They are run by the help of computers but the basic process is the same. Cspan, created by american Cable Companies and brought to you by of Public Service as your cable or satellite provider. Now its my pleasure to introduce the professor from the university of amherst. He is the author of the counterrevolution of slavery and the co editor of the two valium africanamerican mosaic, a documentary history from the african slave trade to the 21st century. In 2011 she was awarded a medal and is the recipient of numerous fellowships including the National Endowment for the humanities. Boston globe cause calls this a great look at the end of slavery they call it a stunning new history we are so very delighted to have her joining us this evening. Now please join me in welcoming Manisha Sinha [applause]. Thank you for that generous introduction. So as you can probably tell from the size of this book, i have said almost everything i wanted to about abolition. Today i will briefly outline some of the more important intervention. The slaves cause is a comprehensive history of abolition that reevaluates it as a radical, interracial movement. Far from narrowing the foundries of freedom and ownership and legitimizing new forms of servitude and modern forms of inequality, we argue that this broadens the rises of democracy and gave birth to other passions not restricted, the american abolitionist moment unfolded in a hundred year drama in law, politics, literature and on the ground activism. The book also extends the chronological parameters of abolition from the classical precivil war. Back back to the 80th century and rejects Historical Division between slave resistance and anti slavery activism. Only by writing africanamericans free and enslaved out of its history can we view abolitionists as the middle cost White Movement burdened by paternalism and conservatism slave resistance, i argue, lay at the heart of the movement. Slave rebellion and criticisms of slavery in colonial america, the enslaved inspired the formation of the quaker dominated as well as the first landmark cases one could argue that behind every significant anti slavery judicial decision lay enslaved litigants from the famous case in britain in 1772 which establish the freedom principle there by not allowing slave holders to forcibly transport their slaves back to the colonies from britain. Slavery was abolished in the commonwealth because two slaves chose to sue for their freedom. Right down to the case which is inspired Abraham Lincoln to have his most memorable indictment of slavery. They did not for example, i found the british quaker abolitionists call for immediate abolition in 1884 which most historians are aware of. Its the first call for immediate abolition of slavery. Most understood the story of abolition must begin with the struggles of the enslaved. This is particularly true on the impact on the movement to abolish slavery has not really been appreciated. We have many histories of the haitian revolution and we are aware of the tragic history of the islands being made worse by the policies of former colonizers but were really not aware of how profound the impact was on the movement to abolish slavery. In fact it was the first instance of immediate uncompensated, slaveholder abolition. The connection between slave resistance and abolition in the United States was proximate. It gave them their most enduring issue. Provided the movement, we are all aware of reverend douglas but of course there were many men and women like douglas who wrote their narratives and their narratives constituted the literature of the Abolition Movement and they also became very effective critics. Slaveholders find it difficult to dismiss former slaves. Fugitive slaves through their experiences, could oppose and criticize for much broader audience. Even after bitter divisions funded the movement, and nothing brought them together then there desperate bid for freedom. Some historians have declared that resistance to in slavery pase but it was central to the abolitionist movement. To leave the enslaved out of abolition is to profoundly miss the part that africanamericans have played in shaping the protest tradition of american democracy. Slave resistance and discourse and it moved abolition. This challenged the slave codes mandated by the federal fugitive slave laws. Enslaved freedom seekers contribution to the breakdown between the southern and northern states. A dress rehearsal for their momentous actions during the civil war when they helped initiate the emancipation process by voting and flocking to union army lines. Heres one instance in which you can see how emancipation during the war had in fact abolitionist roots. This movement of slaves moving them away from their enslavers. This history of abolition is an integrated story. Even though it is not usually told in that manner. The insidious divide between white and black activism is both racist and inaccurate. There was no such Racial Division of political labor in the Abolition Movement. Early africanamerican literature, black abolitionist intellectual response to the race and debate over citizenship and immigration performed the work of political protest. They should finally put to rest the influential view of imitated in the scriptures of middleclass reform and divorce from the plight of southern slaves and northern masters. Black and white abolitionists, i argue, also went beyond the simple appeal to the American Republic tradition that sought to simply include africanamericans in its promise. They generated a powerful critique and constructed a counter narrative that highlighted its origins in the slave trade and slavery. Most historians, for for instance except that white abolitionists got their anticolonization program from africanamericans. This this was the program to colonize them back to africa. They had found favor with the founding fathers, thomas jefferson, James