Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked the American Revolution

by Alfred W. Blumrosen, Ruth G. Blumrosen

In 1772, the High Court in London brought about the conditions that would end slavery in England by freeing a black slave from Virginia named Somerset. This decision began a key facet of independence.


Slave Nation is a fascinating account of the role slavery played in the drawing of the United States Constitution and in shaping the United States. At the Constitutional Convention, the South feared that the Northern states would leave the Convention over the issue of slavery. In a compromise, the Southern states agreed to slavery's prohibition north of the Ohio River, resulting in the Northwest Ordinance. This early national division would continue to escalate, eventually only reaching resolution through the Civil War.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, United States

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Robert A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extraordinary research by authors Alfred W. Blumrosen and Ruth G. Blumrosen, which details how slavery united the 13 Colonies and sparked the American Revolution.

Every nation attempts to romanticize its past and put it in the best possible light.

Thus, the American revolution is bathed in nobility and the reasons for it are limited to principled protests against taxation without representation and autocratic rule from England.

While these reasons are largely true for the northern colonies, the southern colonies joined the revolution and committed to the break from England primarily to protect the institution of slavery.

The authors fully document the importance of the Somerset decision in England (1772), where, Lord Mansfield, chief magistrate of the king's bench, ruled that slavery was illegal in England.

This ruling petrified the Southern slave holding aristocracy, who were afraid it might be extended to England's colonies.

This is a book rich in scholarship and documentation concerning the true, decisive causes of the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, both Constitutional Conventions, and the key and pivotal Northwest Ordinance of 1787.

MUST READING if you care to deepen your understanding of our great country's origins.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I already knew that Congress deleted Jefferson's paragraph blaming King George III for the slave trade in the Declaration of Independence to placate South Carolina and Georgia. It turns out that those two states, along with other southern states including Virginia, may have been influenced by the "Somerset" legal decision by Chief Justice Lord Mansfield in 1772 essentially declaring that any slave who made it to England would be free.

The book then teases out this idea through the war and into the debates over both the Constitution and the Northwest Ordinance in the 1780s. Interesting stuff, written by two civil rights lawyers with an obvious stake in progress on racial justice. Are they too harsh on Virginia and Southern states at times? Not sure. But their judgment on the Founding Fathers, especially the Virginians, seems fair minded. While some historians say that they should have let SC and GA go, others feel that they made Solomonic compromises that laid the groundwork for the abolition of slavery:

"They did settle many principles in their day in ways which we have good cause to applaud. They freed the world from the domination of monarchy, struggled toward a notion of democracy which is till unfolding, embraced principles of intellectual, political, and religious liberty, and made the first inroads on exploitive empire in adopting the "equal-footing" principle for new states. Measured against the magnitude of what they attempted, they succeeded greatly and are to bbe honored for it. Jefferson deserves particular attention for excluding the word "property" from the Declaration of Independence. Had he included it, it might have sanctified human slavery into an indefinite future" (255).

[Merrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

After listening to Hamilton non-stop with my kids over the last six months, really appreciated this deeper dive into the history of that time period and understanding better how preservation of the institution of slavery and white supremacy drove decision-making (as it does often now...). In particular, appreciated the context re: the Northwest Territories/growth of slavery below the Ohio River.

[P.K. Butler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Blumrosens (wife, husband, and son) make a compelling argument that the Revolutionary War was fought, in part, to maintain slavery in the South. They begin their history with this paragraph:

"On June 22, 1772, nearly a century before the slaves were freed in America, a British Judge, with a single decision, brought about the conditions that would end slavery in England. His decision would have monumental consequences in the American Revolution, the Civil War, and beyond. Because of that ruling, history would be forever changed. This book is about that decision and the role of slavery in the founding of the United States."

In a nutshell, the authors argue that the colonies came together for the first Continental Congress (1774) to discuss more than their grievances of taxation and subjugation by England. Specifically, the Southern slave colonies were seeking to preserve the institution of slavery in the wake of a High Court of London decision (in 1772) to free an enslaved person (Somerset), who chose to quit his owner's service once brought into England, a country with "confused English precedents concerning slavery" (6). Fearing that England might intend to subject their colonies to similar policies, Southerns sought assurances from Northerns that a war for independence from England would result in a nation that guaranteed the institution of slavery.

The Blumrosens support this premise with detailed communications among delegates of the Continental Congresses leading to the Revolutionary War and then afterward in 1787 during the Constitutional Convention, where again the North and South made agreements (via the Northwest Ordinance) to solidify the Union. The authors argue that the "Constitution would not have been adopted without the ordinance," giving free-state status for the Northwest Territory in exchange for the Southern status-quo of slavery.

