Description
Book SynopsisJames J. Gigantino II shatters the easy dichotomy between free and slave states in early America. The Ragged Road to Abolition illustrates how slavery in New Jersey persisted until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and reveals the myriad ways this marginalized the state's free blacks.
Trade Review"This magisterial volume sets the standard for examining slavery in New Jersey politics, economy, and society. More broadly, Gigantino deepens understanding of the state's role in sustaining the North's ambivalent stance on the peculiar institution." *
Choice *
"James Gigantino II has written . . . the definitive book on the abolition of slavery in New Jersey." *
American Studies *
"Gigantino . . . has written an accessible account of abolition that will be useful to New Jersey historians, educators, and even legislators." *
Journal of American History *
"A fresh, well-documented tale that forces us to reconsider much of what we thought we knew about the social, political, and productive life of a young nation." * Susan O'Donovan, University of Memphis *
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The Ragged Road to Abolition does much more than fill a historiographical hole. It highlights how slavery and freedom operated on a continuum, rather than as oppositional states." * Hilary Moss, Amherst College *
