Contesting Slavery: The Politics of Bondage and Freedom in the New American Nation

336 Pages·2011·1.64 MB·English

by  John Craig Hammond

contesting
slavery
JeffersonianAmerica
Jan Ellen Lewis, Peter S. Onuf, and
Andrew O’Shaughnessy, Editors
contesting
slavery
The Politics of
Bondage and Freedom
in the
New American Nation
Edited by John Craig Hammond
and Matthew Mason
University of Virginia Press CharlottesvilleandLondon
University of Virginia Press
∫ 2011 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
Firstpublished2011
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Contesting slavery : the politics of bondage and freedom in the new American nation /
edited by John Craig Hammond and Matthew Mason.
p. cm. — (Jeffersonian America)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-8139-3105-0 (cloth : acid-free paper) — isbn 978-0-8139-3117-3 (e-book)
1. Slavery—Political aspects—United States—History—18th century. 2. Slavery—Polit-
ical aspects—United States—History—19th century. 3. Antislavery movements—United
States—History—18th century. 4. Antislavery movements—United States—History—
19th century. 5. United States—Politics and government—1775–1783. 6. United States—
Politics and government—1783–1865. 7. Sectionalism (United States)—History—18th
century. 8. Sectionalism (United States)—History—19th century. I. Hammond, John
Craig, 1974– II. Mason, Matthew.
e446.c71 2011
326%.80973—dc22
2010037050
ForHallie,Hannah,andAddison
Stacie,Emily,Hannah,andRachel
andLanceandIra,too
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword byPeterS.Onuf xi
Introduction
Slavery, Sectionalism, and Politics in the Early American Republic
JohnCraigHammondandMatthewMason 1
PartI
SlaveryandIdeology,ActionandInaction
Necessary but Not Sufficient: Revolutionary Ideology and Antislavery
Action in the Early Republic MatthewMason 11
Early Free-Labor Thought and the Contest over Slavery in the Early
Republic EvaSheppardWolf 32
‘‘Manifest Signs of Passion’’: The First Federal Congress, Antislavery,
and Legacies of the Revolutionary War RobertG.Parkinson 49
‘‘Good Communications Corrects Bad Manners’’: The Banneker-
Jefferson Dialogue and the Project of White Uplift RichardNewman 69
Caribbean Slave Revolts and the Origins of the Gag Rule: A Contest
between Abolitionism and Democracy, 1797–1835
EdwardB.Rugemer 94
PartII
TheStateandSlavery
Founding a Slaveholders’ Union, 1770–1797
GeorgeWilliamVanCleve 117
‘‘Uncontrollable Necessity’’: The Local Politics, Geopolitics, and
Sectional Politics of Slavery Expansion JohnCraigHammond 138
Contents
Positive Goods and Necessary Evils: Commerce, Security, and Slavery
in the Lower South, 1787–1837 BrianSchoen 161
Slave Smugglers, Slave Catchers, and Slave Rebels: Slavery and
American State Development, 1787–1842 DavidF.Ericson 183
PartIII
Slavery,Sectionalism,andPartisanPolitics
‘‘Hurtful to the State’’: The Political Morality of Federalist Antislavery
RachelHopeCleves 207
Slavery and the Problem of Democracy in Jeffersonian America
PadraigRiley 227
Neither Infinite Wretchedness nor Positive Good: Mathew Carey and
Henry Clay on Political Economy and Slavery during the Long 1820s
AndrewShankman 247
The Decline of Antislavery Politics, 1815–1840 DonaldJ.Ratcliffe 267
Commentary
Conflict vs. Racial Consensus in the History of Antislavery Politics
JamesOakes 291
Notes on Contributors 305
Index 309
viii
Acknowledgments
It has been a privilege to work with so many fine people and institutions
in the preparation of this volume. Jim Oakes’s astute and insightful com-
mentary at a 2007 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic
(SHEAR) panel provided the rationale for this volume. Peter Onuf and Dick
Holway at the University of Virginia Press have enthusiastically supported
this project since we first pitched the idea to them. Peter, along with Don
Ratcliffe, graciously served as unofficial, unindicted coeditors of the volume:
both offered constant good advice about the shape and direction of the
volume; both provided needed critical readings of the introduction. François
Furstenberg also offered sharp criticism that forced us to rethink the intro-
duction along with the significance of the volume. The outside readers for
the University of Virginia Press also provided helpful criticism and support
as this volume moved from conception to finished manuscript.
Institutions as well as individuals provided important support. The Rocky
Mountain Seminar in Early American History, sponsored by Brigham Young
University, the University of Utah, and the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner
Humanities Center in Salt Lake City provided a valuable forum for thinking
about the focus of the collection at a critical time. The Sixteenth Annual
Meeting of British American Nineteenth Century Historians provided an
equally valuable opportunity to rethink our arguments as we readied the
volume for publication. The Purdue Research Foundation provided a Sum-
mer Faculty Development Grant that helped get this project started. Penn
State University and Brigham Young University generously provided the
time and support needed to see a project like this through to completion.
That included support for Britt Wilkinson’s excellent services as a research
assistant in the preparation of an early version of the manuscript by BYU’s
History Department.
Under the auspices of SHEAR, specialists in the early American republic
continue to produce some of the best scholarship in American history, as
indicated by the excellent essays in this volume. The robust, high quality of
scholarship on the early republic is well represented by two of the persons to