Slavery and Abolition

Except perhaps the struggle between patriots and tories at the outbreak of the Revolution no controversy in the history of the United States has aroused such passion and led to such momentous results as that between the advocates and the opponents of slavery. Yet in its initial movement the organized propaganda to which the term abolition is usually applied was disassociated from political parties; and nearly a quarter of a century passed before a national election turned upon the issue of the farther territorial extension of slavery. It is therefore possible to separate from the party questions which arose during the administrations of Jackson and Van Buren the elements of the slavery contest; to sketch the conditions of the slave of the master and of the anti-slavery agitator; and to trace the controversy from the press and public meetings to the state governments and thence to Congress. The book has the double purpose of describing the conditions of slavery and the state of mind of those interested for it or against it and at the same time of recording the events which mark the anti-slavery agitation... - Albert Bushnell HartContents: American Social Characteristics (1830-1860). The Intellectual Life (1830-1840). The Era of Transportation (1830-1850). Slavery as an Economic System (1607-1860). The Slave-Holder and His Neighbor (1830-1860). The Free Negro (1830-1860). Plantation Life (1830-1860). Control of the Slaves (1830-1860). The Slave-market (1830-1860). The Defence of Slavery (1830-1860). The Anti-Slavery Movement (1624-1840). Garrisonian Abolition (1830-1845). Non-Garrisonian Abolition (1831-1860). The Abolition Propaganda (1830-1840). The Abolitionist and the Slave (1830-1840). The Abolitionist and the Slave-Holder (1830-1860). Abolition and Government (1830-1840). Anti-Slavery in Congress (1831-1840). Interstate and International Relations of Slavery (1822-1842). Panic of 1837 (1837-1841). The Effects of Abolition (1830-1860).