PublishedNorton, July 2015 |
ISBN9780393351217 |
FormatSoftcover, 208 pages |
Dimensions20.8cm × 14cm × 1.5cm |
The image of a scorpion surrounded by a ring of fire, stinging itself to death, was widespread among antislavery leaders before the Civil War. It captures their long-standing strategy for peaceful abolition: they would surround the slave states with a cordon of freedom, constricting slavery and inducing the social crisis in which the peculiar institution would die.
The image opens a fresh perspective on antislavery and the coming of the Civil War, brilliantly explored here by one of our greatest historians of the period.
