Beyond Garrison: Antislavery and Social Reform

by Bruce Laurie

• ISBN13: 9780521605175
• ISBN10: 0521605172
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-11
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Why was Massachusetts one of the few Northern states in which African-American males enjoyed the right to vote? Why did it pass personal liberty laws, which helped protect fugitive slaves from federal authorities in the two decades immediately preceding the Civil War? Why did the Bay State at the time integrate its public facilities and public schools as well? Beyond Garrison finds answers to these important questions in unfamiliar and surprising places. Its protagonists are not the leading lights of American abolitionism grouped around William Lloyd Garrison, but lesser men and women in country towns and villages, encouraged by African-American activists throughout the state. Laurie's fresh approach trains the spotlight on the politics of such antislavery advocates. He demonstrates their penchant for third-party politics with a view toward explaining the relationship between social movements based on race, class, and nationality, on the one hand, and political insurgency, on the other.

Author Biography

Bruce Laurie is Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	viii
Acknowledgments	xi
List of Abbreviations Used in Footnotes	xvii
Introduction	1	(16)
``An Experiment of Immense Consequence'': From Moral Suasion to Politics	17	(32)
``Evil . . . from a Very Small Party'': The Rise of the Liberty Party	49	(35)
``Our Colored Friends'': Libertyism and the Politics of Race	84	(41)
``To Favor the Poorest and Weakest'': Libertyism and Labor Reform	125	(28)
``Fifty Thousand Might Have . . . Assembled'': Sources of Free Soilism	153	(36)
``Our Own Time'': Free Soilers and Labor Reformers	189	(24)
``As Easy as Lying'': Complications of Political Reform	213	(18)
``Prejudices against Us'': The Limits of Paternalism	231	(41)
Epilogue	272	(25)
Appendixes	297	(10)
Bibliography	307	(20)
Index	327