The fortunate heirs of freedom
Subtitle: abolition & Republican thought
By: Daniel J. McInerney.
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Lincoln
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 232
ISBN-13: 9780803231726
Subjects: Antislavery movements -- United States; Abolitionists -- United States -- Political activity; Republicanism -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Description: Across lines of race, gender, religion, and class, abolitionists understood their reform effort in the same basic terms -- as part of a continuous struggle between the forces of power and the forces of liberty in which vigilant citizens battled tyranny and corruption, defending the independence and virtue upon which their fragile experiment in republican government depended. Focusing on that republican frame of reference, this book sheds new light on the historical imagination of the abolitionists, their views of politics and the marketplace, the relation between religion and reform, and the cultural critique embedded in abolitionism. The author convincingly argues that the reformers conceived of their work in more precise terms than historians have generally recognized; their concern lay specifically with the problem of slavery in a republic: "Abolitionists did not see themselves as antebellum reformers; theirs was a post-Revolutionary movement."--Back cover.
Notes: "Bibliographical essay" (p. 213-221).
Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-211) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: The fine thread : the problem of Republican slavery; title: Republican memories : the abolitionists' sense of history; title: A faith for freedom : the political gospel of abolition; title: Power, passion, and personality : abolition and American politics; title: The costs of liberty : the abolitionist argument on political economy; title: Declarations of independence : the language of liberty and the identity of the republic; title: Conclusion : the Republican edge; title: Bibliographic essay