The author explores the international impact and social significance of antislavery thought in a critical era of political and industrial revolution. He examines the implications and historical consequences of challenging the long-accepted institution of slavery. The study not only provides a comparative account of early antislavery movements, but also uses the controversies over slavery to analyse shifting attitudes towards labour, social order, political representation, and the authority of law and religion. The focus is on the Anglo-American experience, but Davis makes illuminating comparisons with the history of slavery in France and Latin America. The book also offers portraits of important historical figures, including Thomas Jefferson, Granville Sharp, Bryan Edward, and Moreau de Saint-Mery, and accounts of key groups, movements, and bodies of literature. Through the history of slavery, Davis explores many areas of the social and intellectual history of the revolutionary era, creating a new reading of the entire age.
The author explores the international impact and social significance of antislavery thought in a critical era of political and industrial revolution. He examines the implications and historical consequences of challenging the long-accepted institution of slavery. The study not only provides a comparative account of early antislavery movements, but also uses the controversies over slavery to analyse shifting attitudes towards labour, social order, political representation, and the authority of law and religion. The focus is on the Anglo-American experience, but Davis makes illuminating comparisons with the history of slavery in France and Latin America. The book also offers portraits of important historical figures, including Thomas Jefferson, Granville Sharp, Bryan Edward, and Moreau de Saint-Mery, and accounts of key groups, movements, and bodies of literature. Through the history of slavery, Davis explores many areas of the social and intellectual history of the revolutionary era, creating a new reading of the entire age.
Winner of the National Book Award, the Beveridge Award and the Bancroft Prize.
Preface to the New Edition
Preface
Notes on Terms
A Calendar of Events Associated with Slavery, the Slave Trade, and
Emancipation, 1770-1823
1: What the Abolitionists Were Up Against
2: The Seats of Power, I
3: The Seats of Power, II
4: The Boundaries of Idealism
5: The Quaker Ethic and the Antislavery International
6: The Emancipation of America, I
7: The Emancipation of America, II
8: The Preservation of English Liberty, I
9: The Preservation of English Liberty, II
10: Antislavery and the Conflict of Laws
11: The Good Book
Epilogue: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the Phenomenology of Mind
David Brion Davis is Sterling Professor of History at Yale
University. A former President of the Organization of American
Historians, he has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award,
the Bancroft Prize, and the American Historical Association's
Beveridge Award. His most recent book is The Boisterous Sea of
Liberty: A Documentary History of America from Discovery through
the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 1998, with Steven
Mintz).
"The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution by David Brion
Davis is a work of majestic scale, written with great skill. It
explores the growing consciousness, during a half century of
revolutionary change, of the oldest and most extreme form of human
exploitation. Concentrating on the Anglo-American experience, the
historian also pursues his theme wherever it leads in western
culture. His book is a distinguished example of historical
scholarship
and art."--From the citation for the 1975 National Book Award
"In...The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, David Brion Davis
displayed his mastery not only of a vast source of material, but
also of the highly complex, frequently contradictory factors that
influenced opinion on slavery. He has now followed this up with a
study of equal quality....No one has written a book about the
abolition of slavery that carries the conviction of Professor
Davis's book. And this rich and powerful book will, I am sure,
stand
the test of time--scholarly, brilliant in analysis, beautifully
written."--J. H. Plumb, The New York Times Book Review
"As Davis's work demonstrates, good intellectual history is
absolutely essential for an adequate understanding of the past; its
proper subject is the way flesh-and-blood human beings make sense
out of their world and try to gain some kind of mastery over
it....It is obvious that Davis's interpretation was not imposed on
his sources but resulted from a struggle to give them whatever
structure and coherence seemed most consistent with the data itself
and with the
best recent historical work in the field. Nor does he attempt to
explain all responses to the problem of slavery as
ideological....Indeed the greatest strength of the book arises from
its ability to
provide a convincing general interpretation while doing full
justice to a variety of historical experiences and
perspectives....It is hard to imagine anyone going over the same
ground for a long time."--George M. Fredrickson, The New York
Review of Books
"A worthy successor to Davis's magnificent The Problem of Slavery
in Western Culture. Together, these volumes represent the high
point of scholarship in this field. They will undoubtedly remain at
the center of discussion for many decades and perhaps
beyond."--Edward Genovese
"One of the many remarkable things about this book is that it
equals and even exceeds the level of scholarship and history
established by the author's preceding volume."--C. Vann
Woodward
"A superb continuation of Davis's work on the problem of slavery in
western culture. It is a fascinating and profound study of the rise
of the antislavery movement in England and America, as well as of
the social, political, and economic milieu in which it
operated."--Stanley L. Engerman
"A penetrating work of mature scholarship and extraordinary
erudition....It deals with a historical problem of vast and
enduring moral importance."--Michael Kammen
"One of the most stunning books I have ever read....What is
overpowering is the magnitude of the questions Davis asks and the
seriousness with which he probes their complexities."--Sanford
Levinson
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