Any student of American History would be well-served to investigate the compelling evidence brought to bear in support of this claim, one seemingly overlooked by historians until now.

[Fran · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important addition to understanding the formation of the United States, and the centrality of pro-slavery forces to the process - especially the potential for a successful war for independence from the British Empire. Many of the American patriots were motivated primarily by principles of universal freedoms, but at least as many (and more powerful) advocates of independence were protecting their ability to own Black people in slavery. That ability to hold others in slavery was being actively undermined by the British courts and common law - something well known to the colonists but rarely included in US history books.
This edition had some typos, and there are a few sections in which the argument seemed a bit fuzzy to me, but overall persuasive of the central thrust.

[Jukka]

Slave Nation - Alfred and Ruth Blumrosen. Was our country established to preserve slavery? In 1772 a judge gave freedom to anyone held in slavery in England that sought to liberate themselves. This was called the Somerset decision. The fear that this court decision would be applied to slaves on the American continent was what brought the colonies most dependent on slavery (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) to push for independence. Did you know that the phrase in the Declaration of Independence "all men are created equal" caused enough discomfort with some that they sought to have it removed? Did you know that in 1789 Benjamin Franklin proposed a comprehensive plan for what would now be called 'affirmative action' to provide opportunity to free blacks in education, housing, employment and business? (If only his plan would have been applied during reconstruction.) Did you know that to a great extent the seeds for the hostility and secession between north and south and the Civil War was created by our 'founding fathers' in the way the country was founded? This book has given me a new understanding of the real history of slavery in America. Slightly dry at times, but better than many books of history.
Will be following this book up with Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon, which details the continuation of slavery until World War II by major U.S. corporations and a corrupt court system.
Also see The People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn below.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of this book - Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked the American Revolution turned my ideas of the American Revolution on its head. The authors argue that the perceived movement to emancipate slaves in England led to the American colonies uniting. The vector was a court case in 1772 - just four years before the writing of the Declaration of Independence - where an American slave (there were an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 slaves in England at the time) - was not allowed to be taken out of the country and sold to the sugar plantations in the Caribbean The interpretation of this court case was far beyond what the Judge purported to be his decision, yet the Revolutionary War occurred and slavery lasted more than 30 longer in America than it did in Britain or the British colonies. Certainly made me think.

[Monte Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The premise of the book is that an agreement between the northern colonies and the southern colonies in 1774 which said that slavery would be protected in the southern colonies in return for their support in the American Revolution is supported and explained. It is well-written and clear, but some of the arguments are not as sound as others. However, it is extremely interesting to see how the passage of the Northwest Ordnance of 1787 allowed for compromise in the constitutional convention between the states on major disagreements such as equal representation of the states in the Senate and the 3/5th's count of slaves towards representation for the House of Representatives. While the book gives a reasonable thread of history supporting this thesis, I think more work should be done to make the argument more plausible.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was interesting although highly speculative. A vast majority of the information was circumstantial, and furthermore drawn mostly from other secondary sources. While I agree that slavery might have made the south more willing to join the revolutionary cause, it certainly did not seem to "spark the revolution."

[Debra · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent analysis of many secondary sources, as well as letters of correspondance. I'm using it primarily to compare the reasons why North vs. South wanted to sever ties from Britain, and find out more about the people involved in the Committees of Correspondance. Using to expand personal research bibliography/sources.

[Scott Ford · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1772, the British High Court began the process of closing down the institution of slavery in England. This book proposes that the events that took place in England at this time convinced the Southern colonies that the North's protests agains Parlaiment were sound enough to throw their interests behind revolution.

[Jania Hoover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched. I'm interested to see conclusions others have drawn. I'll do additional research before I teach this topic next year. It's very interesting to think slavery played such a seminal role in the motivation to rebel, especially since it is not presented that way in the traditional narrative.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Amazing outlook as to how slavery like most things in history can change with a simple verdict thanks to the courts. I can't understand how this theory isn't more looked into by historians. GREAT BOOK!

[Alec Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good survey of the issue of slavery in the founding of the U.S. Some really interesting facts on how the southern colonies efforts to protect slavery shaped our founding documents, and thwarted some of the founders' hopes and goals for the new country.

[Kurt Ayau]

Some kinda premise, eh?

[John Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just began reading this as part of research for a new tour I am writing about slavery in Philadelphia.

[Kathie]

A radical,well-informed and highly original reinterpretation of the place of slavery in American War of Independence

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Constitutional history bores me to tears.

[Yunis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors proof the books thesis with a lot hard truth