Black Abolitionists

by Quarles, Benjamin

• ISBN13: 9780306804250
• ISBN10: 0306804255
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-03-22
• Publisher: Da Capo Press

Summary

While much is known about the white men and women who were involved in the anti-slavery movement, the black abolitionists have been largely ignored. This book, written by one of America's leading black historians, sets the record straight. As Benjamin Quarles shows, blacks were anything but passive in the abolitionist movement. Many of the pioneers of abolition were black; dozens of black preachers and writers actively promoted the cause; black organizations were founded to support their brothers; black ambassadors for freedom crossed the Atlantic; blacks were instrumental in the operation of the Underground Railroad. Quarles puts it eloquently: "To the extent that America had a revolutionary tradition [the black American] was its protagonist no less than its symbol."

Author Biography

Benjamin Quarles (1904–1996) was a noted author, editor, and historian and the first African American to be published in what later became the Journal of American History. Africana hails him as a key figure in the emergence of African-American history as an academic discipline.

Table of Contents

I. Abolition's New Breed	3	(20)
II. Black Sowers of the Word	23	(19)
III. New Tissue for a Broken Body	42	(26)
IV. Pulpit and Press	68	(22)
V. The Users of Adversity	90	(26)
VI. Duet with John Bull	116	(27)
VII. The Black Underground	143	(25)
VIII. The Politics of Freedom	168	(29)
IX. Protest's New Prophets	197	(26)
X. Shock Therapy and Crisis	223	(28)
Note on Bibliographical Literature	251	(2)
Notes	253	(40)
Index	293