Eighty-Eight Years: The Long Death of Slavery in the United States, 1777–1865 (Race in the Atlantic World) - Softcover

Rael, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0820348392 ISBN 13: 9780820348391

Publisher: University of Georgia Press, 2015

Synopsis

Why did it take so long to end slavery in the United States, and what did it mean that the nation existed eighty-eight years as a “house divided against itself,” as Abraham Lincoln put it? The decline of slavery throughout the Atlantic world was a protracted affair, says Patrick Rael, but no other nation endured anything like the United States. Here the process took from 1777, when Vermont wrote slavery out of its state constitution, to 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery nationwide.

Rael immerses readers in the mix of social, geographic, economic, and political factors that shaped this unique American experience. He not only takes a far longer view of slavery’s demise than do those who date it to the rise of abolitionism in 1831, he also places it in a broader Atlantic context. We see how slavery ended variously by consent or force across time and place and how views on slavery evolved differently between the centers of European power and their colonial peripheries―some of which would become power centers themselves.

Rael shows how African Americans played the central role in ending slavery in the United States. Fueled by new Revolutionary ideals of self-rule and universal equality―and on their own or alongside abolitionists―both slaves and free blacks slowly turned American opinion against the slave interests in the South. Secession followed, and then began the national bloodbath that would demand slavery’s complete destruction.

About this title

About the Author

PATRICK RAEL is a professor of history at Bowdoin College and one of the general editors of the Race in the Atlantic World, 1700–1900 series. His books include Black Identity and Black Protest in the Antebellum North and African-American Activism before the Civil War: The Freedom Struggle in the Antebellum North. Rael is an Organization of American Historians distinguished lecturer, 2010–2015.

From the Back Cover

Why did it take so long to end slavery in the United States, and what did it mean that the nation existed eighty-eight years as a house divided against itself, as Abraham Lincoln put it? The decline of slavery throughout the Atlantic world was a protracted affair, says Patrick Rael, but in no other nation was it nearly as prolonged as in the United States. Here the process took from 1777, when Vermont wrote slavery out of its state constitution, to 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery nationwide.

Rael immerses readers in the mix of social, geographic, economic, and political factors that shaped this unique American experience. Not only does he take a far longer view of slavery s demise than do those who date it to the rise of abolitionism in 1831, he also places it in a broader Atlantic context. We see how slavery ended variously by consent or force across time and place and how views on slavery evolved differently between the centers of European power and their colonial peripheries some of which would become power centers themselves.

Rael shows how African Americans played the central role in ending slavery in the United States. Fueled by new Revolutionary ideals of self-rule and universal equality, slaves and free blacks both on their own and alongside abolitionists slowly turned American opinion against the slave interests in the South. Secession followed, and then began the national bloodbath that would end in slavery s complete destruction.

"Patrick Rael s elegant prose wisely tells this narrative from a number of perspectives. Like all smart social historians, Rael understands that power cannot be ignored, and politicians on both sides of the Civil War are given voice in this important work."

Douglas R. Egerton, author of Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War

PATRICK RAEL is a professor of history at Bowdoin College and one of the general editors of the Race in the Atlantic World, 1700 1900 series. His books includeBlack Identity and Black Protest in the Antebellum North and African-American Activism before the Civil War: The Freedom Struggle in the Antebellum North. Rael is an Organization of American Historians distinguished lecturer, 2010 2015.

Cover design: Kaelin Chappell Broaddus

Cover illustration:

Author photo: Courtesy of the author

Race in the Atlantic World, 1700 1900

Published in cooperation with the Library Company of Philadelphia s Program in African American History

A Sarah Mills Hodge Fund Publication

The University of Georgia Press

Athens, Georgia 30602

www.ugapress.org

ISBN 978-0-8203-4839-1 (paper)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0820348392
• ISBN 13: 9780820348391
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416