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Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery David Brion Davis wrote a beautiful book called Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery. The thesis of the book is the relationships between white people and black people. It is especially necessary to mention that the main theme of the book is abolishing of slavery, and the views that the author presents upon an issue interrelate with the issue of the Civil War. During the 1800 s the United States of America went through a turbulent period of expansion and reorganization.
In the years between 1861 and 1865 there was a civil war between the northern and southern states. It was the bloodiest war in American history. What were the causes of this horrible conflict? Many believe that slavery was the only issue that motivated the South to secede and fight for independence. Although slavery was a source of great controversy from the beginning, there were other factors dividing the country. The contrasting economies of the North and South fueled the debate over slavery as well as other political issues.
Some of the first signs of trouble happened when Missouri wanted to become a state in 1819. Missouri wanted to be a slave state. At this time there were twenty-two states in the Union. Half were slave states and the other half was free. If Missouri became a slave state it would destroy this balance in favor of the slave states. In his engaging bk, David Brin Davis fees an illuminating perspective n American slavery.
Starting with a lng view across the temporal and spatial boundaries f world slavery, he traces continuities frm the ancient world t the era f explain, with its expanding markets and rise in consumption f such products as sugar, track, spices, and chocolate, t the conditions f the New World settlement that gave rise t a dependence n the free last f million f African slaves. With the American Revolution, slavery closed anther kind f boundary, in a psychological inversion that placed black slaves upside the dream f liberty and equality- and turned them int the Great American Problem. David Davis goal was to write a book in which he shows the deep research into the historical question of the abolition of slavery in the United States. He supports his opinion with the use of examples that he took from historical researches that were made by people who were actual participants of the events. I think that the writer succeed in trying to give the best historical narrative of the events of the Civil War and how it was coming towards the abolition of slavery.
Davis then delves int a single year, 1819, t explain hw an explosive conflict ver the expansion and legitimacy f slavery, together with reinterpretations f the Bible and the Constitution, posted war revolutionary changes in American culture. Finally, he widens the angle again, in a regional perspective, t discuss the movement t claire blacks upside the United States, the African-American impact n abolitionism, and the South's response t slave emancipation in the British Caribbean, which led t attempts t morally vindicate slavery and expert it int future American states. Challenging the boundaries f slavery ultimately brought n the Civil War and the unexpected, immediate emancipation f slaves lng before it could have been achieved in any ther way. This imaginative and fascinating bk puts slavery int a brilliant new light and underscores anew the desperate human tragedy lying at the very heart f the American story. The most interesting part of the book was the historical narrative of the events of what happened during those struggling times of American history. A wave of Protestant revivals known as The Great Awakening inspired many people in the North to become abolitionists against slavery.
Slaveholders in the south, fearing economic ruin, portrayed slavery as both important to prosperity and a way to keep black people from turning into savages. This tension between ideals led Henry Clay, a representative of Virginia and a slaveholder, to come up with the Missouri Compromise. This was actually a new for me information concerning this compromise. Three northern counties of Massachusetts wanted to break away and become their own state. They were allowed to enter the Union as a free state called Maine and Missouri was allowed to enter as a slave state. It was also stipulated that any state in the Louisiana Purchase north of Missouri's southern border would be a free state.
This eased tensions for a few years. Eli Whitney, an inventor, was a major influence on the economic development of the United States. In 1794 he patented the cotton gin, which made cotton farming in the South very profitable. This led to increased dependence on slavery, which was the main source of labor for cotton plantations.
It also led to an economy almost entirely dependent on cotton. Because the patent for the cotton gin could not be enforced, Whitney could not make much money from his invention. In 1798 Whitney turned to the large-scale manufacture of firearms. After signing a contract to supply the federal government with 10, 000 military muskets, he built a factory near New Haven, at present-day Hamden, in which he experimented with a system of manufacturing standardized, interchangeable parts. This concept of mass production spread to other industries throughout the North, which in turn led to a strong and diverse Northern economy. In 1828 and 1832 congress raised the tariff on imported goods to protect Industry in the North.
This was bad for the South because they didn't have very much industry and had to import most of their goods. These tariffs angered many southerners. South Carolina supported John C. Calhoun who said that a state could nullify or veto a national law within it's own boundaries. In 1832 South Carolinas state legislature declared the tariff acts of 1828 and 1832 null or void.
They went even further by saying that if the government tried to make them pay the tariff they would break away from the union. Eventually Douglas repealed the ban on slavery in what was left of the Louisiana Purchase. The states of Kansas and Nebraska were formed and even though these territories were north of the anti-slavery line the people of the territory would have a chance to vote whether to be free or slave. This went against the Missouri compromise. This bill would allow southerners to try and add another slave state to the Union. This led to endless disputes between both pro slavery and anti-slavery settlers who were moving into the Kansas.
The state of Missouri actually recruited people who were for slavery and sent them to settle in the new state. In 1855 people from Missouri crossed the border and voted illegally. The legislature in Kansas started making pro-slavery laws. This angered the anti-slavery people so they formed their own government. With two governments fighting for control law and order broke apart.
People started fighting and bloodshed took place this it became known as Bleeding Kansas. There were raids and murders. One group pro-slavery group destroyed the town of Lawrence and the antislavery newspaper there. In return an abolitionist from Ohio named John Brown and his sons murdered five pro-slavery activists, in Pottawatomie Creek. John Brown became fanatical abolitionists and in 1859 he led a group of 18 men in a raid to take the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry, VA. They were attempting to supply weapons to slaves in the area with the hope that they would.
Marines stormed him and captured him and he was convicted of treason and sentenced to death. In 1860, following the trouble in Kansas and the election of an Anti-Slavery president, Abraham Lincoln, South Carolina and Mississippi secede from the Union. On February 9, 1861, The Confederate States of America is formed with Jefferson Davis as president. On April 12 Confederates under General Pierre Beauregard open fire with 50 cannons upon Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, beginning The Civil War.
More Southern States secede including Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina, thus forming an eleven state Confederacy. For the next 5 years the North and South would fight over whether it was to be one country or two. Finally I would like to say that the author did a good job giving close insights to what happened during the Civil War period and the issues of the abolition of slavery in the United States. This is a good historical narrative for those people interested in the details of how the events took place.
Bibliography: David Brion Davis, Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery, New York: Viking Press, 2003 Will Find, Issues of Slavery, from National Geographic, Issue Nov. 1998
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Research essay sample on Challenging The Boundaries Of Slavery
