{"product_id":"the-slaveholding-republic-an-account-of-the-united-states-governments-relations-to-slavery-9780195141771","title":"The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slavery","description":"\u003cp\u003eWilliam Lloyd Garrison argued--and many leading historians have since agreed--that the Constitution of the United States was a proslavery document. Garrison called it \"a covenant with death  and an agreement with hell.\" But in The Slaveholding Republic  one of Americas most eminent historians  Don E. Fehrenbacher  argues against this claim  in a wide-ranging  landmark history that stretches from the Continental Congress to the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Fehrenbacher ranges from sharp-eyed analyses of the deal-making behind the \"proslavery clauses\" of the constitution  to colorful accounts of partisan debates in Congress and heated confrontations with Great Britain (for instance  over slaves taken off American ships and freed in British ports). He shows us that the Constitution itself was more or less neutral on the issue of slavery and that  in the antebellum period  the idea that the Constitution protected slavery was hotly debated (many Northerners would concede only that slavery was protected by state law  not by federal law). Nevertheless  he also reveals that US policy--whether in foreign courts  on the high seas  in federal territories  or even in the District of Columbia--was consistently proslavery. The book concludes with a brilliant portrait of Lincoln. Fehrenbacher makes clear why Lincolns election was such a shock to the South and shows how Lincolns approach to emancipation  which seems exceedingly cautious by modern standards  quickly evolved into a \"Republican revolution\" that ended the anomaly of the United States as a \"slaveholding republic.\" The last and perhaps most important book by a Pulitzer-Prize winning historian  The Slaveholding Republic illuminates one of the most enduring issues in our nations history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45280473448501,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195141776","price":30.75,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195141771.jpg?v=1780638021","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-slaveholding-republic-an-account-of-the-united-states-governments-relations-to-slavery-9780195141771","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}