This anthology brings together under one cover the most important abolitionist and--unique to this volume--proslavery documents written in the United States between the American Revolution and the Civil War. It makes accessible to students, scholars, and general readers the breadth of the slavery debate. Including many previously inaccessible documents, A House Divided is a critical and welcome contribution to a literature that includes only a few volumes of antislavery writings and no volumes of proslavery documents in print.
Mason Lowance's introduction is an excellent overview of the antebellum slavery debate and its key issues and participants. Lowance also introduces each selection, locating it historically, culturally, and thematically as well as linking it to other writings. The documents represent the full scope of the varied debates over slavery. They include examples of race theory, Bible-based arguments for and against slavery, constitutional analyses, writings by former slaves and women's rights activists, economic defenses and critiques of slavery, and writings on slavery by such major writers as William Lloyd Garrison, John Greenleaf Whittier, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Together they give readers a real sense of the complexity and heat of the vexed conversation that increasingly dominated American discourse as the country moved from early nationhood into its greatest trial.
Author(s): Mason I. Lowance Jr.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 568
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PROLOGUE
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING
CHAPTER 1 The Historical Background for the Antebellum Slavery Debates, 1776-1865
Stroud's Compendium of the Laws of Slavery
Population Statistics from the U. S. Census for 1790-1860
Summary from The Atlantic Slave Trade Project
The European Origins of American Slavery
SAMUEL SEWALL (1632-1730) AND JOHN SAFFIN (1632-1710)
The Selling of Joseph: A Memorial
A Brief Candid Answer to a Late Printed Sheet, Entitled, The Selling of Joseph
JOHN WOOLMAN (1720-1772)
Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes
CHAPTER 2 Acts of Congress Relating to Slavery
The Declaration of Independence
The Ordinance of 1787
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1793
The Missouri Compromise of 1820
The Wilmot Proviso, 1847
The Fugitive Slave Law of 1850
The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
SLAVERY AND THE 1787 CONSTITUTION
FREDERICK DOUGLASS (c. 1818-1895)
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
JUSTICE JOSEPH STORY (1779-1845)
A Charge Delivered to the Grand Jury of the Circuit Court of the United States
CHAPTER 3 Biblical Proslavery Arguments
THORNTON STRINGFELLOW (1788-1869)
A Brief Examination if the Scripture Testimony on the Institution of Slavery
Slavery, Its Origin, Nature, and History Considered in the Light of Bible Teachings, Moral Justice, and Political Wisdom
ALEXANDER MCCAINE (1768-1856)
Slavery Defended from Scripture against the Attacks of the Abolitionists
CHAPTER 4 Biblical Antislavery Arguments
THEODORE DWIGHT WELD (1803-1895)
The Bible against Slavery
JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE (1810-1888)
Slavery in the United States
ALEXANDER MCLEOD (1774-1833)
Negro Slavery Unjustifiable
ROBERT DALE OWEN (1801-1877)
The Wrong of Slavery, the Right of Emancipation and the Future of the African Race in the United States
CHAPTER 5 The Economic Arguments Concerning Slavery
EDMUND RUFFIN (1794-1865)
The Political Economy of Slavery; or, The Institution Considered in Regard to Its Influence on Public Wealth and the General Welfare
GEORGE FITZHUGH (1806-1881)
GEORGE FITZHUGH AND THE ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SLAVERY
Sociology for the South; or, the Failure of Free Society
Cannibals All! or, Slaves without Masters
DAVID CHRISTY (1802-N.D.) AND E. N. ELLIOTT (N.D.)
Introduction to Cotton Is King, and Proslavery Arguments
Cotton Is King
HINTON ROWAN HELPER (1829-1909)
The Impending Crisis of the South and How to Meet It
Impending Crisis Dissected
CHAPTER 6 Writers and Essayists in Conflict over Slavery
Color, Caste, Denomination by Emily Dickinson
PHILLIS WHEATLEY (1753-1784), "ON BEING BROUGHT FROM AFRICA TO AMERICA"
JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER (1807-1892)
The Slave Ships
Massachusetts to Virginia
Our Political Responsibility
Justice and Expediency; or, Slavery Considered with a View to Its Rightfol and Effectual Remedy, Abolition
JAMES KIRKE PAULDING (1778-1860)
Slavery in the United States
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL (1819-1891)
The Abolitionists and Emancipation
Politics and the Pulpit
The Church and the Clergy
The Church and the Clergy Again
The Moral Argument against Slavery
Daniel Webster
WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)
Slavery and the Slave Trade
New States: Shall They Be Slave or Free?
