Slavery's Borderland: Freedom and Bondage Along the Ohio River

Matthew Salafia

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2013

Slavery's Borderland

Freedom and Bondage Along the Ohio River

Matthew Salafia

In the series Early American Studies

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812208665

Overview
Contents

About this book

By centering the practical and figurative significance of the Ohio River as a political border, a cultural boundary, and an artery of movement and economy that gave form to the region, Matthew Salafia sheds light on peculiarities of labor and economy along the Ohio River.

Author / Editor information

Matthew Salafia is coordinator of the University Honors Program and teaches at North Dakota State University.

Reviews

"Slavery's Borderland directs our attention from states defined by arbitrary political borders to fluid regions defined by networks of people interacting within a shared landscape. Avoiding the usual tendency to emphasize differences between slave Kentucky and free Ohio and Indiana, Matthew Salafia shows systems of labor evolving along a continuum that straddled the Ohio River. A fresh and long overdue perspective."—Andrew Cayton, Miami University

"Rather than seeing the Ohio River as a flowing borderline separating slavery from freedom, Salafia's work revises historians' well-worn assumptions to explore how cross-river connections sustained a region economically and—at least among whites—socially during the first half of the nineteenth century. . . . How long will it be before we have a reconsideration of the entire borderland between slavery and freedom from the colonial period to the post-Civil War era? Salafia's book has given the field an approach—and a regional start—for how that work might be done best."—Journal of the Early Republic

"[This book] is engagingly written, the individual stories are compelling, and Salafia weaves them all together to give readers a real sense of time and place. Slavery's Borderland deserves a wide readership for it offers much insight into how racism became embedded in American culture."—American Historical Review

"Matthew Salafia brings the growing literature on the variety within American slavery and the 'many Souths' into conversation with the rich literature on the Old Northwest, and adds to all of these the uniqueness of slavery in the Ohio valley and its relationship with servitude across the river. By placing the river at the center, Slavery's Borderland transcends not only state histories but also regional histories."—Matthew Mason, Brigham Young University

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. Listening to the River Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter one. Origins of the Border between Slavery and Freedom Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	15
Chapter two. Crossing the Line Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Chapter three. Slaveholding Liberators Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Chapter four. Steamboats and the Transformation of the Borderland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
Chapter five. Politics of Unity and Difference Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
Chapter six. Fugitive Slaves and the Borderland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Chapter seven. The Nature of Antislavery in the Borderland Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Chapter eight. The Borderland and the Civil War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 328
Illustrations
- Other: 7 illus
Keywords: History; American History; American Studies

eBook

Published: May 28, 2013
ISBN: 9780812208665