{"product_id":"disowning-slavery-gradual-emancipation-and-race-in-new-england-17801860-9780801484377","title":"Disowning Slavery  Gradual Emancipation and Race","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFollowing the abolition of slavery in New England, white citizens seemed to forget that it had ever existed there. Drawing on a wide array of primary sources—from slaveowners' diaries to children's daybooks to racist broadsides—Joanne Pope...\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDisowning Slavery\u003c\/i\u003e brims with ideas: it is an exciting and argumentative book.\u003c\/p\u003e * Journal of American History *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eFifteen years in the making, this is an unusually mature and finished first book. It is also a major contribution to the study of the construction of American national identity.\u003c\/p\u003e * Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this ambitious and often compelling study, Joanne Pope Melish seeks to explore in detail, and then to reconfigure, our sense of the meaning of 'gradual' emancipation in New England.... Her relentless vision of New England Americans 'disowning' the enslaved history, and displacing it on the South, illuminates in a new and important way the history of race and regionalism that we must rethink again.\u003c\/p\u003e * Journal of Southern History *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eJoanne Pope Melish argues that the need to portray a virtuous North battling the slave-holding South during the Civil War resulted in the creation of a 'mythology of a free New England' in the antebellum period and that the notion persists to this day.... She makes the case that slavery was far more important to New England's economy than is commonly recognized by historians.\u003c\/p\u003e * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eMelish's book makes an important contribution to the literature on slavery and abolition and fills a significant gap in our understanding of how slavery in New England affected both that region and the nation.... This is a terrific book, one that all scholars of slavery, abolition, and the early republic absolutely must read.\u003c\/p\u003e * H-Net Reviews *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eMelish's determination to put the history of local slavery at the core of New England racial attitudes has produced a highly nuanced picture of the gradual emancipation process that goes well beyond anything of its kind.... A tremendous achievement that will have an impact across a wide historiographical spectrum.\u003c\/p\u003e * Connecticut History *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eMelish's searching analysis compels a reconsideration of many aspects of the conventional narrative of antislavery within both white and African-American communities.... This is an important book, one that commands a reconsideration of many of our assumptions about the meaning of emancipation, the development of racial ideologies, and also about antislavery itself.\u003c\/p\u003e * Reviews in American History *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eMelish's work is original, important... a fascinating work that opens new interpretations of emancipation and race in New England.\u003c\/p\u003e * William and Mary Quarterly *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003ePainstakingly researched, filled with new information and astute analysis, this book is a major contribution to our knowledge of New England slavery and a valuable addition to the understanding of race relations in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e * American Historical Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe work is an invaluable contribution to the emerging picture of slavery and emancipation in the American North. Pope Melish has made it difficult for New Englanders ever to see their history quite the same way again.\u003c\/p\u003e * Law and History Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1. New England Slavery\u003cbr\u003e\"Short of the Truth\": Slavery in the Lives of Whites\u003cbr\u003eAnother Truth: Enslavement in the Lives of People of Color\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e2. The Antislavery Impulse\u003cbr\u003eTo \"Clear Our Spirits\": Whites' Expectations of Freedom from Slavery\u003cbr\u003eThe \"Privilage of Freemen\": Blacks' Expectations of Freedom from Slavery\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e3. \"Slaves of the Community\": Gradual Emancipation in Practice\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e4. A \"Negro Spirit\": Em-bodying Difference\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e5. \"To Abolish the Black Man\": Enacting the Antislavery Promise\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e6 \"A Thing Unknown\": The Free White Republic as New England Writ Large\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e7. \"We Are the Alphabet\": Free People of Color and the Discourse of \"Race\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIndex\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49405166813527,"sku":"9780801484377","price":23.74,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780801484377.jpg?v=1730488956","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/disowning-slavery-gradual-emancipation-and-race-in-new-england-17801860-9780801484377","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}