’ intriguing story stands as a fascinating commentary on the nation’s troubled times—on urban slavery and Boston abolitionism, on the Underground Railroad, and on one of the federal government’s last desperate attempts to hold the Union together.

The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 44 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (882 download)

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Book Synopsis The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act by : Lydia Maria Child

Download or read book The Duty of Disobedience to the Fugitive Slave Act written by Lydia Maria Child and published by . This book was released on 1860 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

South to Freedom

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 1541617770
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (416 download)

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Book Synopsis South to Freedom by : Alice L Baumgartner

Download or read book South to Freedom written by Alice L Baumgartner and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2020-11-10 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant and surprising account of the coming of the American Civil War, showing the crucial role of slaves who escaped to Mexico. The Underground Railroad to the North promised salvation to many American slaves before the Civil War. But thousands of people in the south-central United States escaped slavery not by heading north but by crossing the southern border into Mexico, where slavery was abolished in 1837. In South to Freedom, historianAlice L. Baumgartner tells the story of why Mexico abolished slavery and how its increasingly radical antislavery policies fueled the sectional crisis in the United States. Southerners hoped that annexing Texas and invading Mexico in the 1840s would stop runaways and secure slavery's future. Instead, the seizure of Alta California and Nuevo México upset the delicate political balance between free and slave states. This is a revelatory and essential new perspective on antebellum America and the causes of the Civil War.