American Workingmen, Versus Slavery
Prohibition Colored Persons
The House Friends
EMERSON, THOREAU, AND ANTISLAVERY
HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862)
Slavery in Massachusetts
RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882)
Lecture on Slavery
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811-1896) AND MARY EASTMAN (1818-1880)
Uncle Tom's Cabin
BLACK STEREOTYPES IN UNCLE TOM'S CABIN
Aunt Phillis's Cabin; or, Southern Life As It Is
CHAPTER 7 Science in Antebellum America
NOTES ON STEPHEN JAY GOULD'S CRITIQUE OF GEORGE MORTON'S RACE THEORIES
White Supremacy and Negro Subordination
THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)
Notes on the State Virginia
HENRI GREGOIRE (1750-1831)
On the Cultural Achievements of Negroes
The Claims of the Negro Ethnologically Considered
O. S. FOWLER (1809-1887)
O. S. FOWLER AND HEREDITARY DESCENT
Hereditary Descent
Ethnology
THEODORE PARKER (1810-1860) VS. JOHN S. ROCK (1825-1866) ON THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE AFRICAN
Some Thoughts on the Progress of America, and the Influence of Her Diverse Institutions
The Present Aspect of Slavery in America
Speech to the Boston Massacre Commemorative Festival
Remarks to the Boston Massacre Commemorative Festival by Theodore Parker 308
JOSIAH NOTT AND THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF ETHNOLOGY
JOSIAH CLARK NOTT (1804-1873)
Types of Mankind; or, Ethnological Researches Based upon the Ancient Monuments, Paintings, Sculptures, and Crania of Races and upon Their Natural Geographical, Philological, and Biblical History
Indigenous Races of the Earth; or, New Chapters of Ethnological Inquiry
The Negro Race: Its Ethnology and History
CHAPTERS 8 The Abolitionist Crusade
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON AND THE ABOLITIONIST CRUSADE
WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON (1805-1879)
An Address to the American Colonization Society
Truisms
The Constitution and the Union
American Colorp hobia
Speech to the Fourth Annual National Woman's Rights Convention
Editorial, The Liberator
No Compromise with Slavery
DAVID WALKER (1785-1830)
Appeal
LYDIA MARIA CHILD (1802-1880)
An Appeal in Favor That Class Americans Called Africans
WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING (1780-1842)
Slavery
JAMES MCCUNE SMITH (1813-1865)
The Destiny a People Color
ANGELINA EMILY GRIMKE (1805-1879) AND SARAH MOORE GRIMKE (1792-1873)
An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
An Epistle to the Clergy of the Southern States
CATHARINE E. BEECHER (1804-1878) 404
An Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism, with Reftrence to the Duty of American Females
Letters to Catharine E. Beecher, in Reply to an Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism
American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses
Cat-hawling
GERRIT SMITH (1797-1874), ARTHUR TAPPAN (1786-1865), AND LEWIS TAPPAN (1788-1873)
THE NEW YORK ABOLITIONISTS
Speech in the Meeting of the New-York Anti-Slavery Society, Held in Peterboro, October 22, 1835
Letter to Rev. James Smylie, of the State of Mississippi, 1837
Address of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society
Speech on the Nebraska Bill, April 6, 1854
WENDELL PHILLIPS (1811-1884)
The Constitution, a Pro-Slavery Compact
LYSANDER SPOONER (1808-1887)
The Unconstitutionality of Slavery
HORACE MANN (1796-1859)
Speech Delivered in the US. House of Representatives on the Subject of Slavery in the Territories, and the Consequences of Dissolution of the Union
ALEXANDER CRUMMELL (1819-1898)
An Address to the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society
ROGER BROOKE TANEY (1777-1864)
Opinion of the Court in Dred Scott, Plaintiff in Error, v John F. A. San4ford
HORACE BUSHNELL (1802-1876)
A Discourse on the Slavery Question, Delivered in the North Church, Hartford
CHARLES SUMNER (1811-1874)
The Barbarism of Slavery
CHAPTER 9 Concluding Remarks and Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
INDEX