Madison and other politicians right down to the civil war. I found that black abolitionist influence to be ongoing in the movement beyond the rejection of colonization. One of my biggest aha moments in writing this book was to discover that he got his famous condemnation of the u. S. Constitution as a covenant and an agreement from the black abolitionist minister. It made sense to me because he was not much of a scholar of the bible. He was a theologian. He would actually articulate this made sense. Ironically, he cited with the political and evangelical abolitionists. He extended his condemnation of the fugitive slave laws of constitution to the constitution itself. The alternative nature of abolitionism is showcased by its Diverse Membership which gave rise to corporation as well as the creative conflict of cross lines, race class and gender. The Abolition Movement was driven by outsiders in birthing the first womens right movement they revealed its radical face. The presence of women and especially their speaking out in public all acquired acquiring, lead led to division in the Movement Among them who felt womens right was an essential part of human right and the relatively more conservative opponent who opposed womens right. Both for ideological reasons but also a pragmatic reason. They simply did not. During reconstruction, of course , it faltered. The Womens Movement became more autonomous as they rejected amendments to the constitution that introduced the word mail in the u. S. Constitution. It also last the commitment to racial equality. As a right in the book, some things were gained but a lot was lost. The recognize the oppression of the slaves was linked to other wrongs in their world. More than a few abolitionists join such international movements, such as feminism, utopias is him and championed them. They issued oppression sounds a lot like bernie sanders. I quote, i am writing in wall street where the money changes congregate and where their scene sidebyside. It is rightly deemed wall street in quest of riches and expense of mankind,. [inaudible] only garrison could write like that. This is not just an isolated quotation. He supported a ten hour day. He formed an alliance, supported journeymen printers strike and after the civil war he supported the eight hour day movement. Some abolitionists even contemplated contemporary american surges, garrison once said all american institutions shut their door to black people except what he called the prison houses. Abolition, the book argues was a radical Democratic Movement that question the enslavement of labor. Abolitionists were not so much. s of liberal democracy as many have argued, but critics of it. In prioritizing the abolition of slavery, they do not ignore or defend forms of oppression in the modern world. They were the intellectual and political precursors of 20th century anticolonial and civil rights activist. Debating the nature of society and politics, the relationship relationship between racial inequality and democracy nation and empire, labor and capital agenda and citizenship. They exposed, abolitionists were [inaudible] i was delighted to read combinations of british imperialism in india in the liberator. I uncovered personal connections between early Indian Nationalist and anglo and american abolitionists who were interested in the cause of india. In fact, i discovered that just as abolitionists have locks of hair from the famous british abolitionist, they send locks of hair from the social reformer to be sold in boston. That was quite an amazing find. Abolitionist who were original and critical thinkers on democracy were not simply romantic conformers who confine themselves to appeal to the heart, the movement against slavery made a signal contribution to the discourse of human rights and humanitarianism. The depiction of from slave narrative dripping with blood to newspapers and pamphlets has appeared to many scholars as racist objective occasion of the enslaved. This scholarly gaze, the vast condescension bestowed the very real history of black suffering under the political economy of a harsh played regimen and it leads people astray. It is based on the whitewash understanding of abolition. Its roots lie in slave holders sense of response to abolitionist criticism and its fundamentally misreads. The attempt to evoke radical. [inaudible] those lessons remain useful today. [inaudible] as the movement matured the cause of the american slave became intertwined with that of democracy, Civil Liberties and the emancipation of the men in labor. It is no quince it and set the brief and inconceivable triumph of the abolitionist vision resulted in the greatest extension of american democracy. Abolitionism denies its greatest contraction. At the heart of that movement, they argued a long time ago lay the slaves struggle for freedom and human dignity. Far from being an extreme formulation with no relevance to the important events of the day, the political project, the over throw of the 19th century american topic was at the vanguard of slavery. Some became disenchanted with their country and government while others sought to harness the bar of the state against slavery. The history of abolition is a idea of how a radical social movement can generate engines of political change. Principal versus experience, giving rise to division over tactic. Abolitionist debated debated the possibility of the church, state and society as well as their ability to change. Whether society could be transformed through Political Action and whether the state was an arena of conflict or a tool. It is a mistake however to equate slave holders political power with modern day formation. For good reason, a conservative political tradition of american stakeholders who dominated the federal and state governments from the inception and use all the parts of the state to further the interest of slavery was strongly anti stated. In fact