Slavery and Antislavery

Challenging the traditional timeline and story of antislavery found in scholarly works and textbooks, Norrece Jones traces the origins of abolition to the first Africans enslaved. This radical reinterpretation refutes the gospel of slavery and antislavery as separate chapters in American history by focusing on opposition to the culture of racism that sanctioned the purchase and ownership of human flesh.To develop this theme, the volume explores five major problems: racism, slavery and antislavery, paternalism, regional biases, and gender. Part One looks at the origins of racism in Colonial America. Part Two examines the struggle to abolish slavery in white, free black and enslaved black groups, Part Three looks at the role of patriarchy, Part Four looks at the bias against the South in role of slavery and the invisibility of slave abolitionists and finally in Part Five the role of gender in antislavery.In this unique and concise introduction, African Americans are presented more accurately and assertively as playing an active role to abolish the institution that enslaved them.