Slavery, Resistance, Freedom

Edited by Gabor Boritt and Scott Hancock
Notes, map, 165 pp., 2007. Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Ave., New York, New York 10016, $24.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: James A. Percoco
James A. Percoco teaches U.S. and Applied History at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Va. He is author of A Passion for the Past: Creative Teaching of U.S. History and Divided We Stand: Teaching About Conflict in U.S. History. Percoco is a USA TODAY All-USA teacher and is an adjunct professor in the School of Education at American University where he serves as History Educator-in-Residence.

Review:
As more and more books about slavery and public memory proliferate, this snappy and condensed companion, skillfully edited by Gabor Boritt and newcomer Scott Hancock, will rank among the best.

In little more than 150 pages some of America's most respected scholars of the antebellum and Civil War era weigh in and illuminate a variety of issues tied to the Civil War and its leading cause. Among the stellar cast of historians contributing essays are John Hope Franklin, Edward L. Ayers, Ira Berlin, Eric Foner, Anne Sarah Rubin, Loren Schweninger, William G. Thomas, III, Noah Andre Trudeau and the editors themselves.

Each essay deals with varying aspects of the racial component of the age, starting with Berlin's analysis of American slavery in history and memory, Franklin and Schweninger's examination of resistance to slavery by running away, Hancock's look at the construction of African American memory in the antebellum North; then, Ayers, Thomas, and Rubin's analyses of the institution along the Mason and Dixon line, Trudeau's study of the use of black troops in the Union Army of the Potomac and finally Foner's examination of the myths and realities of black leadership during Reconstruction.

As long as Americans study this pivotal moment in United States history arguments will be raised over the participants' interpretations and motivations. But as more and more scholarship emerges, and as each of these authors contends, it is going to be harder and harder for Southern apologists to move the burden of proof over the cause of the war away from slavery to the lesser sin of "state rights."

As this scholarship continues, the rich story of African American resistance to slavery will expand as a growing body of evidence demonstrates that African Americans, both North and South, played a larger role than heretofore explored until the last two decades.

Written for wider readership and accessibility, the gem of this book is its size. It is not a tome and has been edited in such a way that raises the contentious issues, takes a stand, but is not over the top.

Readers who want to get a bite size piece of the story, which remains rooted in rigorous research, will find Slavery, Resistance, Freedom a must read.

Those who teach at institutions of higher learning, both survey classes of American history and content specific courses such as the Civil War or Antebellum America, might well consider placing this book as a required reading on their syllabus.