Gradual Emancipation Research Articles

Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative (review)

BOOK REVIEWS29I clearly views guerrilla violence as the most significant factor in determining East Tennessee's fate, both during the war and afterwards. The partisan war split virtually every institution in East Tennessee, including the churches; only the courts remained to some degree autonomous. As Fisher notes, the violence perpetrated in East Tennessee was appalling. Yet it did not occur outside an ideological context; on the contrary, both sides realized clearly that guerrilla warfare would largely determine control of the region. After Federal forces occupied East Tennessee, Unionists were given leeway to settle old scores. This extended even into the postbellum era, which resulted in an exodus of prominent secessionists. Yet Reconstruction splintered the loyalists in East Tennessee, as some firmly embraced Republican policies while others objected to emancipation and the disfranchisement offormer foes. Fisher concludes that East Tennessee remained a region in search of an identity for years after the war, albeit one tied to Republicanism at the local level. These are both important works. If Noe and Wilson have tantalized scholars with the vast potential found in studying Civil WarAppalachia, Noel Fisher has provided a sterling benchmark for those writers to emulate. Christopher Losson St. Joseph, Missouri Frank Blair: Lincoln 's Conservative. By William E. Parrish. (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1998. Pp. xv, 318. $29.95.) William E. Parrish, the author of several books on Missouri history, continues his scholarly endeavors with an outstanding biography of Frank Blair. Parrish traces the political career of Blair from the 1840s through the 1870s. Blair became a noteworthy figure because of his oratorical abilities, which could either mesmerize or infuriate audiences. Parrish asserts that Blair's all-consuming passion for politics dominated his entire life. Although Blair tried practicing law and working as a Union Pacific railroad commissioner, his devotion to political affairs cost him time with his family. Financial troubles deepened due to bad business investments and providing for a household of eight children. He also experienced health problems because of his heavy drinking and smoking. According to Parrish, Blair's obsession with politics stems from his family background. His father, Preston, had been the editor ofthe Washington Globe, a Jacksonian newspaper. Family members were ardent supporters of the Democratic party during the 1 830s and 1840s. However, with the question of slavery expansion into the western territories, their zeal for the party began to wane. The Blairs shifted loyalties to the growing Free Soil movement because they feared a growing slavocracy in the West—a black labor force threatened white economic interests. The family believed blacks were inferior, and racist sentiments were reflected in their political ideas. Frank supported colonization efforts, 292CIVIL WAR HISTORY and his speeches and writings on the subject earned him recognition within the Republican party. Eventually, the free labor platform was adopted by the Republicans , and the Blairs supportedAbraham Lincoln's 1 860 bid for the presidency. The Civil War brought new political and military challenges for Blair. His first concern was that Missouri, as a border slave state, should remain with the Union. However, many of Blair's subsequent political actions left him with enemies. He alienated German voters and Radical Republicans over the immediate emancipation policy that John C. Fremont enacted while Missouri was under martial law. He wanted a gradual emancipation policy along with colonization , but he decided to support Lincoln's compensation plan. Blair also rejected the idea ofallowing blacks tojoin the military, but Parrish fails to explain why he later changed his mind on this policy. By 1 862 Blair was Lincoln's chief conservative spokesman in Congress and emerged as the Radicals main opponent . Moreover, Parrish believes that Blair was one of the better political generals . He proved himself to be a very capable and fearless leader atVicksburg. He also established a good rapport with General William T. Sherman during the Atlanta Campaign and, as commander of the 17th Corps during the March to the Sea, helped bring total warfare to the deep south. Blair resumed political activity in the post-war period to challenge Radical Reconstruction. Angered by Radical congressional control, he began aligning himself with the Democrats once again. He later helped form a Democratic alliance...

Slavery and Freedom in the Rural North: African Americans in Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1665-1865.

