W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. • www.NortonEbooks.com

FOURTH EDITION

GIVE ME LIBERTY!

Eric Foner

AN AMERICAN HISTORY

 

 

 

PRAISE FOR ERIC FONER’S GIVE ME LIBERTY!

“The book is inviting to students . . . well-organized and easy to read . . . I love the way Dr. Foner writes! The textbook comes alive with his scholarship and teaching experience.” —Marianne Leeper, Trinity Valley Community College

“I find that Foner strikes the perfect balance between political, legal, social, and cultural history. . . . [Give Me Liberty!] includes the most current or most relevant scholarship.” —David Anderson, Louisiana Tech University

“Often, history textbooks can seem to be disjointed retellings of facts and concepts that remind one of an encyclopedia. [Foner’s] freedom theme ties the material together well, which isn’t always easy with this kind of broad textbook. I do think it’s effective in tying the social and political together.” —James Karmel, Harford Community College

“Foner’s textbook is superb. It is well informed, elegantly written, and offers a kind of narrative and interpretive coherence that is rare among textbooks.” —Jeffrey Adler, University of Florida

“The theme of freedom is very clearly and adeptly integrated. . . . Give Me Liberty! provides a good model for students on how to investigate and carry through a theme in their own writings.” —Jim Dudlo, Brookhaven College, Dallas Community College District

“Give Me Liberty! offers a nice, comprehensive coverage of American history. I feel that equal weight is given to various topics. ‘Voices of Freedom’ is actually one of the major features of the book that prompted me to adopt the text. I am not aware of any other text on the market that has this superb feature. . . . [A] splendid approach.” —Jonathan A. Noyalas, Lord Fairfax Community College

“I’ve had a number of students in the last year comment on how easy the text is to use with the integrated focus questions and terms.” —Lauren Braun-Strumfels, Raritan Valley Community College

“Give Me Liberty! is visually appealing in many different ways. The manner in which the illustrations, maps, and pedagogical components are incorporated . . . makes the text more accessible and much less intimidating.” —Kent McGaughy, Houston Community College–NW Campus

“I appreciate the book’s terrifically accessible writing as well as its clear statement of themes. It has a wonderfully seamless and authoritative quality to its writing. I plan to continue to offer it to my students for many years to come.” —Beverly Gage, Yale University

 

 

 

G I V E M E

L I B E R T Y ! A N A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y

Fo u r t h E d i t i o n

�

 

 

 

B W . W . N O R T O N & C O M P A N Y

N E W Y O R K . L O N D O N

E R I C F O N E R

Fo u r t h E d i t i o n

�

G I V E M E

L I B E R T Y ! A N A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y

 

 

W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William Warder Norton

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Copyright © 2014, 2011, 2008, 2005 by Eric Foner

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Fourth Edition

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Foner, Eric.

Give me liberty! : An American history / Eric Foner.—Fourth edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-393-92026-0 (hardcover)

1. United States—History. 2. United States—Politics and government. 3. Democracy—United States—

History. 4. Liberty—History. I. Title.

E178.F66 2014

973—dc23

ISBN: 978-0-393-92026-0 2013029664

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

www.wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0

 

 

E R I C F O N E R is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, where he earned his B.A. and Ph.D. In his teaching and scholarship, he focuses on the Civil War and Reconstruction, slavery, and nineteenth-century America. Professor Foner’s publications include Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War; Tom Paine and Revolutionary America; Nothing but Freedom: Emancipation and Its Legacy; Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877; The Story of American Freedom; and Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. His history of Reconstruction won the Los Angeles Times Book Award for History, the Bancroft Prize, and the Parkman Prize. He has served as president of the Organization of American Historians and the American Historical Association. In 2006 he received the Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching from Columbia University. His most recent book is The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, winner of the Bancroft and Lincoln Prizes and the Pulitzer Prize for History.

