American Slavers and the Federal Law, 1837-1862, and: The United States and the African Slave Trade, 1619-1862 (review)

BOOK REVIEWS85 pressures of his office, yet at the same time there was much opportunity for entrepreneurial endeavor. Palfrey remained financially comfortable for the remainder of his life after his service there. The material here is a rich vein of information on one part of the civil administration and politics of the war. A major problem of antislavery historiography has been that of motivation . Were the abolitionists and their less extreme cohorts socially disorganized neurotics or morally committed ideologues? Gatell does not deal with this as effectively as he could. A primary element underlying Palfrey's actions apparently was his desire for esteem and social acceptance, but at other times he flew in the face of this in his commitment against slavery. This ambiguity can be ascribed to the complexity underlying antislavery activity, but the problem of motivation is not clearly drawn. Perhaps a more important criticism is one of method. Gatell has mined every source, drawn together every fact, and presented a vivid and traditional life of a man. We are treated to much interesting detail on Palfrey's childhood and college days. One could maintain that this is necessary for an understanding of later actions and motives. On the other hand, John Morton Blum demonstrated a few years ago in a neglected byway of biographical scholarship, The Republican Roosevelt, that much can be done quite effectively without detailing every day of a subject's life. Finally, one might ask for some comparative biographical material: Were Palfrey's characteristics and dominant drives unique to him and other antislavery advocates and different from Cotton Whigs and nonFree Soilers? Or was everyone of one stripe? We can learn much from such comparisons as recent work on the Progressive Era has shown. Nevertheless these criticisms should not be taken as extreme denigrations of Gatell's book. There is too much in it of value. Joel H. Silbey University of Pittsburgh American Slavers and the Federal Law, 1837-1862. By Warren S. Howard. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1963. Pp. ix, 336. $6.50.) The United States and the African Slave Trade, 1619-1862. By Peter Duignan and Clarence Clendenen. (Stanford: Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, 1963. Pp. vii, 72. $1.50. ) At a time when American society is weathering a storm in its race relations, it should not be surprising to find historians turning their attention to further research and reinterpretation of slavery as an institution . After all, it was the existence of Negro slavery on American soil for three centuries which laid the foundations for our current racial troubles. These two books are concerned with what was without doubt die most repugnant and atrocious of the many ugly aspects of slavery, the buying and selling of human beings. Certainly the scenes of slave 86CIVIL WAR HISTORY pens, auction blocks, the classified ads offering human beings for sale, and the operations of the brokerage houses provide grim reminders that slavery was as much a speculative venture as it was a system of labor. Unlike other systems of wage labor, the slave trade was devised not only to place Negroes into slavery but their heirs as well in perpetuity. Both books focus on the traffic in slaves from Africa to America before 1862, but here the resemblance ceases. They contrast sharply in the way each defines the scope and treats the subject, in the depth of research, and in the quality of overall scholarship. In 1807, Congress outlawed the importation of slaves into the United States. Even earlier, in 1794, in 1800, and later in 1818 and 1820, other laws intended to restrict the participation of American citizens in the slave trade were enacted. During the nineteenth century, American naval patrols participated with British squadrons in policing the oceans against the slavers. When slave ships were seized and impounded, their owners and officers were brought to trial before federal courts. It is with the operation and administration of these laws regulating the oceanic traffic in slaves that provides the magnificent theme for Warren Howard's fine book. The questions he asks are important questions: How did the federal laws operate? How did the courts treat alleged violators, those...