Chapter 1 Foreword Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 Introduction Chapter 4 The Creation of a Slave Society, 1664-1714 Chapter 5 Small-Farm Slavery, 1714-1775 Chapter 6 Black Revolution in Monmouth, 1775-1783 Chapter 7 From Revolution to Emancipation, 1783-1804 Chapter 8 Gradual Emancipation, 1804-1830 Chapter 9 The Creation of Freedom, 1830-1865 Chapter 10 Epilogue Chapter 11 Selected Bibliography Chapter 12 Index

Race Relations and Public Policy in Louisville

Louisville's racial legacy was shaped by Kentucky's strategic position as a border state during the Civil War and by the activities of Northern troops stationed there. Maintaining the allegiance of the border states was central to the success of Lincoln's presidency during the early years of the war (Howard, 1983). According to Lincoln's political calculations, the border states were dominoes, with Kentucky standing first in line. The state was deeply divided over the slavery question, and Lincoln reasoned that full emancipation might compel alignment with the Confederacy. Attempting to separate preservation of the Union from slavery, the president promoted gradual emancipation based on compensation and voluntary compliance (Howard, 1983). This policy temporarily appeased Kentucky slaveholders who. failed to recognize the ultimate need of the Lincoln administration to embrace an antislavery policy. The movement of large numbers of Northern troops into Kentucky, especially Louisville, during 1861 and 1862 was a watershed event signalling an abrupt end to slavery in the state.

Imagining America: The United States in Radical Vietnamese Anticolonial Discourse

In the winter and spring of 1919, as the Paris Peace Conference delib erated over the postwar peace settlement for Europe, members of the Vietnamese expatriot association known as the Groupe des Patriotes Annamites often gathered in a small Parisian apartment in the thir teenth arrondissement. Inspired by the Wilsonian rhetoric of self-de termination, their meetings focused on drafting a proposal for the gradual emancipation of Vietnam from French colonial rule to present to the leaders of the Great Powers in Paris. The final document, en titled du Peuple Annamite, set forth an eight-point program that included calls for a general amnesty for political prison ers, equality of legal rights between French and Vietnamese, freedom of the press, the right to form political associations, and permanent Vietnamese representation in the French parliament. Although the drafting of the proposal had been a collective effort that included the participation of Phan Chu Trinh, among the most famous and influential of Vietnamese anticolonial leaders, the Revendications bore the signature of a relative unknown, Nguyen Ai Quoc, or Nguyen the Patriot. Shortly before the deliberations in Paris came to a close, the Groupe des Patriotes Annamites submitted its Revendications to the heads of various national delegations, in cluding President Woodrow Wilson, asking that their proposals be added to the conference agenda. Their request was ignored.1

Memory and Identity

What are the identifying traits of a person? Sex, age, eye color, height, scars, glasses, a mole above the lips? A passport or identity card, a document that says one exists a license to exist? In Latin America, how many possess a credential? Many of the poor and peasants who shouted Land and Liberty! with Zapata go through life worshipping their land titles as if they were images of the Virgin of Guadalupe. They carry them with them to Mexico City in their wallets, those yellowing titles giving them the sacred right to possess land, inherited from their parents, delivered to them by the blessed revolution, and now rejected as proof of ownership by the Ministry of Agrarian Reform because in Mexico land is divided in layers down to the very core of hell and for a long time public servants have divided it among their friends. (During the administration of L6pez Portillo, his supporters presented him not only with horses but also with the ranches to quarter them.) What are the identifying traits of a country? The space it occupies on earth, the number of years since it was discovered and named (in which case, Latin America is but a lion's cub, since it will only be 500 years old in 1992)? Or its development, its trajectory in universal history -its personal history of conquest, invasion, violence, repression, loss of political sovereignty, the crushing of all of its values, and gradual emancipation? Its idiosyncrasy or, better, its character, its particular manner of being despite the terrorism of the colonial period that destroyed its idols and altars -a massacre that failed to extinguish its spirit to the point that Tonantzin continues to be our mother within the Spanish Virgin Mary? The intrinsic energy or perhaps the sublime indifference that forces us to live on the brink of tragedy or in limbo?

Die vergessene rezension der “Allgemeinen erkenntnislehre” Moritz Schlicks durch Hans Reichenbach-Ein stück philosophiegeschichte

Despite a renewed interest in the philosophical prehistory of logical empiricism, several texts by prominent figures such as, e.g., Moritz Schlick and Hans Reichenbach, published in non-standard journals, have escaped the notice of scholars. Here, a hitherto virtually unknown but significant review of Moritz Schlick's influential book Allgemeine Erkenntnislehre [1st ed. 1918] written by Hans Reichenbach in 1919/20 is reprinted together with comments about its background and the later development, relying on and citing from the unpublished correspondence between Schlick and Reichenbach in 1920. Since they later became the leading figures in the so called Vienna and Berlin circles respectively, this episode marks an important stage in the gradual emancipation of “scientific philosophy” from its (neo)Kantian roots.

