Slavery, Resistance, Freedom

by Gabor S. Boritt, Scott Hancock

Overview

Americans have always defined themselves in terms of their freedoms—of speech, of religion, of political dissent. How we interpret our history of slavery—the ultimate denial of these freedoms—deeply affects how we understand the very fabric of our democracy.
This extraordinary collection of essays by some of America's top historians focuses on how African Americans resisted slavery and how they responded when finally free. Ira Berlin sets the stage by stressing the relationship between how we understand slavery and how we discuss race today. The remaining essays offer a richly textured examination of all aspects of slavery in America. John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger recount actual cases of runaway slaves, their motivations for escape and the strains this widespread phenomenon put on white slave-owners. Scott Hancock explores how free black Northerners created a proud African American identity out of the oral history of slavery in the south. Edward L. Ayers, William G. Thomas III, and Anne Sarah Rubin draw upon their remarkable Valley of the Shadow website to describe the wartime experiences of African Americans living on both borders of the Mason-Dixon line. Noah Andre Trudeau turns our attention to the war itself, examining the military experience of the only all-black division in the Army of the Potomac. And Eric Foner gives us a new look at how black leaders performed during the Reconstruction, revealing that they were far more successful than is commonly acknowledged—indeed, they represented, for a time, the fulfillment of the American ideal that all people could aspire to political office.
Wide-ranging, authoritative, and filled with invaluable historical insight, Slavery, Resistance, Freedom brings a host of powerful voices to America's evolving conversation about race.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195384604
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2009
Series:	Gettysburg Civil War Institute Books
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gabor S. Boritt is Robert C. Fluhrer Professor of Civil War Studies and Director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College. His books include Why the Civil War Came and The Gettysburg Nobody Knows.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. American Slavery in History and Memory2. The Quest for Freedom: Runaway Slaves and the Plantation South3. "Tradition Informs Us": African Americans' Construction of Memory in the Antebellum North4. Black and on the Border5. A Stranger in the Club: The Army of the Potomac's Black Division6. "The Tocsin of Freedom": The Black Leadership of Radical ReconstructionNotesContributors

Editorial Reviews

"[This book] helps to sharpen our attention on the collective and individual ways that the non-celebrated have perceived and definied the intraracial and interracial dynamics of the antebellum era...Each chapter stimulates readers and forces them to think carefully about the ways Americans have defined themselves and their freedom relative to issues of slavery and race...Most useful in this collection are the methods employed by contributors to explore the wors and activities of the bottom-rail, those ordinary working-class men and women."—Journal of African American History

"Highly recommended for readers who favor a scholarly approach over narative drama and are seeking a deeper understanding of slavery and its effects."—The Civil War Times

"Concise, compelling, and highly readable, this essay collection will be of interest to a general audience and to graduate and undergraduate students alike."—Journal of Southern History

From the Publisher