�

A B O U T T H E A U T H O R

 

 

 

Contents

ix

ABOUT THE AUTHOR … vii LIST OF MAPS, TABLES, AND FIGURES … xxxiii DEDICATION … xxxvii PREFACE … xxxix ACKNOWLEDGMENTS … xlv

PA R T 1: A M E R ICA N COL ON I ES T O 17 6 3

1. A N E W W O R L D . . . 4 THE FIRST AMERICANS … 6

The Settling of the Americas … 6 ★ Indian Societies of the

Americas … 8 ★ Mound Builders of the Mississippi River Valley … 9 ★

Western Indians … 10 ★ Indians of Eastern North America … 10 ★ Native

American Religion … 12 ★ Land and Property … 12 ★ Gender

Relations … 14 ★ European Views of the Indians … 14

INDIAN FREEDOM, EUROPEAN FREEDOM … 15 Indian Freedom … 15 ★ Christian Liberty … 16 ★ Freedom and

Authority … 17 ★ Liberty and Liberties … 17

THE EXPANSION OF EUROPE … 18 Chinese and Portuguese Navigation … 18 ★ Portugal and West

Africa … 19 ★ Freedom and Slavery in Africa … 20 ★ The Voyages of

Columbus … 20

CONTACT … 21 Columbus in the New World … 21 ★ Exploration and Conquest … 23 ★

The Demographic Disaster … 24

THE SPANISH EMPIRE … 24 Governing Spanish America … 25 ★ Colonists in Spanish

America … 25 ★ Colonists and Indians … 26 ★ Justifications for

Conquest … 27 ★ Spreading the Faith … 28 ★ Piety and Profit … 29 ★

Las Casas’s Complaint … 29 ★ Reforming the Empire … 30 ★ Exploring

North America … 31 ★ Spanish Florida … 33 ★ Spain in the

Southwest … 33 ★ The Pueblo Revolt … 34

THE FRENCH AND DUTCH EMPIRES … 35 French Colonization … 35

Voices of Freedom: From Bartolomé de las Casas, History of the Indies

(1528), and From “Declaration of Josephe” (December 19, 1681) … 36

C O N T E N T S

 

 

x

Contents

New France and the Indians … 38 ★ The Dutch Empire … 41 ★ Dutch

Freedom … 41 ★ Freedom in New Netherland … 41 ★ The Dutch and

Religious Toleration … 42 ★ Settling New Netherland … 43 ★ New

Netherland and the Indians … 44

REVIEW … 47

2 . B E G I N N I N G S O F E N G L I S H A M E R I C A , 16 0 7–16 6 0 . . . 4 8

ENGLAND AND THE NEW WORLD … 50 Unifying the English Nation … 50 ★ England and Ireland … 50 ★ England

and North America … 51 ★ Spreading Protestantism … 52 ★ The Social

Crisis … 52 ★ Masterless Men … 53

THE COMING OF THE ENGLISH … 54 English Emigrants … 54 ★ Indentured Servants … 55 ★ Land and

Liberty … 55 ★ Englishmen and Indians … 56 ★ The Transformation of

Indian Life … 57 ★ Changes in the Land … 58

SETTLING THE CHESAPEAKE … 58 The Jamestown Colony … 58 ★ From Company to Society … 59 ★

Powhatan and Pocahontas … 59 ★ The Uprising of 1622 … 60 ★

A Tobacco Colony … 61 ★ Women and the Family … 62 ★

The Maryland Experiment … 63 ★ Religion in Maryland … 64

THE NEW ENGLAND WAY … 64 The Rise of Puritanism … 64 ★ Moral Liberty … 65 ★ The Pilgrims at

Plymouth … 66 ★ The Great Migration … 67 ★ The Puritan Family … 68 ★

Government and Society in Massachusetts … 68 ★ Church and State in

Puritan Massachusetts … 70

NEW ENGLANDERS DIVIDED … 70 Roger Williams … 71 ★ Rhode Island and Connecticut … 71 ★ The Trials

of Anne Hutchinson … 72 ★ Puritans and Indians … 73

Voices of Freedom: From “The Trial of Anne Hutchinson” (1637),

and From John Winthrop, Speech to the Massachusetts General Court

(July 3, 1645) … 74

The Pequot War … 76 ★ The New England Economy … 77 ★

The Merchant Elite … 78 ★ The Half-Way Covenant … 78

RELIGION, POLITICS, AND FREEDOM … 79 The Rights of Englishmen … 79 ★ The English Civil War … 80 ★

