The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916Various
History
The Journal of Negro History, Volume 1, January 1916
Various
African Americans -- Periodicals
The book is essentially a work by a scholar for scholars. It is certainly
not for the laity. The facts are striking but well substantiated. There can
be no doubt but that much time has been spent in its compilation. The
style, however, is unusually dry. It has appendices, an invaluable
bibliography, a carefully tabulated index, four maps, and three portraits
of Indian leaders.
It is interesting to note that the author is of British birth and ancestry
and so presumably is free from sectional prejudice. Her book marks a
distinct step forward, for those who are interested in Indian affairs.
JESSIE FAUSET.
_The Political History of Slavery in the United States._ By James Z.
George, formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi and
later United States Senator from that State. The Neale Publishing Company,
New York, 1915. Pp. xix, 342.
This is a discussion as well as the history of slavery and Reconstruction
from the time of the introduction of the slaves in 1619 to the break-up of
the carpet-bagger governments. "Considering the jealousies and even
animosities that are becoming more and more intensified between the North
and South, as well as the disposition that is ever increasing in the
stronger section to dominate the weaker," the author believes that "it is
becoming necessary to think over calmly and seriously the causes that have
produced these evils, and to ascertain, if we can, the remedy, if remedy
there be."
The work begins with a sketch of ancient slavery, showing that the
introduction of the institution into the Southern States was not
exceptional. He then gives an account of slavery in the colonies, and the
efforts to suppress the slave trade. The connection of slavery with the War
of 1812 and with the Hartford Convention is noted. He then takes up the
Missouri Compromise with some detail, giving almost verbatim the
proceedings of Congress relative thereto. In the same way he treats the
"Repudiation of the Missouri Compromise," the Annexation of Texas, the
Wilmot Proviso, the Kansas--Nebraska Affair, the Lincoln and Douglas
Debates, John Brown's Invasion, Secession, the Civil War, and
Reconstruction.
Throughout this treatise, he carefully notes the "jealousy of sectional
interest and power and the determination to maintain this power even at a
cost of a dissolution of the Union," In other words, the whole sectional
struggle grew out of what he calls the effort to maintain the balance of
power between two sections of the Union, with the slavery question
contributing thereto. Facts set forth bring out very clearly that the South
is not to be censured as being especially hostile to the Negro when on the
statute books of the North there are found numerous laws to show that
persons of color were not considered desirables in those States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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