Reflections on Slavery and the Constitution

By (author) George Anastaplo

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 January 2012

Length of book:

334 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739171776

In this insightful book about constitutional law and slavery, George Anastaplo illuminates both how the history of race relations in the United States should be approached and how seemingly hopeless social and political challenges can be usefully considered through the lens of the U.S. Constitution. He examines the outbreak of the American Civil War, its prosecution, and its aftermath, tracing the concept of slavery and law from its earliest beginnings and slavery’s fraught legal history within the United States. Anastaplo offers discussions that bring into focus discussions of slavery in Ancient Greece and within the Bible, showing their influence on the Constitution and the subsequent political struggles that led to the Civil War.

Preface
Part One
Chapter 1: Slavery in Ancient Greece
Chapter 2: Slavery and the Bible
Chapter 3: Hugo Grotius (1625)
Chapter 4: Somerset v. Stewart and Its Consequences (1771-1772)
Chapter 5: John Wesley and the Sins of Slavery (1774)
Chapter 6: The Declaration of Independence and the Issue of Slavery (1776)
Chapter 7: Human Nature and the Constitution
Chapter 8: The Compromises with Respect to Equality in the Constitution (1787)
Chapter 9: The States in the Constitution (1787)
Chapter 10: The Federalist on Slavery and the Constitution (1787-1788)
Chapter 11: Hannah More and Other Poets on Slavery (1798-1847)
Chapter 12: Suppression of the International Slave Trade
Chapter 13: John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun
On the Abolitionist Petition to Congress
Part Two
Chapter 1: The Fugitive Slave Laws (1793, 1850)
Chapter 2: Frederick Douglas and Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
Chapter 3: Chief Justice Taney and the Dred Scott Case (1857)
Chapter 4: The Dred Scott Case Dissenters (1857)
Chapter 5: Abraham Lincoln in Cincinnati (1859, 1861)
Chapter 6: Stephen A. Douglas in Montgomery (November 1860)
Chapter 7: The Ordinances of Secession (1860-1861)
Chapter 8: The Declarations of Causes Issued by Seceding States (1860-1861)
Chapter 9: The Confederate Constitution (1861)
Chapter 10: Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War Generals, and Slavery (1860-1865)
Chapter 11: Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
Chapter 12: The Civil War Amendments (1865, 1868, 1870)
Chapter 13: The Lost Cause Transformed
Appendices
Appendix A: The Declaration of Independence (1776)
Appendix B: The Northwest Ordinance (1787)
Appendix C: The United States Constitution (1787)
Appendix D: The Amendments to the United States Constitution (1791-1992)
Appendix E: The Confederate Constitution (1861)
Appendix F: On the Relations of Slaves to Masters Who Considered Them “Nothings”
Appendix G: Roster of Cases and other Materials Draw On

Condemnation of slavery in the United States is a field well plowed. Non-the-less George Anastaplo's fourth volume in his 'constitutional Sonnets' series is a fresh and welcome addition. Reflections on Slavery and the Constitution demonstrates once again that he is one of the most sensitive scholarly interpreters of the Constitution. In the manner of his teacher Leo Strauss, Anastaplo lays bare the roots of the human and political tragedy that encompassed the introduction of slavery, the defense of slavery, and the defeat of slavery.