England’s Debate over Freedom … 80 ★ English Liberty … 81 ★

The Civil War and English America … 82 ★ The Crisis in Maryland … 82 ★

Cromwell and the Empire … 83

REVIEW … 85

 

 

Contents

xi

3 . C R E A T I N G A N G L O – A M E R I C A , 16 6 0 –17 5 0 . . . 8 6 GLOBAL COMPETITION AND THE EXPANSION OF ENGLAND’S EMPIRE … 88

The Mercantilist System … 88 ★ The Conquest of New

Netherland … 88 ★ New York and the Rights of Englishmen and

Englishwomen … 90 ★ New York and the Indians … 90 ★ The Charter

of Liberties … 91 ★ The Founding of Carolina … 91 ★ The Holy

Experiment … 92 ★ Quaker Liberty … 93 ★ Land in Pennsylvania … 94

ORIGINS OF AMERICAN SLAVERY … 94 Englishmen and Africans … 94 ★ Slavery in History … 95 ★ Slavery in the

West Indies … 95 ★ Slavery and the Law … 97 ★ The Rise of Chesapeake

Slavery … 98 ★ Bacon’s Rebellion: Land and Labor in Virginia … 99 ★

The End of the Rebellion, and Its Consequences … 100 ★ A Slave

Society … 100 ★ Notions of Freedom … 101

COLONIES IN CRISIS … 101 The Glorious Revolution … 102 ★ The Glorious Revolution in

America … 103 ★ The Maryland Uprising … 103 ★ Leisler’s

Rebellion … 104 ★ Changes in New England … 104 ★ The Prosecution

of Witches … 105 ★ The Salem Witch Trials … 105

THE GROWTH OF COLONIAL AMERICA … 106 A Diverse Population … 107 ★ Attracting Settlers … 107 ★ The

German Migration … 109 ★ Religious Diversity … 110 ★ Indian Life in

Transition … 111

Voices of Freedom: From Letter by a Swiss-German Immigrant to

Pennsylvania (August 23, 1769), and From Memorial against

Non-English Immigration (December 1727) … 112

Regional Diversity … 114 ★ The Consumer Revolution … 115 ★ Colonial

Cities … 115 ★ Colonial Artisans … 116 ★ An Atlantic World … 116

SOCIAL CLASSES IN THE COLONIES … 118 The Colonial Elite … 118 ★ Anglicization … 119 ★ The South Carolina

Aristocracy … 119 ★ Poverty in the Colonies … 120 ★ The Middle

Ranks … 121 ★ Women and the Household Economy … 122 ★ North

America at Mid-Century … 123

REVIEW … 125

4 . S L A V E R Y, F R E E D O M , A N D T H E S T R U G G L E F O R E M P I R E T O 17 6 3 . . . 1 2 6

SLAVERY AND EMPIRE … 128 Atlantic Trade … 128 ★ Africa and the Slave Trade … 130 ★ The Middle

Passage … 130 ★ Chesapeake Slavery … 132 ★ Freedom and Slavery in

the Chesapeake … 133 ★ Indian Slavery in Early Carolina … 133 ★ The

 

 

xii

Contents

Rice Kingdom … 134 ★ The Georgia Experiment … 134 ★ Slavery in

the North … 135

SLAVE CULTURES AND SLAVE RESISTANCE … 136 Becoming African-American … 136 ★ African Religion in Colonial

America … 136 ★ African-American Cultures … 137 ★ Resistance to

Slavery … 138 ★ The Crisis of 1739–1741 … 139

AN EMPIRE OF FREEDOM … 140 British Patriotism … 140 ★ The British Constitution … 140 ★ The

Language of Liberty … 141 ★ Republican Liberty … 141 ★ Liberal

Freedom … 142

THE PUBLIC SPHERE … 143 The Right to Vote … 144 ★ Political Cultures … 144 ★ Colonial

