Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification - Hardcover

Waldstreicher, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809094533 ISBN 13: 9780809094530

Verlag: Hill & Wang Inc.,U.S., 2009

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Waldstreicher David

Über diesen Titel

Críticas

"Was the American Constitution as originally ratified a proslavery document? In this unflinching, deeply intelligent, and persuasive work, David Waldstreicher answers yes. Sure to spark interest and debate, "Slavery's Constitution" is an immensely engaging and valuable contribution to the literature on the founding of the American nation." -Annette Gordon-Reed "Succinct and shrewd, David Waldstreicher's "Slavery's Constitution" enables us to understand a central element of American political practice that the founders sought to obscure." -Linda K. Kerber "David Waldstreicher's intriguing new book brilliantly shows the founding fathers' republican constitution to be, in important part, central to their many evasions of slavery's antirepublican nature." -William W. Freehling "With as light a touch as its hard truths permit, "Slavery's Constitution" explains the deep, compl "Was the American Constitution as originally ratified a proslavery document? In this unflinching, deeply intelligent, and persuasive work, David Waldstreicher answers yes. Sure to spark interest and debate, "Slavery's Constitution" is an immensely engaging and valuable contribution to the literature on the founding of the American nation." --Annette Gordon-Reed "Succinct and shrewd, David Waldstreicher's "Slavery's Constitution" enables us to understand a central element of American political practice that the founders sought to obscure." --Linda K. Kerber "David Waldstreicher's intriguing new book brilliantly shows the founding fathers' republican constitution to be, in important part, central to their many evasions of slavery's antirepublican nature." --William W. Freehling "With as light a touch as its hard truths permit, "Slavery's Constitution" explains the deep, complex, and pervasive entanglement that ultimately doomed the United States to civil war." --Robin L. Einhorn "David Waldstreicher's brilliant little book sets the terms of debate for all further discussion of slavery and the Constitution." --James Oakes "Highly readable and provocative in conception." --Thomas J. Davis, "Library Journal " "A closely argued critique that exposes the deadly implications of the Constitution's careful euphemisms about slavery." --"Kirkus Reviews" After they won the revolution, how did the framers of our government deal with slavery without becoming hypocrites? They didn't--and instead wove slavery into their Constitution to ensure its perpetuation, historian David Waldstreicher persuasively argues in his slender, provocative book." --Cameron McWhirter, "The""Atlanta"" Journal-Constitution" "Waldstreicher's interpretation is likely to be controversial, but then, he is no stranger to examining the tarnish on American icons. In "Runaway America," he questioned the anti-slavery credentials of Benjamin Franklin. Little wonder that he concludes here that 'Slavery's Constitution, ' not slavery itself, caused the Civil War." --Roger K. Miller, "Chicago"" Sun-Times" "An important contribution." --Claude R. Marx, "The Boston Globe" "In this important new book, [Waldstreicher] writes that while the U.S. Constitution never mentions slavery, 'slavery is all over the document.' " --Steve Goddard, Historywire.com"An interesting exploration of the influence of slavery on early American politics and life." --Curled Up with a Good Book "In a succinct but carefully reasoned study, Temple University history professor David Waldstreicher shows how slave state delegates to the Constitutional Convention leveraged the issue to their advantage, and how ardent federalists from the North, many of them opposed to slavery, came to a consensus of silence over the Constitution's role in countenancing slavery." --David Luhrssen, "Shepherd Express" ""Slavery's Constitution" will certainly set the terms of the debate over the institution of human bondage and the 1787 Constitution for years to come." --Erik J. Chaput, "The Providence Journal"

Reseña del editor

Taking on decades of received scholarly wisdom, David Waldstreicher has written the first book to acknowledge the centrality of slavery to the origins and Language of the U.S. Constitution. Famously, the Constitution never mentions slavery. And yet of its eighty-four clauses, six are directly concerned with slaves and the interests of their owners. Five other clauses had implications for slavery that were considered and debated by the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention and the citizens of the states during ratification. Neither a moral blind spot for America's otherwise enlightened framers nor the expression of a mere economic interest, slavery was as important to the making of the Constitution as the Constitution was to the survival of slavery. Slavery indeed was less than six degrees of separation from every major political issue in pre-Civil War America. One reason for this is that slavery was a major aspect of the American economy. The livelihoods of people in the North as well as the South depended on the products of slave labour, on import and export policies, and on the running of related services. Therefore, because the Constitution had economic implications and set the stage for a national economy, it could not avoid having implications for slavery, and creating a constitutional politics of slavery.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Hill & Wang Inc.,U.S.
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0809094533
• ISBN 13: 9780809094530
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 256