PROBLEM OF SLAVERY IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION 1770 TO 1823

The Problem of Slavery

by David Brion Davis

David Brion Davis's books on the history of slavery reflect some of the most distinguished and influential thinking on the subject to appear in the past generation. The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution , the sequel to Davis's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture and the second volume of a proposed trilogy, is a truly monumental work of historical scholarship that first appeared in 1975 to critical acclaim both academic and literary. This reprint of that important work includes a new preface by the author, in which he situates the book's argument within the historiographic debates of the last two decades.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, American Revolution, Race, World History, 18th Century

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

David Brion Davis was an American historian and authority on slavery and abolition in the Western world. He was the Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University, and founder and Director Emeritus of Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. He was a foremost intellectual and cultural historian. The author and editor of 17 books, and frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, Davis played a principal role in explaining the latest historiography to a broad audience. His books emphasized religious and ideological links among material conditions, political interests, and new political values.

Reviews

[Dr G · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an encyclopedia of a book. It has the reputation of being the definitive work about the thinking and writing of both pro-slavery and anti-slavery polemicists during the time of the Enlightenment and English, French and American revolutions. And it is a deserved reputation.
It is not an easy book to read from cover to cover but, as with any encyclopedia, that is not its point.
Its purpose, I think, is really as a background resource, ready to offer information on some detail regarding the slavery polemic in that period. At times, I found it a little difficult to digest in a straight-through reading since the chapter subjects meant that the chronology jumped around quite a lot. That, however, was inevitable and unavoidable: if the work had been organised chronologically, there would have been a comparable disjunction of themes. The author had to choose one or the other patterns of organisation and I have no argument with this being the one that was chosen.
I was already aware that the American slave states had managed to exert an enormous influence on the discussions of the constitution conventions with their repeated threats to remain outside the federation.
I was not aware:
* of the generally equivocating response of the delegates from the non-slave states;
* that the anti-slavery movement lost impetus when the American and French revolutions led to nationalistic concerns about national trade security;
* that the pro-slavery faction - which was fundamentally about maintaining private wealth - managed to win or, at least, not lose the religious debate by citing Old Testament examples of slavery, some of which had the apparent imprimatur of the Christian god, and citing an absence of criticism from Jesus or his followers of first century slavery practices;
* the industrial revolution provided new impetus for slavery with the demand for increased supplies of cotton;
* there was a temerity in nations to speak loudly against other nations' slavery practices;
* as much as the anti-slavery activists did manage to gain intermittent broad support for their cause, there was something of an old boys' club in government, nervous about enacting major change;
* there was considerable fear about how emancipated slaves might behave, and about their impact on the labour market;
* In England, the anti-slavery movement tended to be based in non-conformist churches and the middle classes, and thus carried a certain tinge of unreality or even radicalism. In America, these same churches were coy about strong anti-slavery activity;
* the issue of cruelty to slaves was countered with an argument that this required attacks on cruelty, not on slavery;
* it was commonly argued that slave-owners had a vested interest in looking after their slaves, and that slaves therefore enjoyed a better life than did members of peasant classes;
* as much as Thomas Jefferson was presented as an abolitionist, and was outspoken about British slavery prior to the War of Independence, he retained his own slaves and was reticent about his abolition credentials being publicly tested;
* Ironically, the American slave states had been vociferous, in the lead up to their war for independence, about King George's tyrannous enslavement of American states.
* there was a broad feeling in American slave states after independence and, even more, after the constitution conventions, that they had secured slavery for the long term.
* Some comparisons were made with the status of women, being unentitled and with absolute dependency, but protected.

“For the sad fact was that many Americans did consider themselves a chosen people, providentially appointed to rule Ham’s children in order to build a new Jerusalem.”

[Doris Raines · Rating 4 out of 5]

I LIKE THIS BOOK.

[Hawkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book that tells the story of slavery, the slave trade and the efforts to abolish the trade and emancipation. I read it page by page and am pleased that I did. The conclusion is fantastic. Now I must read Hegel's Phenomenology.

[Stephen Smith]

The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770-1823 by David Brion Davis (1975)

[Peter Mccullough · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tough read to finish. Well worth it though