Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence

by Kellie Carter Jackson

From its origins in the 1750s, the white-led American abolitionist movement adhered to principles of moral suasion and nonviolent resistance as both religious tenet and political strategy. But by the 1850s, the population of enslaved Americans had increased exponentially, and such legislative efforts as the Fugitive Slave Act and the Supreme Court's 1857 ruling in the Dred Scott case effectively voided any rights black Americans held as enslaved or free people. As conditions deteriorated for African Americans, black abolitionist leaders embraced violence as the only means of shocking Northerners out of their apathy and instigating an antislavery war.

In Force and Freedom, Kellie Carter Jackson provides the first historical analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among antebellum black activists. Through rousing public speeches, the bourgeoning black press, and the formation of militia groups, black abolitionist leaders mobilized their communities, compelled national action, and drew international attention. Drawing on the precedent and pathos of the American and Haitian Revolutions, African American abolitionists used violence as a political language and a means of provoking social change. Through tactical violence, argues Carter Jackson, black abolitionist leaders accomplished what white nonviolent abolitionists could not: creating the conditions that necessitated the Civil War. Force and Freedom takes readers beyond the honorable politics of moral suasion and the romanticism of the Underground Railroad and into an exploration of the agonizing decisions, strategies, and actions of the black abolitionists who, though lacking an official political voice, were nevertheless responsible for instigating monumental social and political change.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Race, Politics, American History, Audiobook, Historical

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 22, 2019

Reviews

[Kiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is mandatory reading. Through extraordinary writing and research, Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson has presented to us a history that serves as a template for necessary work in our lifetime. This is a book for anyone who has ever felt a desire to fight towards liberation. Thank you Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson —you’ve allowed me to fall in love with history in a way I never have before.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is stunning and mind-expanding. It should be essential reading for the pre-Civil War era. It would make a wonderful triptych with Field of Blood and The War Before the War

[Chris Bettencourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is phenomenal. Well researched. Well organized. And so important to read as Americans contemplating the next stages of civil rights battles. Too often non violence is romanticised and used as a tool to discourage marginalized groups from defending themselves against the violence of the state. While at the same time the violence of the American revolutionary war is held up as patriotism. This book walks through exactly how much was or was not gained from decades of attempts at moral appeals versus fighting back and a few years of all out war. It's a good reminder to all of us that violent systems built on fear often only topple under the same pressures.

[Merricat Blackwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say enough good things about this book. Richly researched, completely opened up my understanding of a part of American history I thought I knew fairly well. You have to be a little patient with Academic Prose but it is so, so worth it.

[Bri Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

From the epilogue:
"Black abolitionists have changed our understanding of violence o see that a revolution is the language of the unheard."
"White "allies" and abolitionists are understanding of political violence only when it does not threaten their authority."

[Jason Scoggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Black abolishionist saw freedom as revolutionary, complex, and multifaceted because it IS revolutionary, complex and multifaceted."

[Steve Smits · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-researched, compelling argument that draws attention to significance of the use of force, physical and rhetorical, by blacks of the antebellum era in opposition to slavery. Jackson correctly concludes that the strategy of moral suasion by the Garrisonian's was not only ineffective but also dismissive of the underlying issue of the social and civic inequality of blacks widely held by white Americans in the era (and sadly beyond). The impact of the Fugitive Slave Law, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision on the emergence of violent resistance are cogently posited by the author.

[Debra Foster Greene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historian Kellie Carter Jackson does an engaging job of highlighting the fact that black abolitionist in the United States fully understood the need for and usefulness of violence in bringing about the end of slavery and pushing the agenda of black equality in the Nation. For historians and educators her evidence may not be new but her interpretive use of it is. For lay readers prepare to be educated. Spoiler - John Brown's raid at Harper's ferry has a very interesting back story. Don't skip chapter 4.

Jackson's writing style is engaging as well; making the read enjoyable. I kept thinking about this book in an upper level course or graduate seminar.

[Angela]

Stunning and so thoroughly researched. Absolutely required reading - this introduced me to a complete pantheon of Black abolitionist leadership that shaped the civil rights and abolitionist movements that we know of today. Can’t recommend this enough

[MsBrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Force and Freedom tells the untold story of black Americans, both enslaved and free, taking ownership of their own pursuit for freedom and equality. The premise of the book is that there was a pervasive myth, in the years leading up to the Civil War, that only non-violence could lead to freedom. However, for the institution of slavery, this myth is debunked. Non-violence resistance is seen as mostly a white abolitionist idea, ineffective and from people with no skin in the game. Interestingly, even Frederick Douglas preached non-violence - before he was brutally attacked.

