{"product_id":"on-the-edge-of-freedom-the-fugitive-slave-issue-in-south-central-pennsylvania-18201870-9780823263790","title":"On the Edge of Freedom  The Fugitive Slave Issue","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDescribes the development of antislavery activism in border south central Pennsylvania. Rather than engage in public protest, activists concentrated on protecting fugitive slaves and prosecuting those who sought to recapture them. This approach paid dividends before the Civil War, but did not provide a solid basis for equal opportunity afterwards.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In a provocative, well-researched study of race and freedom in south central Pennsylvania, David G. Smith, reveals how African Americans in Adams, Cumberland, and Franklin counties truly lives 'on the edge of freedom' during the half century from 1820 to 1870.\" -H-Net Reviews \"In this well wrought and powerful narrative, Smith examines the vital borderland of south central Pennsylvania. Challenging scholars to re-think our understanding of the fugitive slave law, Smith examines that issue through white and black perspectives over nearly fifty years of sectional conflict, war, and reconstruction. This is an important contribution to our understanding of how war itself intensified the fugitive slave issue and redirected it. Smith's thorough appendices demonstrate remarkable and comprehensive research reflected in this important narrative.\" -- -Orville Vernon Burton author of The Age of Lincoln \"David Smith's On the Edge of Freedom is the most nuanced, detailed, and sophisticated study of the Underground Railroad in rural Pennsylvania that I have ever read. Based on a wide variety of primary sources, this study offers a series of fresh insights about how the fugitive crisis along the Mason-Dixon Line directly affected the wider national struggle over slavery and union.\" -- -Matthew Pinsker Dickinson College \"On the Edge of Freedom is a thoroughly researched, informative, and engaging piece of scholarship.\" -The Civil War Book Review \"Smith shows how antislavery activists in Pennsylvania engaged in a number of activities to assist fugitive slaves who entered Pennsylvania from Maryland and Virginia on their quest for freedom... Highly recommended.\" -Choice \"Solidly researched and documented.\" -- -Christopher Densmore Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College \"David Smith has produced a fascinating study of 19th-century race relations in the border area of Pennsylvania, which is not usually thought of as a border state.\" -Civil War News \"David Smith's 'On the Edge of Freedom' is an important addition to the literature on antislavery in the North. By linking the antebellum and postbellum trajectories of slavery and freedom, readers can understand and appreciate the complexity of antislavery sentiment in a border region influenced by starkly opposed ideologies.\" -Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography \"David G. Smith has delivered a revelatory portrait of one of the most important political battlegrounds of antebellum America, where networks of fugitive slaves, slave-catchers, informers, and Underground Railroad activists lived side by side in a tangled web. He sheds much new light on the struggle of the abolitionism to take route in southern Pennsylvania's difficult soil, and challenges cherished preconceptions of the North as solidly anti-slavery and friendly to fugitive slaves. In the process, he has given us a deeper understanding of the daunting moral complexities of life in the pre-Civil War borderland. This is a book to be reckoned with.\" -- -Fergus M. Bordewich author of America's Great debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise that Preserved the Union\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Tables xi      Acknowledgments xiii       Introduction: The Fugitive Slave Issue on the Edge of Freedom | 1      1 South Central Pennsylvania, Fugitive Slaves, and the Underground Railroad | 12      2 Thaddeus Stevens' Dilemma, Colonization, and the Turbulent Years of Early Antislavery in Adams      County, 1835-39 | 39      3 Antislavery Petitioning in South Central Pennsylvania | 70      4 The Fugitive Slave Issue on Trial: The 1840s in South Central Pennsylvania | 87      5 Controversy and Christiana: The Fugitive Slave Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1850-51 | 115      6 Interlude: Kidnapping, Kansas, and the Rise of Race-Based Partisanship: The Decline of the Fugitive Slave      Issue in South Central Pennsylvania, 1852-57 | 140      7 Revival of the Fugitive Slave Issue, 1858-61 | 147      8 Contrabands, \"White Victories,\" and the Ultimate Slave Hunt: Recasting the Fugitive Slave      Issue in Civil War South Central Pennsylvania | 174      9 After the Shooting: South Central Pennsylvania after the Civil War | 199      Conclusion: The Postwar Ramifications of the Fugitive Slave Issue \"On the Edge of Freedom\" | 213       Appendixes      A. Selected Fugitive Slave Advertisements, 1818-28 | 218      B. 1828 South Central Pennsylvania Petition Opposing Slavery in the District of Columbia | 225      C. 1847 Gettysburg African American Petition | 227      D. 1846 Adams County Petition | 229      E. 1861 Franklin County Pro-Colonization Petition | 234      F. 1861 Adams County Pro-Colonization Petition | 236      G. [Second] 1861 Adams County Pro-Colonization Petition | 238      H. 1861 Doylestown, Bucks County Pro-Colonization Petition | 240      I. 1861 Newtown, Bucks County Pro-Personal Liberty Law      Petition | 243      Notes 247      Archives Consulted 311      Index 315","brand":"Fordham University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49406140154199,"sku":"9780823263790","price":25.19,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/on-the-edge-of-freedom-the-fugitive-slave-issue-in-south-central-pennsylvania-18201870-9780823263790","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}