Black Resettlement and the American Civil War

The first comprehensive, comparative account of nineteenth-century America's efforts to resettle African Americans outside the United States.

Sebastian N. Page (Author)

9781107141773, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 January 2021

328 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.5 cm, 0.645 kg

'Prodigiously researched and written in lively and clever prose, [this work] achieves the author's objective to 'chronicle the full geographic and institutional range of the drive for black resettlement' (1). This book is now the fullest account we have of the persistent efforts to resettle Black Americans during the Civil War era.' Paul J. Polgar, Agricultural History

Based on sweeping research in six languages, Black Resettlement and the American Civil War offers the first comprehensive, comparative account of nineteenth-century America's greatest road not taken: the mass resettlement of African Americans outside the United States. Building on resurgent scholarly interest in the so-called 'colonization' movement, the book goes beyond tired debates about colonization's place in the contest over slavery, and beyond the familiar black destinations of Liberia, Canada, and Haiti. Striding effortlessly from Pittsburgh to Panama, Toronto to Trinidad, and Lagos to Louisiana, it synthesizes a wealth of individual, state-level, and national considerations to reorient the field and set a new standard for Atlantic history. Along the way, it shows that what haunted politicians from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln was not whether it was right to abolish slavery, but whether it was safe to do so unless the races were separated.

Introduction
1. The Revival of 'Colonization,' to 1861
2. The Revival of 'Emigration,' to 1862
3. The Republican Party and Resettlement, to 1863
4. Resettlement in Latin America, to 1864
5. Resettlement in the European West Indies, to 1865
6. Alternatives to Foreign Resettlement, to 1868
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Slavery & abolition of slavery [HBTS], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK], African history [HBJH]