“Mitteleuropa”—Does it still exist, or Is it a mere geopolitical abstraction?

Abstract As a geographical and political concept created in late 19th century Germany “Mitteleuropa” has never been homogeneous. Economic, linguistic, cultural, religious and historical diversity were its most characteristic features until 1815, when the region became dominated by The Holy Alliance. Mitteleuropa, briefly left to itself between the two World Wars, was in turn subjected to Soviet dominance together with a change of its name to “Eastern Europe.” Its present gradual emancipation from Soviet dominance points to the reemergence of Germany as a dominant power in this region. But West German politicians and academicians offer no clear‐cut definition of present‐day “Mitteleuropa”: is it to be a region dominated by German interests, or is it to remain open to competing influences, while seeking its rightful place in Europe? Although the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) introduced at the First Helsinki Conference (CSCE‐1975) promise stability for Central Europe, they can be regarded as minimum sa...

Was heißt Sozialgeschichte? Brüche und Kontinuitäten in der Aneignung des ,Sozialen'

In the last decades ,Social History' has become one of the most successful and expanding disciplines. Nevertheless there is still a remarkable Jack of reflection on the logical and conceptual framework of ,society', the ,social' and ,social change', terms which fundamentally determine the discourse of ,Social History'. The author gives a rough survey of the gradual institutionalization of ,Social History' and of the different meanings of the ,social' from the beginnings of ,Social History' in the 1880's till today. He stresses three main stages as being important for the development of the discipline: the period of the ,political reductionism', discriminating the ,social' (about 1880-1920); the period of the gradual emancipation of the ,social', rejecting the hegemony of the ,political' (up from the 1920's), mainly influenced by the French group of the ,Annales' and their concept of the social relational structures and long-term changes in macro structures; the new attempt of a more precise re-definition of the ,social', including analyzation of ,structures' as weil as of ,action', ,behavior' and ,experience'. Denying priorities, the author proclaims the absolute necessity of both ,qualifying' and ,quantifying' methods for a future ,Social History' as weil as the importance of close connections with other social sciences. In addition he postulates that the social historians should place more emphasis on the strict and empiristic reconstruction of the meaning of the sources instead of still referring to an idealistic way of Verstehen. Only on these promises can ,Social History' be termed ,Historical Social Science' (Historische Sozialwissenschaft).

Haiti's Influence on Antebellum America: Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean (review)

