Synopses & Reviews
Most treatments of slavery, politics, and expansion in the earlyAmerican republic focus narrowly on congressional debates and the inaction of elitefounding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. InSlavery, Freedom, and Expansion in the Early AmericanWest, John Craig Hammond looks beyond elite leadership andexamines how the demands of western settlers, the potential of western disunion, andlocal, popular politics determined the fate of slavery and freedom in the Westbetween 1790 and 1820.
By shifting focus awayfrom high politics in Philadelphia and Washington, Hammond demonstrates that localpolitical contests and geopolitical realities were more responsible for determiningslavery's fate in the West than were the clashing proslavery and antislaveryproclivities of Founding Fathers and politicians in the East. When efforts toprohibit slavery revived in 1819 with the Missouri Controversy it was not because ofa sudden awakening to the problem on the part of northern Republicans, but becausethe threat of western secession no longer seemedcredible.
Including detailed studies of popularpolitical contests in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missourithat shed light on the western and popular character of conflicts over slavery, Hammond also provides a thorough analysis of the Missouri Controversy, revealing howthe problem of slavery expansion shifted from a local and western problem to asectional and national dilemma that would ultimately lead to disunion and civilwar.