Government … 145 ★ The Rise of the Assemblies … 146 ★ Politics in

Public … 146 ★ The Colonial Press … 147 ★ Freedom of Expression

and Its Limits … 148 ★ The Trial of Zenger … 148 ★ The American

Enlightenment … 149

THE GREAT AWAKENING … 150 Religious Revivals … 150 ★ The Preaching of Whitefield … 151 ★

The Awakening’s Impact … 151

IMPERIAL RIVALRIES … 152 Spanish North America … 152 ★ The Spanish in California … 154 ★

The French Empire … 155

BATTLE FOR THE CONTINENT … 156 The Middle Ground … 156 ★ The Seven Years’ War … 157 ★ A World

Transformed … 158 ★ Pontiac’s Rebellion … 160 ★ The Proclamation Line

… 160 ★ Pennsylvania and the Indians … 161

Voices of Freedom: From Pontiac, Speeches (1762 and 1763), and From

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus

Vassa, the African (1789) … 162

Colonial Identities … 164

REVIEW … 166

PA R T 2 : A N E W N AT ION, 17 6 3 –18 4 0

5 . T H E A M E R I C A N R E V O L U T I O N , 17 6 3 –17 8 3 . . . 17 0 THE CRISIS BEGINS … 171

Consolidating the Empire … 172 ★ Taxing the Colonies … 173 ★ The

Stamp Act Crisis … 173 ★ Taxation and Representation … 174 ★ Liberty

and Resistance … 175 ★ Politics in the Streets … 176 ★ The

Regulators … 176 ★ The Tenant Uprising … 178

 

 

Contents

xiii

THE ROAD TO REVOLUTION … 178 The Townshend Crisis … 178 ★ Homespun Virtue … 179 ★ The Boston

Massacre … 179 ★ Wilkes and Liberty … 181 ★ The Tea Act … 181 ★

The Intolerable Acts … 181

THE COMING OF INDEPENDENCE … 182 The Continental Congress … 182 ★ The Continental Association …

183 ★ The Sweets of Liberty … 183 ★ The Outbreak of War … 184 ★

Independence? … 185 ★ Common Sense … 186 ★ Paine’s Impact … 187 ★

The Declaration of Independence … 187

Voices of Freedom: From Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776), and

From Jonathan Boucher, A View of the Causes and Consequences of

the American Revolution (1775) … 188

The Declaration and American Freedom … 190 ★ An Asylum for

Mankind … 191 ★ The Global Declaration of Independence … 192

SECURING INDEPENDENCE … 193 The Balance of Power … 193 ★ Blacks in the Revolution … 193 ★

The First Years of the War … 194 ★ The Battle of Saratoga … 195 ★

The War in the South … 197 ★ Victory at Last … 199

REVIEW … 203

6 . T H E R E V O L U T I O N W I T H I N . . . 2 0 4 DEMOCRATIZING FREEDOM … 206

The Dream of Equality … 206 ★ Expanding the Political Nation … 206 ★

The Revolution in Pennsylvania … 207 ★ The New Constitutions … 208 ★

The Right to Vote … 209 ★ Democratizing Government … 209

TOWARD RELIGIOUS TOLERATION … 210 Catholic Americans … 211 ★ The Founders and Religion … 211 ★ Separating

Church and State … 212 ★ Jefferson and Religious Liberty … 213 ★

The Revolution and the Churches … 214 ★ Christian Republicanism … 215

DEFINING ECONOMIC FREEDOM … 215 Toward Free Labor … 215 ★ The Soul of a Republic … 216 ★ The Politics

of Inflation … 217 ★ The Debate over Free Trade … 218

THE LIMITS OF LIBERTY … 218 Colonial Loyalists … 218 ★ Loyalists’ Plight … 219 ★ The Indians’

Revolution … 221 ★ White Freedom, Indian Freedom … 222

SLAVERY AND THE REVOLUTION … 223 The Language of Slavery and Freedom … 223 ★ Obstacles to

Abolition … 224 ★ The Cause of General Liberty … 225 ★ Petitions

for Freedom … 225 ★ British Emancipators … 226 ★ Voluntary

Emancipations … 228 ★ Abolition in the North … 228 ★ Free Black

Communities … 229

 