they have used what Political Sciences call the formation. [inaudible] a look at how abolitionists and antis library slavery radicals use part of the state to implement their vision of interracial democracy. This is of course especially true after the antislavery Republican Republican Party came into power with lincolns election in 1860 and i do want to add a caveat here that everything you know about the republican and Democratic Party today, you should just flip for the 19th century. I think it is a useful corrective from modernday activists who fight against various forms of social and economic injustice to look at the ways in which abolitionists are thought to affect political change. Perhaps no one understood this better than the fugitive slave abolitionist Frederick Douglass who broke with garrison over this issue of Political Action. The origins of progressive constitutionalism lie in the debate over the nature of the u. S. Constitution. Particularly with douglas who went beyond the intent of the founders to view the constitution as the living, breathing document that each generation made. It was certainly that abolitionist vision that inspired radical reconstruction and the reconstruction amendments to the constitution after the civil war. A New Historical narrative of abolition, the slaves called challenges longs the ending binaries. For too long historians of abolition have told a story in a fragmented fashion and continue to do so along lines of race and gender. Older historical debates over the relative importance of garris tony and versus the evangelicals and political abolitionists revisit and rehash abolitionist divisions. At times i am adopting the vision of their subjects. I found them to be far less important important than the attention lavished on them suggest. Theyre highly conducive to the protection ration for perpetuation. My book narrates the Movement History of abolition in the United States in a transnational context. From its inception it was an interracial one and tied to the development of american democracy. From the early black protest against slavery to the movement against the slave trade in the late 18th century to the golden age of abolitionism in the years before the civil where war, they they were united by their devotion. The project of affecting americans in a global democracy remains to be fulfilled. In that sense, its legacy is an ongoing one. Thank you for listening so patiently. [applause]. I should add that much of what i said is from the introduction of the book. If youd like what you heard today, the book is available at the bookstore. I was told that i should say that. [laughter] i welcome your questions. Since you mentioned the hatred evolution, i wanted to ask your perspective on this, what perspective do the american abolitionists take from the british example . A very good question. Abolitionists recognized it as a hemisphere wide institution. They lauded it as the only example with immediate abolition without compensation to slaveholders they were very critical of british emancipation because of the long drawn out. Of apprenticeship and slaveholders. They said if anyone deserves compensation it was the slaves themselves. Even more, i found found the africanamerican abolitionist, especially in their newspapers and print culture, they were really aware of the latin american wars of independence debate over Citizenship Rights versus free blacks and enslave people. They reproduced writings are revolutionaries and they continue right down to the 1830s and 1848 european revolution. Many of the refugees from those revolutions, especially the germans joined the Abolition Movement. There was kind of a direct connection there. Whats fascinating, to tell you the truth, the most, was the, was the fact that someone like garrison who is a pacifist, and extreme pacifist is a nonresistance, he doesnt believe in the use of force in any circumstances. Eventually when they come to support the raid, theyve had a long history of looking at a transnational movement, of institute incidences of slave rebellion and actually defending them. You mentioned items that were for sale in the antislavery fair. Can can you Say Something more about that . How created kind of a modern movement. The fundraising tactics were really interesting. Women would produce needle work, you know, maybe use needle conscious would be a motto that they would sell and they would sell, farmers would bring butter and other produce that they had to sell at these fairs, more fancy items were donated in england and brought over including lox of hair that i mentioned. Black women abolish hold their own support black newspapers like the colored american in new york, in philadelphia, black women corporated in the interracial female antislavery society. You had interracial corporation amongst women but it also showed how women really were the fundraisers of the movement. You know, they kept newspapers like the National Antislavery Standard in new york or the liberator in boston afloat by raising a lot of funds in the bizarres and would hold them at the same time as commencement at Brown University to be able to sell their fairs. Its one of the way that is we see how women contributed from the movement but also how modern the movement was and the kind of fundraising. Contributions ofless than 25 or less than 5 but thats exactly how they fund raised in the Abolition Movement. Before the revolution there were a series of cases that were more for freedom and then the slave repossessions during, in 1773 or 75, one of the complaints was that there was no law in massachusetts allowing for slavery and then the two cases were only after the constitution was adopted where there was all men are created equal fraiz. So it was like they quit principle for abolition because there wasnt any law against. Was this true in other state northern states . Well, interestingly enough in massachuset