In the fourteenth chapter of Inhuman Bondage<\/i>, David Brion Davis examines the impact Great Britain had on the politics of slavery in the United States, a topic often bypassed by most historians. Noting the South\u2019s political dominance from 1789 to 1861 and the \u201cpathetically weak and politically ineffective\u201d abolitionism of the 1830s and 1840s, Davis goes to great lengths to explain how the United States\u2019 monarchic \u201cmother country\u201d influenced the constant threats of disunion from Southern officials when it came to abolitionism. According to Davis, Southerners viewed abolitionism as a \u201cBritish-sponsored crusade to destroy American society\u201d and therefore was the reason for their \u201cparanoid, disproportionate response\u201d to Northern critics.<\/p>\n

One of the main reasons why Southerners believed abolitionism in the United States was British-sponsored was because of the recent emancipation of slaves in British colonies \u2013 a point the author of \u201cInternational Politics of Slavery\u201d points out. Citing John C. Calhoun, Davis explains that the only way Great Britain was to remain financial superior was to eliminate its rival slave societies. Numerous influential Americans saw through Britain\u2019s philanthropic veil however. Proslavery writers referred to Jamaica, a recently emancipated slave colony of Great Britain\u2019s, when contending Great Britain had ulterior motives; Abel Upshur\u2019s State Department published in 1843 that \u201cthe price of freeholds in Jamaica had declined by half; coffee and sugar production had declined by as much as 50 percent, and some large plantations were worth less than 10 percent of their preemancipation value.\u201d Thus, it is no wonder why the South responded so hysterically to abolitionism in the decades leading up to the American Civil War. Only threats of disunion could stem what the South believed to be British-sponsored abolitionism and the consequent economic ruin.<\/p>\n

Davis continues, explaining that as the nation came closer to civil war, the South began viewing the North as \u201ca perfect replica of the British enemy.\u201d Like Britain, the North was attempting to destroy their economy under a mask of \u201cmisguided humanitarianism.\u201d Secession appeared to be the only act that could save the South\u2019s economy. Overall, Davis does an excellent job of illuminating an often-unmentioned cause of the American Civil War. Great Britain did indeed play its part in the deadliest conflict in American history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the fourteenth chapter of Inhuman Bondage, David Brion Davis examines the impact Great Britain had on the politics of slavery in the United States, a topic often bypassed by most historians. Noting the South\u2019s political dominance from 1789 to 1861 and the \u201cpathetically weak and politically ineffective\u201d abolitionism of the 1830s and 1840s, Davis … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Great Britain’s Impact on the Politics of Slavery in the United States”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,78,116,236],"class_list":["post-473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abolition","tag-disunion","tag-great-britain","tag-south"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/his141-spring2014\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}