Migrants against Slavery: Virginians and the Nation by Philip J. Schwarz (review)

Reviews Philip J. Schwarz. Migrants against Slavery: Virgillialls and the Nation. Charlttesville: University Press of Virginia, looI. 288 pp. ISBN: 08I 3920086 {cli, th), $ 38.90. In recent decades histi,rians have expressed renewed interest in migratic, n and settlement among Eurc, pean and African Americans in the TransAppalachian West between the Revolution and the Civil War. Philip Schwarz' s Migrmits against Sitivery, While 11(, t focused exclusively ( 111 either the Ohic, Valley or the West, is a welcome, innovative ,and fresh addition to that literature. Schwarz's bc, I)k tells the stciries of those Virginitins who " intentionally"left the Old Dominion because of their oppositic, n to slavery. Excluded by Schwarz's definition are those who opposed slavery on more lukewarm, passive terms, including those merely seeking a " white man's land"that would be free of slave labor and/ or African Aineric. ins. Thus the book primarily emphasizes fugitive slaves, staunch white antislavery activists, and free blacks driven from their native land. This, as the reader comes tc) see, is by no means a small or insignificant group and includes a broad range of pc(, plc. Sonic are familiar, such as John Mercer Langston, Anth(, ny Burns, and Henry Box Brown, while others, indeed most, are exceedingly obscure. The bulk of Migrants against Slavery is broken into two sections. The first three chapters offer broadly drawn assessments, including overviews of fugitives slaves' effc, rts to escape Virginia, the cumulative impact of ftigitive slaves' actions on Virginians. northerners, and Canadians, and the efforts of antislavery and free black Virginians to escape slavery and/ or reenslavement through emigration to other 1(, cati(} tls, including the areas directly north of the Ohic, River. The final four chapters then offer case studies of specific individuals and groups in order to illustrate more fully the cc) 11iplex mc, tives, character, and accomplishments () t migrants against slavery These stories told by Schwarz:ire complex indeed and wrought with irony. Included are tales of George Boxley, a failed white slave insurrectionary; the Gilliam family, lightskinned free blacks who used their northern move as . in opportunity to begin passing as white people; the troubled mass emancipation of 3 50 bondpe, plc held by the Samuel Gist estate, and complications arising fr(, iii the efforts of ati elderly white farmer, Henry Newby, to free his slave mistress and their children through resettlement in the irec state of Ohic). Overall, Schwarz concludes, the migration against slavery produced mixed results. Though difficult to gauge precisely, the emigration clearly had an external Cinterstate and national) impact on the control that slave owners hoped to maintain over their slaves and on their dominatic , n of Virginia politics." ( p. I 74) It als(, helped fuel the national argument (, ver slavery that culminated in the Civil War and emancipation. Less fortunate were the subsequent lives of the migrants examined in the case studies. All suffered iii one way or another because of the lingering influences associated with slavery and the virulent midnine teenth century racism it bred. Schwarz's book, it should be noted, is a finely crafted work of schc, larship. The author's research is wellground ed , making extensive use of both primary and secondary source materials, and the argument throughout is judicious and carefully reasc, ned. The author might have bri, adened his discussicin of white kintislaveiy ctiiigrants : ind cleepened his study with more informatic, n on the migration of Quakers and other religiouslydriven opponents of slavery This, hc, wever,is a minor criticism given the hoc, k's overall strengths, especially its insightfully drawn case studies. Stephen Vincent Universitv of Wisconsin, Whitewater James Sinicone. Democracy and Slavery iii Frontier Illinois:The Bottomland Republic. DeK: ilb, Ill.:Northern Illin() is University Press, 2000. 189 pp. ISBN: 08758 0263 X (cloth),S40. 00. In his well-researched and provocative book, James Simeone argues that the Illinois convention crisis of I8221824 served as the crucible through which po) r white farmers initiated the region's transitic, n from a deferential to a democratic political culture. Perceiving themselves as an endangered middle-class, threatened from below by enslaved and free blacks and fri, m above by overbearing elites, Illinois' s poor white...