 

xiv

Contents

Voices of Freedom: From Abigail Adams to John Adams, Braintree,

Mass. (March 31, 1776), and From Petitions of Slaves to the

Massachusetts Legislature (1773 and 1777) … 230

DAUGHTERS OF LIBERTY … 232 Revolutionary Women … 232 ★ Gender and Politics … 232 ★ Republican

Motherhood … 234 ★ The Arduous Struggle for Liberty … 235

REVIEW … 237

7. F O U N D I N G A N A T I O N , 17 8 3 –17 9 1 . . . 2 3 8 AMERICA UNDER THE CONFEDERATION … 240

The Articles of Confederation … 240 ★ Congress and the

West … 242 ★ Settlers and the West … 242 ★ The Land

Ordinances … 243 ★ The Confederation’s Weaknesses … 245 ★ Shays’s

Rebellion … 246 ★ Nationalists of the 1780s … 246

A NEW CONSTITUTION … 247 The Structure of Government … 248 ★ The Limits of Democracy … 249 ★

The Division and Separation of Powers … 250 ★ The Debate over Slavery

… 251 ★ Slavery in the Constitution … 251 ★ The Final

Document … 253

THE RATIFICATION DEBATE AND THE ORIGIN OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS … 254

The Federalist … 254 ★ “Extend the Sphere” … 255 ★ The

Anti-Federalists … 256 ★ The Bill of Rights … 257

Voices of Freedom: From David Ramsay, The History of the American

Revolution (1789), and From James Winthrop, Anti-Federalist Essay

Signed “Agrippa” (1787) … 260

“WE THE PEOPLE” … 263 National Identity … 263 ★ Indians in the New Nation … 263 ★ Blacks and

the Republic … 266 ★ Jefferson, Slavery, and Race … 268 ★ Principles of

Freedom … 269

REVIEW … 271

8 . S E C U R I N G T H E R E P U B L I C , 17 9 1–18 15 . . . 2 7 2 POLITICS IN AN AGE OF PASSION … 273

Hamilton’s Program … 274 ★ The Emergence of Opposition … 274 ★

The Jefferson-Hamilton Bargain … 275 ★ The Impact of the

French Revolution … 276 ★ Political Parties … 277 ★ The Whiskey

Rebellion … 278 ★ The Republican Party … 279 ★ An Expanding Political

Sphere … 279 ★ The Democratic-Republican Societies … 280 ★ The Rights

of Women … 281 ★ Women and the Republic … 281

 

 

Contents

xv

Voices of Freedom: From Judith Sargent Murray, “On the Equality of

the Sexes” (1790), and From Address of the Democratic-Republican

Society of Pennsylvania (December 18, 1794) … 282

THE ADAMS PRESIDENCY … 284 The Election of 1796 … 284 ★ The “Reign of Witches” … 285 ★

The Virginia and Kentucky Revolutions … 286 ★ The “Revolution of

1800” … 287 ★ Slavery and Politics … 288 ★ The Haitian Revolution

… 288 ★ Gabriel’s Rebellion … 289

JEFFERSON IN POWER … 290 Judicial Review … 291 ★ The Louisiana Purchase … 292 ★ Lewis and

Clark … 294 ★ Incorporating Louisiana … 294 ★ The Barbary Wars … 295 ★

The Embargo … 296 ★ Madison and Pressure for War … 297

THE “SECOND WAR OF INDEPENDENCE” … 297 The Indian Response … 298 ★ Tecumseh’s Vision … 298 ★ The War of

1812 … 299 ★ The War’s Aftermath … 302 ★ The End of the Federalist

Party … 303

REVIEW … 305

9 . T H E M A R K E T R E V O L U T I O N , 18 0 0 –18 4 0 . . . 3 0 6 A NEW ECONOMY … 308

Roads and Steamboats … 309 ★ The Erie Canal … 309 ★ Railroads and

the Telegraph … 311 ★ The Rise of the West … 312 ★ The Cotton

Kingdom … 315 ★ The Unfree Westward Movement … 317

MARKET SOCIETY … 318 Commercial Farmers … 318 ★ The Growth of Cities … 319 ★ The Factory

