Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2022 Phillis Wheatley Book Award, Historical-Academic Nonfiction
In Chained to History, Steven J. Brady centers slavery in America''s preCivil War foreign relations. From the aftermath of the American Revolution, Brady examines how slavery influenced military, economic, and moral diplomatic challenges. He demonstrates how slavery intertwined with America''s foreign policy, affecting trade, extradition treaties, and military alliances.
Brady highlights the constraints on American policymakers, who, despite an international shift toward abolition, were limited by the proslavery interests of the Democratic Party. As global powers abolished slavery, the American stance became increasingly untenable.
From the Age of Revolutions through the Civil War, slavery consistently shaped US relations with the Atlantic World and beyond. Chained to History explores this crucial issue comprehensively, revealing how the practice of hum
Trade Review
Written with objectivity and precision, Chained to History makes an important contribution by depicting how the distinct worldview of enslavers twisted US foreign policy in troubling ways.
* The Foreign Service Journal *
This international history illustrates the multidirectional thrusts of slavery in US diplomacy.
* Choice *
Chained to Slavery traces the influence of slavery on American foreign policy through a series of critical events in US history. With clear use of evidence and strong organization, Stephen J. Brady compellingly demonstrates that slavery and international relations were inextricably connected throughout the first century of US history.
* The Journal of Southern History *
With Chained to History, Stephen Brady makes a signal contribution to nineteenth-century history: producing a comprehensive, well-written, and authoritative one-volume account of the impact of Black slavery on early US statecraft.
* Civil War Book Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Speaking of Slavery
1. "Things Odious or Immoral": Britain, Spanish Florida, and Slaves Unfettered
2. "'Tis Ill to Fear": American Responses to the Haitian Revolution
3. "Separate from Foreign Alliances": Limiting Connections and Commitments
4. "Fully Meets Its Responsibility": The Limits of American Unilateralism
5. "Only Cowards Fear and Oppose It": Texas and Cuba
6. "Its Peculiar Moral Force": Lincoln, Emancipation, and Colonization
Epilogue: American Foreign Relations Unchained
