NSCC Library: Anti-Racism Resources : Slavery and Abolitionist Movement (1790-1860)

Introduction

This section looks at the pre-Civil War years. Learn about early rebellions of enslaved people and the role of abolitionists in changing public opinion about slavery in the United States. Explore court cases that challenged the legal basis for slavery.

The documentary series "Emancipation Road" looks at the different eras of the historic struggle for Black freedom. This episode looks at the history of slavery in the United States from the beginning of the Atlantic Slave Trade to the American Civil War.

Nat Turner Rebellion (1831)

Nat Turner by Kenneth S. Greenberg (Editor)
Call Number: NSCC E-Book
ISBN: 9780195134049
Publication Date: 2003-02-01
Nat Turner's name rings through American history with a force all its own. Leader of the most important slave rebellion on these shores, variously viewed as a murderer of unarmed women and children, an inspired religious leader, a fanatic--this puzzling figure represents all the terriblecomplexities of American slavery. And yet we do not know what he looked like, where he is buried, or even whether Nat Turner was his real name.In Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory, Kenneth S. Greenberg gathers twelve distinguished scholars to offer provocative new insight into the man, his rebellion, and his time, and his place in history. This book explores:
Turner's slave community
The religious and literary context for the uprising
The place of women in the insurrection
The national context in which the uprising took place
Other rebellions across America
Representations of Turner in popular culture
The Confessions of Nat Turner, the Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Virginia by Nat Turner
Call Number: NSCC E-Book
ISBN: 9780807869451
Publication Date: 2011-09-01
The Confessions of Nat Turner details Turner's life and the events surrounding that armed revolt, which left more than fifty men, women, and children dead and that culminated in Turner's execution. Interviewed by Thomas R. Gray while in prison for his crimes, Turner begins his story with his earliest childhood memories, and the subsequent narrative leads the reader through his decision, formed over years in slavery, to strike for freedom. He discusses his religious conversion and his belief that he was called by God to murder slave owners. He spares no detail as he describes each murder he oversaw or committed. Unique in its historical moment and powerful voice, The Confessions of Nat Turner provides an uncensored look into one of the key events in the slave-holding South.

Nat Turner Landing Page
Explore more about Nat Turner's life and the Nat Turner Rebellion in U.S. History in Context.

Amistad Slave Revolt (1839)

Amistad: The Federal Courts and the Challenge to Slavery from the Federal Judicial Center

In 1839 the federal courts became the stage for a drama involving enslaved Africans who led a revolt against their captors and sought to return to their homeland in West Africa. The case of the Amistad forced the judiciary to address issues related to the slave trade, the property claims of slaveholders, and the enslaved men's claim of personal liberty. This program uses an extensive selection of historic images and documents to tell the story that culminated with the Supreme Court's decision about the freedom of the Africans from the Amistad.

The Amistad Trials from The Great Courses

Learn about the legal importance of the Amistad trials by exploring three questions they presented. First: Are the African mutineers criminals? Second: Are they property? Third: If neither, what should happen to them? The ensuing controversy, you'll learn, helped build momentum for turning public opinion in the North against slavery.

Mutiny on the Amistad by Howard Jones
Call Number: NSCC E-Book
ISBN: 9780195038293
Publication Date: 1997-11-20
This volume presents the first full-scale treatment of the only instance in history where African blacks, seized by slave dealers, won their freedom and returned home. Jones describes how, in 1839, Joseph Cinque led a revolt on the Spanish slave ship, the Amistad, in the Caribbean. Theseizure of the ship by an American naval vessel near Montauk, Long Island, the arrest of the Africans in Connecticut, and the Spanish protest against the violation of their property rights created an international controversy.The Amistad affair united Lewis Tappan and other abolitionists who put the "law of nature" on trial in the United States by their refusal to accept a legal system that claimed to dispense justice while permitting artificial distinctions based on race or color. The mutiny resulted in a trialbefore the U.S. Supreme Court that pitted former President John Quincy Adams against the federal government. Jones vividly recaptures this compelling drama--the most famous slavery case before Dred Scott--that climaxed in the court's ruling to free the captives and allow them to return to Africa.

Rethinking the Case of the Schooner Amistad : Contraband and Complicity after 1808/1820
Based on new archival findings and new interpretations, this article presents new perspectives of the ‘Amistad case’, bringing it back into Caribbean and Atlantic history. The article demonstrates that the captain of the Amistad, Ramón Ferrer, and his crew were transatlantic slave traders and smugglers and provides proof that the Amistad was built in Cuba. Moreover, as a result of the enormous profits of the illegal slave trade, Ferrer bought more slave ships and invested much money in the modernization of plantation production. This article also critiques one of the most influential narratives about the Atlantic crossing of the Amistad captives: that they did so in a ‘Portuguese ship named Teçora’. As the harbor lists of Havana in 1839 show, the captives came in a ship named Hugh Boyle under the American captain, J.R. Brown. All this gives new insights into the American participation in the hidden Atlantic and the significance of Cuba as a provider of contraband captives for the American South.

Dred Scott v Sandford (1857)

The Dred Scott Decision

The requirement that judges restrain their personal feelings and prevent outside factors from influencing their judicial decisions can be traced back to English common law. This practice is known as judicial restraint, and the abandonment of this essential principle is at the heart of a controversial case known as The Dred Scott Decision.

The Dred Scott case : historical and contemporary perspectives on race and law by David Thomas Konig
Call Number: NSCC E-Book
ISBN: 9780821443286
Publication Date: 2010-01-01
In 1846 two slaves, Dred and Harriet Scott, filed petitions for their freedom in the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri. As the first true civil rights case decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, Dred Scott v. Sandford raised issues that have not been fully resolved despite three amendments to the Constitution and more than a century and a half of litigation.
The decision, which held that African Americans "had no rights" under the Constitution and that Congress had no authority to alter that, galvanized Americans and thrust the issue of race and law to the center of American politics. This collection of essays revisits the history of the case and its aftermath in American life and law. In a final section, the present-day justices of the Missouri Supreme Court offer their reflections on the process of judging and provide perspective on the misdeeds of their nineteenth-century predecessors who denied the Scotts their freedom.
Origins of the Dred Scott Case by Austin Allen; Kermit Hall (Series edited by); Timothy Huebner (Series edited by)
Call Number: NSCC E-Book
ISBN: 9780820336640
Publication Date: 2010-01-25
The Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision denied citizenship to African Americans and enabled slavery's westward expansion. It has long stood as a grievous instance of justice perverted by sectional politics. Austin Allen finds that the outcome of Dred Scott hinged not on a single issue--slavery--but on a web of assumptions, agendas, and commitments held collectively and individually by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney and his colleagues. Allen carefully tracks arguments made by Taney Court justices in more than 1,600 reported cases in the two decades prior to Dred Scott and in its immediate aftermath. By showing us the political, professional, ideological, and institutional contexts in which the Taney Court worked, Allen reveals that Dred Scott was not simply a victory for the Court's prosouthern faction. It was instead an outgrowth of Jacksonian jurisprudence, an intellectual system that charged the Court with protecting slavery, preserving both federal power and state sovereignty, promoting economic development, and securing the legal foundations of an emerging corporate order--all at the same time. Here is a wealth of new insight into the internal dynamics of the Taney Court and the origins of its most infamous decision.

Dred Scott v Sandford
Explore academic articles, primary sources, news, and background information on the Dred Scott case in our US History in Context Database.