Slavery, Race and the American Revolution

This book analyses the impact of American Revolutionary ideology upon conceptions of the place of slavery in American society.

Duncan J. MacLeod (Author)

9780521098779, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 March 1975

260 pages
21.6 x 13.7 x 1.7 cm, 0.4 kg

This book analyses the impact of American Revolutionary ideology upon conceptions of the place of slavery in American society. The ambivalence involved in a libertarian revolution occurring in a slave society was as obvious to eighteenth-century Americans as it is to twentieth-century historians yet the obvious sincerity of Southern Republicanism and the persistence of slavery have presented a paradox with which historians have hardly come to terms.

1. The American Revolution and the institution of slavery
2. Revolutionary ideology in a slave society
3. Institutions, individuals and society: the dilemma of slavery and freedom
4. The Revolution reinforced: social, economic and scientific sources of racism
5. Conclusion

Subject Areas: History [HB]