The book introduces us to such black American heroes as Nat Turner, Anderson, Parker, and others, along with their participation in violent attacks, well planned defenses, and cleverly carried out rescues, such as the Jerry Rescue. Additionally, the history is told about not only the striving for freedom, but also the striving (less successfully) for equality. The attack on Harper's Ferry, by white abolitionist John Brown, is included, recognizing and focusing on the black Americans who funded the attack, participated in the attack, and provided the geographic intelligence.

Many black Americans escaped to Canada and some (Harriet Tubman!) even returned to the US to provide assistance to the cause.

I had expected Force and Freedom to be didactic but on the contrary it was not only educational, but also full of heroes and villains. Unfortunately, the author failed to provide a character index at the start of the book. This would have been extremely useful, as throughout the book, references were made to people who either were previously mentioned in passing, or who were focused on in detail, but, due to the oft differing 'plots', led one to forget who was who and who participated in what. Though there is a glossary at the back of the book turning pages constantly is highly impractical.

Over I recommend Force and Freedom.

[Spencer Reads Everything · Rating 5 out of 5]

Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence is a deeply compelling and necessary contribution to the study of American abolitionism. Kellie Carter Jackson challenges the longstanding narrative that has centered nonviolence as the dominant—and more "respectable"—mode of resistance among abolitionists. Instead, she recovers and amplifies the voices of Black abolitionists who argued that freedom would never be given freely and that violence was not only justified but often essential in the fight against slavery.

Jackson's analysis is both rigorous and readable. She places familiar figures like Frederick Douglass into new and more complex contexts, while also bringing less widely known voices to the forefront. Her work reminds us that historical memory is often shaped by those with the most institutional power, and in this case, the sanitization of the abolitionist movement has obscured the full range of strategies that were employed—and debated—by those fighting for Black liberation.

What I appreciated most was the book’s moral clarity. Jackson does not sensationalize violence, nor does she dismiss the ethical tension it presents. Instead, she takes seriously the conditions under which enslaved people lived and the logic of resistance that arose in response. It's a thought-provoking and, at times, uncomfortable read—but one that is all the more powerful for it.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in American history, political theory, or the continuing conversation about the role of resistance in movements for justice.

For more check out my video review:
https://youtu.be/cQklf-2Y1aE
For more reviews check out my channel:
http://www.youtube.com/@SpencerReadsE...

[P.M.G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding! Kellie Carter Jackson’s writing style and commitment to thorough research make this and extremely engaging read!

The question “is violence and valid means of producing special change” often trips people up and Force and Freedom goes above and beyond to answer with yes.

An essential read and an in depth look at what has to be done when you’re fighting an oppressor with no conscience to speak of.

[Matthew Rohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal book - major recommendation for both historians and everyone else. Concise and extremely clearly written history of Black antislavery politics prior to the Civil War and the rise of violent strategies of abolitionism ultimately culminating in the Civil War. Both provides new material and recontextualizes more familiar events like the raid on Harper's Ferry

[Ace Anbender · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required reading for anyone who considers themselves progressive.

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was empowering. I have always been proud of my ancestors, and I feel even more so now.

[Steve Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to Jackson’s brief lecture by The Great Courses and liked it well enough to look up and then queue up this book on Audible.

Jackson starts off strong in giving the reader a background on black and white abolitionists and their move from advocating nonviolent moral suasion as a tactic in the 1830’s to one of advocacy of violence as a means of self defense and rebellion against the dominant slave power by the 1850’s.

Here she educated me, and I appreciate learning much that I didn’t know about the antebellum struggles for abolition and civil rights for black people in northern states. Likewise, she expanded my awareness of the vile racism exhibited by northerners back then… particularly those in my unfortunately racist home state of Indiana.

Where Professor Jackson lost me was in her account of John Brown’s Harper Ferry raid, which she presents as a sort of climactic event to the struggle. She acknowledges that Brown botched the operation and his black supporters had little confidence in its success, but what I found disturbing was how little she seemed to know of the actual raid.

Thinking perhaps that her notes and sources might have something that I was missing, I drove down to the library and perused the physical copy of her book they had. I hadn’t missed anything. It simply wasn’t there.

