New England slavery. "Short of the truth": Slavery in the lives of whites. Another truth: enslavement in the lives of people of color -- The antislavery impulse. To "clear our spirits": Whites' expectations of freedom from slavery. The "privilage of freemen": Blacks' expectations of freedom from slavery -- "Slaves of the community": gradual emancipation in practice -- A "Negro spirit": em-bodying difference -- "To abolish the Black man": enacting the antislavery promise -- "A thing unknown": the free white republic as New England writ large -- "We are the alphabet": free people of color and the discourse of "race."
Summary
Following the abolition of slavery in New England, white citizens seemed to forget that it had ever existed there. Drawing on a wide array of primary sources--from slaveowners' diaries to children's daybooks to racist broadsides--Joanne Pope Melish reveals not only how northern society changed but how its perceptions changed as well. Melish explores the origins of racial thinking and practices to show how ill-prepared the region was to accept a population of free people of color in its midst. Because emancipation was gradual, whites transferred prejudices shaped by slavery to their relations with free people of color, and their attitudes were buttressed by abolitionist rhetoric which seemed to promise riddance of slaves as much as slavery. She tells how whites came to blame the impoverished condition of people of color on their innate inferiority, how racialization became an important component of New England ante-bellum nationalism, and how former slaves actively participated in this discourse by emphasizing their African identity. Placing race at the center of New England history, Melish contends that slavery was important not only as a labor system but also as an institutionalized set of relations. The collective amnesia about local slavery's existence became a significant component of New England regional identity
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on August 14, 2023)
