The problem of slavery in the age of revolution, 1770-1823
David Brion Davis (Author)
Concentrating his attention on slavery in America, this book is a sequel to Davis' The problem of slavery in Western culture. The earlier volume explored the cultural heritage that provided an intellectual and moral framework for the great struggles over slavery of Africans in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It also tried to explain the significance of a profound transformation in moral perception, a transformation that led a growing number of Europeans and Americans to see the full horror of a social evil to which mankind had been blind for centuries. The present study extends the inquiry both in time and in the nature of the questions asked. In the broadest sense, it is an analysis of the historical context and consequences of a change in moral perception within the white enslaving culture, and also some of the ways in which Black responses, most dramatically the St. Domingue revolution, impinged on and altered white perceptions of the problem of slavery. --From preface
Print Book, English, 1999
[New edition] View all formats and editions
Oxford University Press, New York, 1999
History
576 pages ; 24 cm
9780195126716, 0195126718
39269476
Preface to the New Edition
Preface
Notes on terms
A calendar of events associated with slavery, the slave trade, and emancipation, 1770-1823
What the abolitionists were up against
The seats of power, I
The seats of power, II
The boundaries of idealism
The Quaker ethic and the antislavery international
The emancipation of America, I
The emancipation of America, II
The preservation of English liberty, I
The preservation of English liberty, II
Antislavery and the conflict of laws
The good book
Epilogue: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the phenomenology of mind
"First published in 1975 by Cornell University Press"--Title page verso
With a new preface by David Brion Davis