The Science of Abolition: How Slaveholders Became the Enemies of Progress

by Eric Herschthal

A revealing look at how antislavery scientists and Black and white abolitionists used scientific ideas to discredit slaveholders
 
“While recent historical literature has shown the complicity of the early science of man in the defense of slavery, Herschthal unearths an equally long intellectual tradition of antislavery science. This innovative book is timely, when science itself is under assault.”—Manisha Sinha, author of The Slave's A History of Abolition
 
In the context of slavery, science is usually associated with slaveholders’ scientific justifications of racism. But abolitionists were equally adept at using scientific ideas to discredit slaveholders.
 
Looking beyond the science of race, The Science of Abolition shows how Black and white scientists and abolitionists drew upon a host of scientific disciplines—from chemistry, botany, and geology, to medicine and technology—to portray slaveholders as the enemies of progress. From the 1770s through the 1860s, scientists and abolitionists in Britain and the United States argued that slavery stood in the way of scientific progress, blinded slaveholders to scientific evidence, and prevented enslavers from adopting labor‑saving technologies that might eradicate enslaved labor.
 
While historians increasingly highlight slavery’s centrality to the modern world, fueling the rise of capitalism, science, and technology, few have asked where the myth of slavery’s backwardness comes from in the first place. This book contends that by routinely portraying slaveholders as the enemies of science, abolitionists and scientists helped generate that myth.

Genres: History, American History, History Of Science

344 pages, Hardcover

First published May 25, 2021

Reviews

[Jacob Steckbeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

It gives me hope seeing the amount wrongs that going into make a right

[David Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deep dive into the history of abolitionists using science to further their anti-slavery cause. Much of the book looks at the very early days of abolition (1700s, early 1800s) in Britain as well as the United States. This brings in the opposing side to the discussion of how science was often used to rationalize slavery, such as I discuss in depth in my own book (Lincoln: The Fire of Genius). Herschthal does a great job of digging into the history of both white and black abolitionism, including a particular focus on the British colony of Sierra Leone (roughly the equivalent of the US efforts to set up Liberia).

This is a book version of Herschthal's Yale PhD dissertation and is deeply researched. As one might expect, it is a dense read for serious scholars rather than for a casual reader. But if you can commit the time to it, it's well worth the effort.

[LaanSiBB]

It's always a dilemma to balance the bias of "scientific proclamation" and "scientific community". Though it reminds us about knowledge under social effect, and it's especially critical in climate change discourse and the marginalized discourse of relational identities: gender, Indigenous, race, poor.

[Elexis Trinity · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unconvincing; shockingly poor citation handling.