In her short lecture, as well as this book, she writes that Brown and his men were overcome by the local militia, They definitely suffered casualties at the hands of these men, yet Browns’ men gave just about as good as they got and killed quite a few locals, who were vicious but not particularly competent.

What she fails to report is that President Buchanan had ordered Federal troops to Harper’s Ferry. Those troops, a company of Marines, arrived to find the militias ill disciplined and often drunk.

Commanding those troops was Colonel Robert E Lee, accompanied by his aide de camp, J.E.B. Stuart. These two officers ended up being (quite arguably) the most capable commanders for the Confederacy when the Civil War broke out. Neither of these men, nor the Marines, make an appearance in her account of the event.

That these two soon-to-be traitors and defenders of slavery and secession* are left out is simply confusing. At no time does she hesitate to criticize the Federal government, so why did she leave its role out of this dramatic event? Was this intentional? Did she think such inclusion would somehow honor these men or bring credit to their names? Or were her sources deficient?

In describing the raid she tells the reader that Jeremiah Anderson, “one of Brown’s men” (a white man from Kansas) survived the raid and escaped. He didn’t. He died in the final assault, run through with a bayonet by a Marine. Either she, or her source, apparently conflated Jeremiah Anderson with Osborn Anderson, a black man who did in fact escape.

Would I recommend this book? Yes. But I would also suggest the reader take this review as a caveat when approaching this work. Professor Jackson may be drifting from her role as an historian into one of being a polemicist. One can be both, of course, but it serves better to declare one’s intent at the outset of a book.


* The word was misspelled as “succession” at the beginning of chapter 5. Autocorrect often does that, but her editor and anyone previewing the book for her should have caught it.

[Liam Sullivan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kellie Carter Jackson is one of my favorite historians/public intellectuals who is a co-host of the podcast  “This Day in Political Esoteric History” with Jody Avirgan and Nicole Hemmer. In this work she traces the use of force by Black activists against white supremacy in the United States.  Nonviolent protest and violent action are often seen in a binary, but Jackson lays out the use of force as a continuum.


As the abolitionist movement emerged in the 1820s & 1830s, white leaders like William Lloyd Garrison were often pacifists.  There was good reasons to adopt a pacifist approach as the slaveholder elite had the power and weaponry to suppress uprisings, carry out collective punishments, and use Black violence as a means to further justify slavery.  But the idea that "moral suasion" would change the minds of white supremacists was also unrealistic, and it was patronizing to tell enslaved Black people to quietly endure the violence of enslavement.  It was also contradictory for white Americans to celebrate the founding generation who gained liberation from Britain through violence to deny that as a means for Black people to gain their liberation.


Jackson lays out the many different ways Black people used force against slavery in the decades leading up to abolition.  In everyday resistance by enslaved people there were work stoppages, destruction of tools, and other acts of sabotage.  Uprisings of enslaved peoples such as those Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vessey, and Nat Turner struck fear into the hearts of the white enslavers.  Reminders of the successful Haitian Revolution were also used to make white supremacists paranoid.


In the north, force was used to protect Black communities from white violence.  This became particularly important after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 allowed slave catchers to snatch people who escaped from slavery (and some freeborn people) off the streets.  Vigilance committees were formed to protect potential targets and to free anyone captured by slavecatchers. 

The chapter on the raid of Harper's Ferry, a violent uprising lead by the white abolitionist John Brown, focuses on the incident from the Black perspective. Brown drew influence for the use of force from Black leaders going back as far as David Walker, and Harriet Tubman participated in recruiting (although she missed the raid itself).  Other Black leaders like Frederick Douglass were skeptical of Brown's plan and were not interested in participating.  Brown's failure to gain the trust of enslaved people on nearby plantations contributed to the ultimate failure of raid to initiate a widespread revolt.


Jackson's book is fascinating look at a part of Black history that has not so much been overlooked, but worse, discredited in comparison to mistaken understanding of Martin Luther King, Jr and the use of nonviolence in the Civil Rights Movement of the 20th century.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carter Jackson clearly succeeded in providing ‘…an exploration of the agonizing decisions, strategies, and actions of the black abolitionists who, though lacking an official political voice, were nevertheless responsible for instigating monumental social and political change.’ She accomplished this by applying two sets of skills one would hope to see in a historian: academic rigor and narrative storytelling.

The former is readily apparent in the vast array of primary and secondary sources of information on which she based Force and Freedom. These are referenced in the text, demarcated in 46 pages of endnotes, and made available in a 27 page bibliography. Thus, any reader wishing to follow up on specific facts can readily do so.