BOOK REVIEWS185 have come before it, is a study of means and ends. Because he discusses antislavery in its broadest terms over a long period of time, he has a hard time sustaining a tight argument. Gerteis does include an excellent discussion of Lydia Maria Child, whose writing illustrates the power ofdomestic values translated into public policy, in addition to a fine synopsis of the development ofthe antislavery argument that swung between the demands of morality and utility of "creative destruction." Like the careers ofhis subjects, Gerteis's conclusion does not live up to its initial promise, and seems disappointingly vague. Reluctant to focus primarily on politics, Gerteis tries to relate the ascendency ofthe utilitaritarian aspects of antislavery over the moral to the developing sensibilities of the middle class during the latter decades of the nineteenth century and the creation of private and public spheres. Romantic moral reform, he contends , retreated in the nonconfrontational realm of domestic virtue, while preoccupation with productive relations between labor and capital seized the public mind justifying competition and acquisition ofthe postwar era. Nevertheless, Morality and Utility is a fine addition to the literature ofthe middle period, a well researched and thoughtful book ofparticular interest to the nineteenth century specialist. Barbara L. Bellows Middlebury College Haiti's Influence on Antebellum America: Slumbering Volcano in the Caribbean . By Alfred N. Hunt. (Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1988. Pp. 196. $25.00.) In a wide-ranging study Alfred N. Hunt concludes that the slave rebellion in Haiti made a substantial impact on life in antebellum America. He shows that the revolution in Saint Domingue frightened Southern planters, and the model of Haiti's race war became an important point of reference for both defenders and critics ofslavery. Many Southerners cited the frightening stories ofbloodshed in Haiti to insist that whites could not co-exist with "uncivilized" free blacks, and they spoke of the poor economic picture in Haiti after its independence to argue that abolition could bring ruin upon the South. These twin fears of race war and economic disaster represented cornerstones in Southern thinking; as Southerners contemplated the awful image of Haiti, they became more hostile toward proposals for gradual emancipation. On the other hand abolitionists pointed to the example of Saint Domingue to argue that resistance to emancipation was foolish, because it would eventually bring a terrible day of slave vengeance. Hunt also looks beyond this familiar story to examine connections that are less well recognized. He discusses, for instance, the significant role of white and free black refugees who escaped to the American South. Between 1 79 1 and 1 808, thousands ofthese émigrés moved to New Orleans, Charles- 186CIVIL WAR HISTORY ton, Mobile, and other locales. As sugar planters, journalists, educators, musicians, actors, comedians, and craftsmen, they made substantial contributions to their new societies. Migration also occurred in the other direction (although in much smaller numbers). Some American blacks tried to settle in Haiti, but disease and other problems often made their experiences tragic. Hunt also considers the interesting perpectives on Toussaint L'Ouverture in antebellum America. Abolitionists, ofcourse, described the black revolutionary as a hero, but a number of Southerners also were impressed with his example. They admired his "conservative" tactics (p. 87) and praised him for initiating a tough policy of forced labor after emancipation that returned black laborers to the fields. Finally, Hunt shows that American blacks drew considerable pride from the example of Haiti. They appreciated the story of slaves overthrowing their masters and resisting attempts by various European armies to suppress them, and they treated the example of Haitian independence as a symbol that inspired feelings of black nationalism. The author's approach to his subject, searching out virtually every major reference to Haiti in the thinking of leading black and white figures of the 1791-1861 period, becomes a little tedious. We learn that Haiti was on the minds of many of the principal actors in the drama over Southern slavery, but the author offers few new insights for connecting the story of Haiti to the causes of secession and the Civil War. He does, however, present a useful overview of the subject...

Lesbian emancipation in The Netherlands.

In this article the emancipation of lesbian women as a group is reviewed from a historical viewpoint. Their gradual emancipation, along with women in general, is demonstrated by the increasing alliances and support afforded to women over the years. The growth of a unified lesbian movement is evident in publications and the formation of autonomous organizations in the 20th century.

The Beginnings of the Architectural Profession in Scotland

In Scotland, as in England, architecture was not a fully-developed profession until well into the nineteenth century. There were, of course, some able practitioners of architecture in Scotland in the eighteenth century, but few if any of them were professional architects in the sense in which their Victorian successors would understand the term. Many of them were builders before they were architects, and even those who were primarily architects might on occasion act as building contractors. Far away in London their compatriots Robert and James Adam might insist (in their dealings with a client) that ‘it is of little consequence to us, what the practice is, among professional builders. We are not builders by profession, but Architects & Surveyors, & live by those Branches’. But even in London it was with difficulty that an architect could sustain such pretensions in the 1770s. In Edinburgh it would have been impossible. Sixty or seventy years were to elapse before the posture adopted by the Adam brothers became the norm, before architectural practice in Scotland had progressed from a situation in which both design and execution were in the same hands — those of the master craftsmen — to one in which design had become the exclusive business of the architect. Those sixty or seventy years also saw the gradual emancipation of the architect from the patronage which had nurtured him in the eighteenth century, so that by the middle of the nineteenth century he had achieved the economic independence of a professional man and the social status of a gentleman.

