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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: April 1, 2020 at 12:12:53 PM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Nationalism]: Heniford on Peck, 'Making an > Antislavery Nation: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Battle over Freedom' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > Graham A. Peck. Making an Antislavery Nation: Lincoln, Douglas, and > the Battle over Freedom. Urbana University of Illinois Press, 2017. > 280 pp. $34.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-252-04136-5. > > Reviewed by Kellen Heniford (Columbia University) > Published on H-Nationalism (April, 2020) > Commissioned by Evan C. Rothera > > Graham A. Peck's _Making an Antislavery Nation: Lincoln, Douglas, and > the Battle over Freedom_ seeks to explain the rise of the Republican > Party and "antislavery nationalism" in Illinois and, by extension, in > the United States as a whole. Republicans came to power, Peck argues, > because by the late 1850s a sense of explicitly antislavery national > identity had arisen in the North. His book begins in 1818, with > Illinois's ascension to statehood, and concludes in 1860, with the > ascension of one of the state's native sons, Abraham Lincoln, to the > presidency. His focus on Illinois makes for more than just convenient > bookending, as the state becomes a proxy for the nation writ large. > In Peck's words, "Illinois reproduced the nation's problems with > slavery in miniature" (p. 17). > > Peck sees his work as intervening in the scholarship on American > antislavery politics in five significant ways. First, he rightly > notes that antislavery politics predated not only the two-party > system but also the Constitution that birthed that system. Second, he > argues that antebellum Northern Democrats played a larger role in the > making of disunion than has generally been acknowledged, and, third, > that the Northern Democrats' embrace of proslavery policy and > politics accelerated that trajectory toward disunion. His fourth > point, which he acknowledges echoes James Oakes's work, is that the > large-scale adoption of antislavery politics in the North was made > possible by the prior adoption of antislavery nationalism. Finally, > Peck says, "the rise of antislavery politics reflected a fundamental > conflict between freedom and slavery in America," although this last > point seems less an intervention than a sides-taking in a > long-running historiographical debate (p. 11). As a cursory glance at > these arguments suggests, Peck's primary focus is the antebellum > period. > > Still, he begins the first chapter in 1818 with Illinois's statehood, > tracing state politics and debates about land, settlement, and labor, > and concluding with the failure of proslavery forces to secure a > constitutional convention that might change the state's position on > slaveholding. In this chapter, we see the first iterations of Peck's > important arguments--that clashes over slavery were really disputes > over "the meaning of freedom" and that Illinois debates on these > subjects reproduced those of the nation in minature (p. 17). Peck's > second chapter completes the early republic section of the book by > taking readers from 1825 to 1842. Here he makes the fairly > conventional argument that the party system of the Jacksonian era > kept disputes over slavery largely under control even as northerners' > and southerners' political economies continued to diverge. The > general thrust of this chapter will be familiar to specialists, but > his close attention to Illinois's state party politics will give many > nineteenth-century Americanists something new to consider. > > The pace of the monograph slows considerably beginning in the third > chapter. Peck's best analysis covers the two decades between 1840 and > 1860, and the last two-thirds of _Making an Antislavery Nation_ is > focused on this period. Chapters 3 and 4 discuss the Democratic Party > and its partisan rivals from the late 1830s to the late 1840s. Peck > demonstrates how the expansionist foreign policy of the James K. Polk > presidency thrust slavery back into the national spotlight and > brought to light the fault lines within Polk's own party. Some > Illinois Democrats, especially those in the northern and > traditionally more antislavery parts of the state, worried that their > party was beginning to favor the interests of the slaveholding South > over those of the free West. Simultaneously, antislavery partisans > moved in fits and starts to begin their own political party. Peck > suggests that Free Soilers' ability to dress antislavery sentiment in > nationalist garb was especially threatening to the Democrats and > particularly to their southern wing. He takes his microscope to > Illinois's courts, revealing that, by and large, jurisprudence in the > state favored the emerging free soil consensus on slavery and the > law. > > While Peck's vacillations between state-level and national politics > can at times be jarring, the last three chapters, with their focus on > the Illinois politicians who came to dominate the national stage, > link his two scales of analysis together most convincingly. Chapters > 5 and 6 focus primarily on Stephen A. Douglas and the Democratic > Party he sought to control. Peck is especially sharp in his > discussion of the Northern Democrats' antebellum strategy. As he > explains, for men like Douglas, "popular sovereignty seemed a perfect > fusion of democracy and Union. Beneath it lay a characteristic > northern Democratic tolerance for enslaving blacks" (p. 115). But > even as southerners succeeded in tying their proslavery agenda to the > future of the Union, the "Douglas Democracy" began to falter. As > Douglas and other northerners in the party hitched their wagon to > proslavery nationalism in a bid to save the party and the nation, > space opened for the emergence of an antislavery party. The final > chapter focuses on the rise of Lincoln and the Republican Party out > of a diverse coalition of antislavery interests. Peck provides a > granular analysis of the party's Illinois origins, both in the 1856 > convention and in Lincoln's 1858 senatorial bid. This chapter > describes Lincoln's antislavery argument as "eminently conservative" > in its deference to the Founders' original plans for the country and > in its appeals to constituents' sense of national pride, even as > Lincoln himself is depicted as a radical (p. 178). Peck concludes > that it was the Republicans' success in "attracting a crucial cadre > of conservative recruits" with this antislavery nationalism that > catapulted Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 and ultimately brought > on the Civil War (p. 182). > > While Peck's work is rigorously researched and well-written, one > problem stands out: he seems to struggle in his theorizations of land > and labor. The first chapter of the book is, in many ways, a story > about land. As he explains, the "acquisition and exploitation of land > made possible the personal and economic opportunity ... associated > with freedom" in Illinois. Surprisingly, the Native Americans who > claimed, lived on, and worked much of the land called Illinois are > virtually invisible, save Peck's aside that, in 1818, "Indian titles > from the northern half of the state had yet to be extinguished" (p. > 21). In Peck's telling, settlers competed with each other--but only > with each other--for land in the new state. In reality, the making of > the "freedom" white Illinoisans coveted was contingent on an often > genocidal relationship with local Native Americans and their land > claims, and their conceptualization of that freedom cannot fully be > understood outside this context. > > Indeed, in _Making an Antislavery Nation_, freedom is a slippery > concept. Peck speaks often about "the meaning of freedom"--for > example, when he argues, also in chapter 1, that "the meaning of > freedom in Illinois was not yet clear" in the early days of its > statehood (p. 17). The unarticulated fact at the center of this claim > is that it was not yet clear what system of labor would come to > predominate in the state. Peck explains in his introduction that what > "the words _freedom_ and _slavery_ meant to most Northerners from > 1787 to 1860" was incompatible with "Southerners' understanding of > the same words," which "set the North and the South on a collision > course" (p. 4). But "freedom" and "slavery" necessarily had different > meanings, in any area of the country, in 1787 than they did in 1860. > The political economies of the North and the South changed > drastically through those seventy-odd years. Industrialization, the > cotton boom, westward expansion, radical abolitionism, the free labor > movement, and any number of other factors altered the ways > northerners and southerners conceptualized freedom over time. > Recognizing that the clash between the North and the South was a > clash not just between two distinct ideologies of freedom but also > between two ideologies grounded in labor systems that had developed > very differently during the early republic and antebellum periods > might have helped Peck make clearer how ideas about freedom evolved > even within the two sections of the Union. > > Nevertheless, Peck has written an impressive monograph, notable for > both its chronological scale and its thorough evidentiary work. > _Making an Antislavery Nation_ is at its best when it turns its > careful attention to the political environs of pre-Civil War > Illinois. That both Lincoln and Douglas, two of the antebellum > nation's leading figures in opposing political parties, hailed from > the same state becomes more understandable with Peck's discussion of > Illinois's unique position in US politics. Peck's meticulous account > of often vicious intrastate political battles serves as a reminder > that great ideological divides persisted in the North even as > southern politicians closed ranks on the slavery question. While > _Making an Antislavery Nation_ may not totally "recast the history of > antislavery politics," it offers an important and thoroughly > researched window into party politics and antislavery ideology in > Illinois (p. 8). Peck's work is a significant addition to the canon > of scholarship on the coming of the Civil War and an essential read > for scholars of antebellum American political history. > > Citation: Kellen Heniford. Review of Peck, Graham A., _Making an > Antislavery Nation: Lincoln, Douglas, and the Battle over Freedom_. > H-Nationalism, H-Net Reviews. April, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54011 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
