Description
Book SynopsisIn the thirty-five years before the Civil War, as it became increasingly difficult for those outside the world of politics to have frank and open discussions about slavery, Paul D. Naish argues that many Americans displaced their most provocative criticisms and darkest fears about the institution onto Latin America.
Trade Review"
Slavery and Silence is an exceptional history that rethinks American slavery within a hemispheric framework, accounting for the ways that Americans thought of themselves in relation to other people and places south of the Rio Grande. In doing so, it narrows the gap between US and Latin American historiography and demonstrates that not all historical silences are impenetrable." *
The Journal of African American History *
"Paul D. Naish's sensitive, lively, careful study takes two subjects we might think we know all about-the politics of slavery and U.S. visions of Latin America-and shows their unappreciated relationship. Our understanding of both topics are enhanced without making the fate of slavery or of U.S.-Latin-American relations inevitable. An eloquent, important book from a scholar who will be greatly missed." * David Waldstreicher, author of
Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification *
"By exploring how antebellum Americans imagined Latin American slavery, Naish sheds new and interdisciplinary light on how they understood slavery at home. Eloquent, surprising, and haunting, this book shows that Americans frequently turned their attention south of the border to air anxieties about human bondage, ones that seemed otherwise too dangerous to discuss." * Caitlin Fitz, Northwestern University *
"Naish is a superb writer, communicating complex ideas with a clear focus, and his engagement with historical texts is thorough and compelling. With all that has been written on issues of race and political identity in the first half of the nineteenth century, he has much to say that is fresh and revealing." * Andrew Burstein, Louisiana State University *
"
Slavery and Silence is an important contribution to the literature on the age of slavery and emancipation, and one whose big ideas are sure to make an impact, turning previous conceptions of the antebellum age on their head." * Matthew Guterl, Brown University *
Table of ContentsPreface. Creatures of Silence
Introduction. Surrounded by Mirrors
Chapter 1. Never So Drunk with New-Born Liberty
Chapter 2. "Our" Aborigines
Chapter 3. The Problem of Slavery
Chapter 4. Conquest and Reconquest
Chapter 5. An Even More Peculiar Institution
Epilogue. 1861 and After
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