Justice Accused: Antislavery and the Judicial Process , and: A Covenant With Death: The Constitution, Law, and Equality in the Civil War Era (review)

354civil war history (pp. 332-333). This is certainly a bold attempt to disentangle ideological from economic, political, legal and constitutional factors in the sectional conflict. If there are any readers who are still inclined to be complacent about American history they will find this a disturbing as well as rewarding book. Stow Persons University of Iowa Justice Accused: Antisfovery and the Judicial Process. By Robert M. Cover. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975. Pp. xii, 322. $15.00.) A Covenant With Death: The Constitution, Law, and Equality in the Civil War Era. By Phillip S. Paludan. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1975. Pp. xiv, 309. $11.50.) Until recently historians have generally viewed America's antislavery crusade and ensuing Civil War as the one great disruption in an otherwise stable constitutional tradition. The mid-nineteenth century was supposedly a period characterized by fiery abolitionists who challenged the sanctity of the enshrined federal Constitution and Congressional leaders who trampled over established legal barriers for the sake of war and reconstruction. Such an image has been under attack during the past decade, and the recent studies of Robert Cover and Phillip Paludan reflect this change. Both Cover and Paludan have emphasized the continuity, formalism, and conservatism of mid-nineteenth century legal thought. Neither view the William Lloyd Garrisons or Charles Sumners as the primary molders of constitutional doctrine but rather the Lemuel Shaws and John Norton Pomeroys, the men who refused to deviate radically from the norms of the legal profession or the precepts of antebellum political belief. Both examine the conflict between humanitarian ideals and legal traditionalism, and both declare traditionalism the victor. Cover focuses on the response to slavery during the decades prior to the Civil War, emphasizing the conflict between the libertarian dictates of natural law and the code of slavery embodied in positive, statute law. When interpreting the gradual emancipation and manumission laws during the early nineteenth century, antislavery judges were able to avoid the clash between positive and natural law by consistently rendering judgments favorable to the slave. During the 1840's and 1850's, however, judges found themselves torn between their moral abhorrence for slavery and the clearly stated constitutional requirement to aid in the recapture of fugitives . Jurists such as Joseph Story, Lemuel Shaw, John McLean, book reviews355 and Joseph Swan faced this moral dilemma, and Professor Cover analyzes their responses. Employing the theory of cognitive dissonance as developed by social psychologists, Cover demonstrates how each of these four antislavery judges sought to reduce the disturbing dissonance between morality and professional duty. According to Cover they did so through lengthy judgments which emphasized the social importance of upholding positive law and the Constitution despite moral dictates. For example, Justice McLean claimed that defiance of the Fugitive Slave Law "by the judicial powers, would undermine and overturn the social compact," and having raised the spectre of anarchy, he then proceeded to mechanistically apply statute law to the detriment of liberty. The responsibility for legal change, according to these antislavery judges, rested with the other branches of government, and the judiciary could do nothing but apply the will of Congress and the provisions of the Constitution. Thus traditional perceptions of the jurist's role checked the moral impulse toward change, and judicial restraint stymied radical reform. Paludan likewise emphasizes the adherence of mid-nineteenthcentury thinkers to established legal and constitutional norms. In his work he analyzes the writings of Francis Lieber, Joel Parker, Sidney George Fisher, John Norton Pomeroy, and Thomas M. Cooley and demonstrates the persistence of Jacksonian ideals during the Civil War era. Each of these men retained a belief in decentralized government throughout both the antebellum and postbellum periods, and each expressed doubts about the centripetal tendencies of Reconstruction policy. Moreover, none viewed the Civil War as essentially a crusade for racial justice but instead as a means for preserving the Union. They sought to perpetuate the decentralized Union of the Jacksonian era rather than introduce a national machine for insuring racial equality. Paludan thus analyzes the thought of a few representatives of the intellectual elite and concludes that the Civil War was "no second American Revolution." His is a traditional study, admirably...

