The Antislavery Debate: Capitalism and Abolitionism as a Problem in Historical Interpretation / Edition 1

by Thomas Bender, John Ashworth, David Brion Davis, Thomas L. Haskell

Overview

This volume brings together one of the most provocative debates among historians in recent years. The center of controversy is the emergence of the antislavery movement in the United States and Britain and the relation of capitalism to this development.

The essays delve beyond these issues, however, to raise a deeper question of historical interpretation: What are the relations between consciousness, moral action, and social change? The debate illustrates that concepts common in historical practice are not so stable as we have thought them to be. It is about concepts as much as evidence, about the need for clarity in using the tools of contemporary historical practice.

The participating historians are scholars of great distinction. Beginning with an essay published in the American Historical Review (AHR), Thomas L. Haskell challenged the interpretive framework of David Brion Davis's celebrated study, The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution. The AHR subsequently published responses by Davis and by John Ashworth, as well as a rejoinder by Haskell. The AHR essays and the relevant portions of Davis's book are reprinted here. In addition, there are two new essays by Davis and Ashworth and a general consideration of the subject by Thomas Bender.

This is a highly disciplined, insightful presentation of a major controversy in historical interpretation that will expand the debate into new realms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520077799
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/02/1992
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Thomas Bender is University Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History at New York University. John Ashworth is Lecturer in American Studies at the University of East Anglia. David Brion Davis is Sterling Professor of History at Yale University. Thomas L. Haskell is Professor of History at Rice University.

Table of Contents

Preface
Contributors
Introduction / Thomas Bender

PART 1: THE PROBLEM OF SLAVERY IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION,
1770-1823 /DAVID BRION DAVIS
1. What the Abolitionists Were Up Against
2. The Quaker Ethic and the Antislavery
International
3. The Preservation of English Liberty, I

PART 2: THE AHR DEBATE
4. Capitalism and the Origins of the Humanitarian
Sensibility, Part 1 / Thomas L. Haskell
5. Capitalism and the Origins of the Humanitarian
Sensibility, Part 2 / Thomas L. Haskell
6. Reflections on Abolitionism and Ideological Hegemony /
David Brion Davis
7. The Relationship between Capitalism and
Humanitarianism / John Ashworth
8. Convention and Hegemonic Interest in the Debate
over Antislavery: A Reply to Davis and Ashworth /
Thomas L. Haskell

PART 3: THE DEBATE CONTINUED
9. Capitalism, Class, and Antislavery / John Ashworth
10. The Perils of Doing History by Ahistorical Abstraction:
A Reply to Thomas L. Haskell's AHR Forum Reply /
David Brion Davis
Index