The author’s narrative was reader friendly because she provided textured descriptions of the events, issues, and individuals. The direct prose and timely quotations underscoring the points being made sustained my interest. A handful of reproductions of drawings of the individuals and/or events noted in the text also enhanced my engagement with the book.

Over the course of Force the reader can gain a clear sense of how many African American leaders, along with a few White ones, from the 1820’s through the 1850’s came to adopt positions which endorsed the use of violent resistance to what was termed Slave Power. Besides reading about such well known figures in the abolitionist movement as William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown readers will learn about many who have been largely lost to mainstream history. These included but are not limited to David Walker, James McCune Smith, Hugh Highland Garnett, Lewis Hayden, James Loguen, and C Ford Douglas.

The chapter on John Brown’s 1859 raid was particularly instructive because Carter Jackson demonstrated something which mainstream historical accounts have failed to articulate: the extent to which he was inspired and supported by these African American leaders. Two women, Harriet Tubman and Mary Ellen Pleasant, also played very important roles in that ill fated slave revolt.

For those interested in reading more about this topic I can recommend the following three books. Black Abolitionists by Benjamin Quarles provides an overview of some of the men discussed in Force. Black Women Abolitionists by Shirley J Yee gives readers information about the contributions African American women made to abolitionism. The Black Hearts of Men by John Stauffer is about the alliance which developed in the 1840’s between Frederick Douglass, James McCune Smith, Gerritt Smith, and John Brown which culminated in Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry.

[Kennedy Butterfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this book wanting more. Kellie Carter Jackson does a great job articulating how Black abolitionists were/are the impetus of freedom through the use of violent force, and I still left with lots of questions on how emancipation happened (potentially due to gaps in my own understanding of history).

I appreciate the way this book helped me think about violence differently, specifically as a person whose opinions are informed by my whiteness and lack of day to day necessity to protect my own physical body. Prior to reading this book, I struggled with violence as a strategy because it seemed like whoever has the most resources always wins, which doesn't feel like an effective strategy on the side of the underresourced. However, this idea of force feels much more expansive and effective. Part of why violence was so effective for Black abolitionists was the anxiety it induced for plantation owners, making slavery uncomfortable for them. That feels like using violence to create force for freedom. I have a better understanding now of why force is necessary and why freedom given is not really freedom because it's still in the hands of the oppressor.

I think the how of social change is intentionally presented as abstract in mainstream education, and it's taking a lot of effort for me to educate myself enough to demystify that. So this book was an amazing start and I have a long way to go.

[Jesse Claflin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure if it took me a little bit to get into or what but I found the first chapter not super engaging but after that I was hooked. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on a few specific incidents of violent resistance by Black people that were particularly moving. I was fascinated by this new perspective on John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, which I was always taught was the ill-planned, counterproductive violence of a white savior. In chapter 4, the author lays out the ways Brown was supported by prominent Black leaders including Black women. Read as an audiobook.

[Hina Ansari · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a relatively short read, weighing in at less than 160 pages or so, but the book is taller than your average book.

What always shocks me about books about US history is how much propaganda we were fed as kids and having to correct it with facts is quite the task. My favorite part, if I had to pick one, was a passing comment about how Lincoln was credited for ending slavery, but in truth, there were a lot of people that sacrificed their very lives and are hardly credited.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing—too many instances of telling rather than showing, analysis through the lens of today’s politics, unnecessary injection of the author’s opinion, and digressions into historiography rather than history.

[Maryann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book but depressing. The black abolitionists knew and fought against the slave power and racism. We’re still fighting the same battles. Technically slavery is over but this book makes me wonder if black violence may be the only way forward to black freedo.

[ػᶈᶏϾӗ]

Recasts the history of the abolition of slavery as an armed struggle against the tyranny of slaveholders. If you think nonviolence is the apex of political change, this book is for you.

[Steve Dustcircle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes being peaceful is not always an option...

[Garrentt Duffey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read for those interested in American history in the nineteenth century and those looking to challenge the usual historical approach to the lead up to the Civil War.

[Heather Connell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book. Learn things. Specifically if you are white.

[Poppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

a great contribution to abolitionism that encapsulates the black contributions and experienced

[Tatana Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye opening

[Sydney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this, but now I’m reading We Refuse, by the same author, and it’s got a lot of the same stuff in it, but covers a larger time frame. So I don’t know if this one is necessary, if you read We Refuse instead