Philanthropy at Bargain Prices: Notes on the Economics of Gradual Emancipation

Previous articleNext article No AccessPhilanthropy at Bargain Prices: Notes on the Economics of Gradual EmancipationRobert William Fogel, and Stanley L. EngermanRobert William Fogel Search for more articles by this author , and Stanley L. Engerman Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Legal Studies Volume 3, Number 2Jun., 1974 Sponsored by The University of Chicago Law School Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/467518 Views: 17Total views on this site Citations: 22Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1974 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Howard Bodenhorn Later-Life Realizations of Maryland’s Mid-Nineteenth-Century Pauper Apprentices, (Sep 2022): 211–243.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06477-7_10Kris Manjapra Necrospeculation, Social Text 37, no.22 (Jun 2019): 29–65.https://doi.org/10.1215/01642472-7370979S. L. Egerman Slavery, (Feb 2018): 12394–12403.https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_1746Barry R. Weingast Adam Smith's Theory of the Persistence of Slavery and its Abolition in Western Europe, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2015).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2635917S. Mittal, B. R. Weingast Self-Enforcing Constitutions: With an Application to Democratic Stability In America's First Century, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 29, no.22 (Oct 2011): 278–302.https://doi.org/10.1093/jleo/ewr017Nicholas Draper The rise of a new planter class? Some countercurrents from British Guiana and Trinidad, 1807–33, Atlantic Studies 9, no.11 (Mar 2012): 65–83.https://doi.org/10.1080/14788810.2012.636996Howard Bodenhorn Manumission in nineteenth-century Virginia, Cliometrica 5, no.22 (Aug 2010): 145–164.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-010-0056-xS. L. Egerman Slavery, (Mar 2017): 1–10.https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1746-2SHAWN COLE Capitalism and Freedom: Manumissions and the Slave Market in Louisiana, 1725–1820, The Journal of Economic History 65, no.0404 (Nov 2005).https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050705000380Barry R. Weingast Self-Enforcing Consititutions: With an Application to Democratic Stability in America's First Century, SSRN Electronic Journal (Jan 2005).https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1153527Stanley L Engerman Coerced and free labor: Property rights and the development of the labor force, Explorations in Economic History 29, no.11 (Jan 1992): 1–29.https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4983(92)90030-ZCarol S. Leonard Landlords and the Mir: Transaction Costs and Economic Development in Pre-Emancipation Russia (Iaroslav Guberniia), (Jan 1990): 121–142.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20646-9_9Roger Bartlett The Question of Serfdom: Catherine II, the Russian Debate and the View from the Baltic Periphery (J. G. Eisen and G. H. Merkel), (Jan 1990): 142–166.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20897-5_8Gary M. Anderson The Butcher, the Baker, and the Policy-Maker: Adam Smith on Public Choice, with a Reply by Stigler, History of Political Economy 21, no.44 (Nov 1989): 641–659.https://doi.org/10.1215/00182702-21-4-641 Gary M. Anderson , Charles K. Rowley , and Robert D. Tollison Rent Seeking and the Restriction of Human Exchange, The Journal of Legal Studies 17, no.11 (Oct 2015): 83–100.https://doi.org/10.1086/468122Robert J. Barro Government spending, interest rates, prices, and budget deficits in the United Kingdom, 1701–1918, Journal of Monetary Economics 20, no.22 (Sep 1987): 221–247.https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3932(87)90015-8S. L. Egerman Slavery, (Nov 2016): 1–10.https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_1746-1Stanley L. Engerman Slavery and Emancipation in Comparative Perspective: A Look at Some Recent Debates, The Journal of Economic History 46, no.22 (Mar 2009): 317–339.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050700046155Seymour Drescher Class Conflict, Hegemony and the Costs of Antislavery, (Jan 1986): 135–161.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07000-8_7Stanley L Engerman Economic change and contract labor in the British Caribbean: The end of slavery and the adjustment to emancipation, Explorations in Economic History 21, no.22 (Apr 1984): 133–150.https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4983(84)90021-4RICHARD B. SHERIDAN "Sweet Malefactor": The Social Costs of Slavery and Sugar in Jamaica and Cuba, 1807–54, The Economic History Review 29, no.22 (May 1976): 236–257.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.1976.tb01083.xSTANLEY L. ENGERMAN Some Economic and Demographic Comparisons of Slavery in the United States and the British West Indies', The Economic History Review 29, no.22 (May 1976): 258–275.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.1976.tb01084.x

The First Emancipation: The Abolition of Slavery in the North (review)

