In this Book
- In the Shadow of Freedom: The Politics of Slavery in the National Capital
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: Ohio University Press
Few images of early America were more striking, and jarring, than that of slaves in the capital city of the world’s most important free republic. Black slaves served and sustained the legislators, bureaucrats, jurists, cabinet officials, military leaders, and even the presidents who lived and worked there. While slaves quietly kept the nation’s capital running smoothly, lawmakers debated the place of slavery in the nation, the status of slavery in the territories newly acquired from Mexico, and even the legality of the slave trade in itself. In the Shadow of Freedom, with essays by some of the most distinguished historians in the nation, explores the twin issues of how slavery made life possible in the District and how lawmakers in the District regulated slavery in the nation.
Table of Contents
- Slavery in the Shadow of Liberty
- pp. 3-15
- Part 1: Congress and Slavery in Context
- Saturday Nights at the Baileys’
- pp. 83-96
- Debating Slavery by Proxy
- pp. 125-137
- Part 2: The Politics of Slavery in the District of Columbia
- The 1846 Retrocession of Alexandria
- pp. 141-168
- The 1848 Pearl Escape from Washington, D.C.
- pp. 195-219
- Contributors
- pp. 239-240