System … 319 ★ The Industrial Worker … 323 ★ The “Mill Girls” … 323 ★

The Growth of Immigration … 324 ★ Irish and German Newcomers …

324 ★ The Rise of Nativism … 326 ★ The Transformation of Law … 327

THE FREE INDIVIDUAL … 328 The West and Freedom … 329 ★ The Transcendentalists … 330 ★

Individualism … 330

Voices of Freedom: From Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar”

(1837), and From “Factory Life as It Is, by an Operative” (1845) … 332

The Second Great Awakening … 334 ★ The Awakening’s Impact … 335 ★

The Emergence of Mormonism … 336

THE LIMITS OF PROSPERITY … 337 Liberty and Prosperity … 337 ★ Race and Opportunity … 338 ★ The Cult

of Domesticity … 339 ★ Women and Work … 340 ★ The Early Labor

Movement … 341 ★ The “Liberty of Living” … 342

REVIEW … 345

 

 

xvi

Contents

10 . D E M O C R A C Y I N A M E R I C A , 18 15 –18 4 0 . . . 3 4 6 THE TRIUMPH OF DEMOCRACY … 348

Property and Democracy … 348 ★ The Dorr War … 348 ★ Tocqueville on

Democracy … 349 ★ The Information Revolution … 350 ★ The Limits of

Democracy … 351 ★ A Racial Democracy … 352 ★ Race and Class … 353

NATIONALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTS … 353 The American System … 353 ★ Banks and Money … 355 ★ The Panic of …

1819 … 355 ★ The Politics of the Panic … 356 ★ The Missouri Controversy

… 356 ★ The Slavery Question … 358

NATION, SECTION, AND PARTY … 359 The United States and the Latin American Wars of Independence … 359 ★

The Monroe Doctrine … 360 ★ The Election of 1824 … 361

Voices of Freedom: From President James Monroe, Annual Message

to Congress (1823), and From John C. Calhoun, “A Disquisition on

Government” (ca. 1845) … 362

The Nationalism of John Quincy Adams … 364 ★ “Liberty Is

Power” … 365 ★ Martin Van Buren and the Democratic Party … 365 ★

The Election of 1828 … 366

THE AGE OF JACKSON … 367 The Party System … 367 ★ Democrats and Whigs … 368 ★ Public and

Private Freedom … 369 ★ Politics and Morality … 370 ★ South Carolina

and Nullification … 371 ★ Calhoun’s Political Theory … 371 ★ The

Nullification Crisis … 373 ★ Indian Removal … 374 ★ The Supreme Court

and the Indians … 374

THE BANK WAR AND AFTER … 377 Biddle’s Bank … 377 ★ The Pet Banks and the Economy … 379 ★

The Panic of 1837 … 380 ★ Van Buren in Office … 380 ★ The Election

of 1840 … 381 ★ His Accidency … 382

REVIEW … 384

PA R T 3 : SL AV E RY, F R E E DOM, A N D T H E

CR ISIS OF T H E U N ION, 18 4 0–18 7 7

11. T H E P E C U L I A R I N S T I T U T I O N . . . 3 8 8 THE OLD SOUTH … 390

Cotton Is King … 390 ★ The Second Middle Passage … 391 ★ Slavery and

the Nation … 391 ★ The Southern Economy … 393 ★ Plain Folk of the Old

South … 394 ★ The Planter Class … 395 ★ The Paternalist Ethos … 396 ★

 

 

Contents

xvii

The Code of Honor … 396 ★ The Proslavery Argument … 398 ★ Abolition

in the Americas … 399 ★ Slavery and Liberty … 400 ★ Slavery and

Civilization … 400

LIFE UNDER SLAVERY … 401 Slaves and the Law … 401 ★ Conditions of Slave Life … 402 ★ Free Blacks

in the Old South … 403

Voices of Freedom: From Letter by Joseph Taper to Joseph Long

(1840), and From “Slavery and the Bible” (1850) … 404

The Upper and Lower South … 407 ★ Slave Labor … 408 ★ Gang Labor and

Task Labor … 408 ★ Slavery in the Cities … 410 ★ Maintaining Order … 410

SLAVE CULTURE … 411 The Slave Family … 412 ★ The Threat of Sale … 412 ★ Gender Roles

among Slaves … 413 ★ Slave Religion … 413 ★ The Gospel of Freedom …

414 ★ The Desire for Liberty … 415

RESISTANCE TO SLAVERY … 416 Forms of Resistance … 416 ★ Fugitive Slaves … 418 ★ The Amistad … 419 ★

