The Fortunate Heirs of Freedom
The Fortunate Heirs of Freedom

Author: Daniel John McInerney

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1994-01-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780803231726

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Across lines of race, gender, religion, and class, abolitionists understood their reform effort in the same basic terms -- as part of a continuous struggle between the forces of power and the forces of liberty in which vigilant citizens battled tyranny and corruption, defending the independence and virtue upon which their fragile experiment in republican government depended. Focusing on that republican frame of reference, this book sheds new light on the historical imagination of the abolitionists, their views of politics and the marketplace, the relation between religion and reform, and the cultural critique embedded in abolitionism. The author convincingly argues that the reformers conceived of their work in more precise terms than historians have generally recognized; their concern lay specifically with the problem of slavery in a republic: "Abolitionists did not see themselves as antebellum reformers; theirs was a post-Revolutionary movement." - Back cover.

The Problem of Emancipation
The Problem of Emancipation

Author: Edward Bartlett Rugemer

Publisher: LSU Press

Published: 2009-08-01

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 0807146854

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"A most persuasive work that repositions the American debates over emancipation where they clearly belong, in a broader Anglo-Atlantic context." -- Reviews in History While many historians look to internal conflict alone to explain the onset of the American Civil War, in The Problem of Emancipation, Edward Bartlett Rugemer places the origins of the war in a transatlantic context. Addressing a huge gap in the historiography of the antebellum United States, he explores the impact of Britain's abolition of slavery in 1834 on the coming of the war and reveals the strong influence of Britain's old Atlantic empire on the United States' politics. He demonstrates how American slaveholders and abolitionists alike borrowed from the antislavery movement developing on the transatlantic stage to fashion contradictory portrayals of abolition that became central to the arguments for and against American slavery. Richly researched and skillfully argued, The Problem of Emancipation explores a long-neglected aspect of American slavery and the history of the Atlantic World and bridges a gap in our understanding of the American Civil War. "Most discussions about the roots of the American Civil War seldom stray beyond the nation's borders, but Rugemer makes a persuasive case for why that should change." -- Charleston (SC) Post and Courier "A tremendous contribution to the greatest issue and ongoing controversy in pre--twentieth-century American historiography: the causes of the American Civil War. I was quite unprepared for Rugemer's crucial discoveries as he studied the way dozens of southern and northern newspapers responded to the British West Indian slave insurrections, to the British act of emancipation, and to the consequences of this so-called Mighty Experiment. Few historians have shown such sophistication in analyzing the rapidly changing pre--Civil War media and the shifts in public opinion." -- David Brion Davis, author of Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World

Slavery and the Commerce Power
Slavery and the Commerce Power

Author: David L. Lightner

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0300135165

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Born in Warsaw, raised in a Hasidic community, and reaching maturity in secular Jewish Vilna and cosmopolitan Berlin, Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) escaped Nazism and immigrated to the United States in 1940. This lively and readable book tells the comprehensive story of his life and work in America, his politics and personality, and how he came to influence not only Jewish debate but also wider religious and cultural debates in the postwar decades. A worthy sequel to his widely-praised biography of Heschel's early years, Edward Kaplan's new volume draws on previously unseen archives, FBI files, interviews with people who knew Heschel, and analyses of his extensive writings. Kaplan explores Heschel's shy and private side, his spiritual radicalism, and his vehement defence of the Hebrew prophets' ideal of absolute integrity and truth in ethical and political life. Of special interest are Heschel's interfaith activities, including a secret meeting with Pope Paul VI during Vatican II, his commitment to civil rights with Martin Luther King, Jr., his views on the state of Israel, and his opposition to the Vietnam War. A tireless challenger to spiritual and religious complacency, Heschel stands as a dramatically important witness.

Politics and Piety
Politics and Piety

Author: Aaron Menikoff

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2014-05-29

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1630872822

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Historians have painted a picture of nineteenth-century Baptists huddled in clapboard meetinghouses preaching sermons and singing hymns, seemingly unaware of the wider world. According to this view, Baptists were "so heavenly-minded, they were of no earthly good." Overlooked are the illustrative stories of Baptists fighting poverty, promoting abolition, petitioning Congress, and debating tax policy. Politics and Piety is a careful look at antebellum Baptist life. It is seen in figures such as John Broadus, whose first sermon promoted temperance, David Barrow, who formed an anti-slavery association in Kentucky, and in a Savannah church that started a ministry to the homeless. Not only did Baptists promote piety for the good of their churches, but they did so for the betterment of society at large. Though they aimed to change America one soul at a time, that is only part of the story. They also engaged the political arena, forcefully and directly. Simply put, Baptists were social reformers. Relying on the ideas of rank-and-file Baptists found in the minutes of local churches and associations, as well as the popular, parochial newspapers of the day, Politics and Piety uncovers a theologically minded and controversial movement to improve the nation. Understanding where these Baptists united and divided is a key to unlocking the differences in evangelical political engagement today.

Fugitive Texts
Fugitive Texts

Author: Michaël Roy

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres

Published: 2022-09-06

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 0299338401

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Antebellum slave narratives have taken pride of place in the American literary canon. One key aspect of the genre, however, has been left unexamined: its materiality. In Fugitive Texts, Michaël Roy offers the first book-length study of the slave narrative as a material artifact. Drawing on a wide range of sources, he reconstructs the publication histories of a number of famous and lesser-known narratives, placing them against the changing backdrop of antebellum print culture. Published to rave reviews in French, Fugitive Texts illuminates the heterogeneous nature of a genre often described in monolithic terms and ultimately paves the way for a redefinition of the literary form we have come to recognize as "the slave narrative."