BOOK REVIEWS185 ade, a process shaped by a multitude of economic, political, intellectual, emotional and technological factors. Of these, fear of rebellion, and the climactic Nat Turner uprising in particular, was important, but it was an importance leavened by other forces. It is unfair to compare the work of a historian and a novelist, but the almost simultaneous appearance of William Styron's novel, The Confessions of Nat Turner, merits a word about the two treatments. Using tools not available to the scholar, Styron captures the essence of southern plantation life and black-white relationships in a way that throws additional light on the period and the people. In the novel, Turner becomes a man. In the historical essay, the South and its slaves are overweighted with statistics and interpretation which fall short of explaining the event and its impact, and the man who caused it. Leslie H. Fishel, Jr. State Historical Society of Wisconsin The First Emancipation: The Abolition of Shvety in the North. By Arthur Zilversmit. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967. Pp. viii, 262. $6.95.) Professor Zilversmit has put into convenient form a summary of the growth of abolitionist opinion and legislation to end slavery in the northeastern colonies and states. The first half of the book sketches the nature of slavery in this area and the well-known procession of men in the colonial period who argued that slaveholding was wrong. The second half explains the steps taken by the various state governments which freed the Negroes either at once or by gradual emancipation. An appendix lists prices and appraised values of slaves in the middle Atlantic region between 1709 and 1804, as well as statistics on manumissions in New York and New Jersey between 1744 and 1800. The figures on slave prices, together with the well-documented opposition of masters to emancipation laws, support Zilversmit's contention that emancipation did not result from slaveholders discovering that slavery was unprofitable. On the contrary, he finds that proslavery opinion existed in proportion to the use of slave labor—most common in northeastern New Jersey and the older parts of New York. Rather, he asserts that abolition was the consequence of a belief held by many late colonial non-slaveholders that slavery was "detrimental to their own interests and to the interests of the community," a belief converted to abolitionism when combined with the antislavery arguments of men like John Woolman and Anthony Benezet and the widespread devotion to liberty and humanitarian reform during the Revolutionary period. Zilversmit's explanation of emancipationist ardor, however, is not sustained by the chronicle of lobbying and governmental decisions which tells when and where the antislavery measures got into law. This chronicle —the only product of original research in the book—provides useful facts, 186CIVIL WAR HISTORY but virtually nothing about political processes or motivations. It would be unreasonable to expect more from the sources used, records of abolition societies and state legislatures, but some of the details are so puzzling as to make plain the inadequacy of the documents. For instance, the sudden shifts in voting by the legislatures of New York and New Jersey on certain occasions appear to have taken the abolitionist lobbyists by surprise , a reaction which the reader is left to share, as no explanation is offered in this book. Perhaps we should conclude that if lobbyists could not understand what was going on, no one ever will. Quite possibly, though, we should conclude instead that the lobbyists had less to do with events than they thought they did, and accordingly, Professor Zilversmit's narrative of interplay between legislators and those who petitioned or buttonholed them tells less than it seems to do. In any case, various other avenues of inquiry should be explored. Private papers might yield clues; an examination of action on slavery in the context of other aspects of legislation and politics might help, too. Zilversmit has done very little along these lines. Nor has he found out much about the people who figure in the story. Furthermore, his account of events does not lead to more searching questions , as he has used simplistic conceptions of all the elements involved. His most detailed...

PSYCHOGENIC MOTOR DISTURBANCES

One of the most significant features in the present-day attitude toward motor disturbances is the gradual emancipation from the timehonored organic-functional dualism. For a long time, if even now one is entirely justified in using the past tense, the investigations in this phase of neuropsychiatry have centered about the arbitrary cleavage between the two components of this branch of medicine, the main efforts being concentrated on the detailed descriptive analysis of the symptoms characteristic of the one or the other. Tics, tremors, convulsions and the various forms of dyskinesias and akinesias have been associated in the mind of the physician with the one outstanding problem —that of the differentiation between the functional and the organic or between the domain of the psychiatrist and that of the neurologist. Paradoxically, the investigations that were undertaken primarily for the purpose of affording a clearer conception of these differentiations have resulted in a gradual

Preface

Next article FreeThe Slave in CanadaPrefaceWilliam Renwick RiddellWilliam Renwick Riddell Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 5, Number 3July 1920 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/2713620 Views: 47Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in The Journal of Negro History (1916-2001), which is continued by The Journal of African American History (2002-present). Copyright 1920, 1948, 1969 The Association for the Study of African American Life and HistoryPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article: Robert William Fogel , and Stanley L. Engerman Philanthropy at Bargain Prices: Notes on the Economics of Gradual Emancipation, The Journal of Legal Studies 3, no.22 (Oct 2015): 377–401.https://doi.org/10.1086/467518