Slave Revolts … 419 ★ Nat Turner’s Rebellion … 420

REVIEW … 423

12 . A N A G E O F R E F O R M , 18 2 0 –18 4 0 . . . 4 2 4 THE REFORM IMPULSE … 425

Utopian Communities … 426 ★ The Shakers … 426 ★ Oneida … 427 ★

Worldly Communities … 428 ★ The Owenites … 429 ★ Religion and

Reform … 430 ★ The Temperance Movement … 431 ★ Critics of

Reform … 431 ★ Reformers and Freedom … 432 ★ The Invention of the

Asylum … 433 ★ The Common School … 433

THE CRUSADE AGAINST SLAVERY … 435 Colonization … 435 ★ Blacks and Colonization … 435 ★ Militant Abolitionism

… 436 ★ The Emergence of Garrison … 437 ★ Spreading the Abolitionist

Message … 437 ★ Slavery and Moral Suasion … 439 ★ Abolitionists and the

Idea of Freedom … 439 ★ A New Vision of America … 440

BLACK AND WHITE ABOLITIONISM … 441 Black Abolitionists … 441 ★ Abolitionism and Race … 442 ★ Slavery and

American Freedom … 443 ★ Gentlemen of Property and Standing … 443 ★

Slavery and Civil Liberties … 445

THE ORIGINS OF FEMINISM … 446 The Rise of the Public Woman … 446 ★ Women and Free Speech … 447 ★

Women’s Rights … 448 ★ Feminism and Freedom … 449

Voices of Freedom: From Angelina Grimké, Letter in The Liberator

(August 2, 1837), and From Frederick Douglass, Speech on July 5, 1852,

Rochester, New York … 450

 

 

xviii

Contents

Women and Work … 452 ★ The Slavery of Sex … 453 ★ “Social

Freedom” … 453 ★ The Abolitionist Schism … 454

REVIEW … 457

13 . A H O U S E D I V I D E D , 18 4 0 –18 6 1 . . . 4 5 8 FRUITS OF MANIFEST DESTINY … 459

Continental Expansion … 459 ★ The Mexican Frontier: New Mexico and

California … 460 ★ The Texas Revolt … 460 ★ The Election of 1844 …

463 ★ The Road to War … 464 ★ The War and Its Critics … 465 ★ Combat

in Mexico … 466 ★ Race and Manifest Destiny … 468 ★ Redefining Race

… 469 ★ Gold-Rush California … 469 ★ California and the Boundaries of

Freedom … 470 ★ The Other Gold Rush … 471 ★ Opening Japan … 471

A DOSE OF ARSENIC … 473 The Wilmot Proviso … 473 ★ The Free Soil Appeal … 474 ★ Crisis and

Compromise … 474 ★ The Great Debate … 475 ★ The Fugitive Slave

Issue … 475 ★ Douglas and Popular Sovereignty … 477 ★ The Kansas-

Nebraska Act … 478

THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY … 479 The Northern Economy … 479 ★ The Rise and Fall of the

Know-Nothings … 481 ★ The Free Labor Ideology … 483 ★ Bleeding

Kansas and the Election of 1856 … 484

THE EMERGENCE OF LINCOLN … 485 The Dred Scott Decision … 485 ★ The Decision’s Aftermath … 486 ★

Lincoln and Slavery … 486 ★ The Lincoln-Douglas Campaign … 487 ★

John Brown at Harpers Ferry … 489

Voices of Freedom: From The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) … 490

The Rise of Southern Nationalism … 492 ★ The Democratic Split … 493 ★

The Nomination of Lincoln … 494 ★ The Election of 1860 … 494

THE IMPENDING CRISIS … 495 The Secession Movement … 495 ★ The Secession Crisis … 496 ★ And the

War Came … 497

REVIEW … 501