An important addition to the history of American abolitionism.
Goodman, late professor of history at the University of California,
Davis, devoted much of his intellectual energies to questions of
social justice. His concern is evident in this fine book, which
focuses on the beginnings of the antislavery movement and on the
role of women and African-Americans in the early struggle; although
both were important in making the abolitionist cause widespread,
neither has received much treatment in the historical literature.
As have other historians, Goodman treats the role of the New
England clergy in organizing resistance to the slave trade,
departing from them to write of fascinating protagonists like David
Walker (1785-1830), the son of a black father and white mother, who
recognized that "lack of unity had been fatal to black prospects in
the past" and who therefore concentrated on forging well-organized
communities of free blacks in the North, writing an influential
manifesto called "Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World,"
which argued persuasively that forcible resistance to slavery was
the only way to bring that institution to an end. Goodman looks at
other community-minded ministers and politicians who integrated
churches in New York City, losing many white members in the
process, before addressing the question of women abolitionists,
scorned even in antislavery quarters as "a parcel of silly women
acting as petticoat politicians." Despite this unfriendly
reception, figures such as the Bostonian Sarah Grimke, Goodman
writes, argued that by working to free slaves, women would begin to
liberate themselves; and they won many adherents to their cause.
This book makes a fitting close to a distinguished historian's
career. (Kirkus Reviews)
The abolition movement is perhaps the most salient example of the
struggle the United States has faced in its long and complex
confrontation with the issue of race. In his final book, historian
Paul Goodman, who died in 1995, presents a new and important
interpretation of abolitionism. Goodman pays particular attention
to the role that blacks played in the movement. In the half-century
following the American Revolution, a sizable free black population
emerged, the result of state-sponsored emancipation in the North
and individual manumission in the slave states. At the same time, a
white movement took shape, in the form of the American Colonization
Society, that proposed to solve the slavery question by sending the
emancipated blacks to Africa and making Liberia an American
"colony." The resistance of northern free blacks was instrumental
in exposing the racist ideology underlying colonization and
inspiring early white abolitionists to attack slavery straight on.
In a society suffused with racism, says Goodman, abolitionism stood
apart by its embrace of racial equality as a Christian
imperative.
Goodman demonstrates that the abolitionist movement had a far
broader social basis than was previously thought. Drawing on census
and town records, his portraits of abolitionists reveal the many
contributions of ordinary citizens, especially laborers and women
long overshadowed by famous movement leaders. Paul Goodman's humane
spirit informs these pages. His book is a scholarly legacy that
will enrich the history of antebellum race and reform movements for
years to come.
"[God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on
all the face of the earth."--Acts 17: 26
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