Race and revolution in historical context

Race and Revolution

Coming as a remnant of the American Revolution and its issues, Gary Nash's Race and revolution is meant to present people with the dilemmas that Americans had to face when trying to create a new country. The book thoroughly describes the failure that the first abolitionist movement in the U.S. had. Race and revolution has been born out of three lectures presented by Nash in 1988 for the Merrill Jensen Lectures in Constitutional Studies at the University of Wisconsin.

When comparing eighteenth's century slavery to the one in the nineteenth century, one can observe that matters had been different, with the whole nation having to deal with the problem during the Revolutionary War. Americans knew that they had to get rid of slavery in order for their country to thrive. However, it had almost been impossible for the colonies to leave slavery behind, considering the fact that they depended on it.

Nash describes how slavery contradicted with the very principles of the republican government of the time. Time had made it possible for colonists to see that slavery was degrading. In spite of that, it had been clear that abolitionism was still far away, with people preferring to overlook it. The colonists have gotten to the point where they virtually had to choose between abolishing slavery and gaining profits over it.

When thinking about the American Revolution and the views that people had at the time concerning slavery, one might consider that it had not been a notable subject, and, that the Americans did not care much about abolishing it. However, according to Nash, slavery had been a hot topic, overtly discussed at the time, with people being determined to put an end to it. Americans had been aware that, in order for them to create a country according to their beliefs, they had to clear the land of all its vices.

The Founding Fathers believed that they had more important matters to resolve than slavery, and that the issues had been of little importance at the time. Nash considers their decision to have been devastating for all American citizens, as they are now haunted by the memories of slavery. Ever since the Revolutionary War, historians have protected the Founding Fathers by claiming that they did not have any power to act in that sense and that they cannot be held responsible for the years of slavery that followed. "Max Farrand, whose documentary record of the Founding Fathers became standard reading for two generations, excused the nation's leaders for not abolishing slavery by arguing that the majority "regarded slavery as an accepted institution, as part of the established order." (Nash, pp. 4)

The fact that historians have maniested the tendency to avoid the subject until the recent decades is somewhat curious. By not mentioning the Founding Fathers' role in slavery, historians have managed to lead people in thinking that the people that founded the country had been too naive to have a word in the whole slavery story.

According to Nash, none of the notable politicians from the period took any real interest in doing something to end slavery. At the time, politicians presumably believed that abolition would only succeed in raising the spirits among the revolutionaries. Apparently, politicians kept their eyes closed when concerning slavery and its abolition. Even in spite of the fact that the American leaders did not take any measures to combat the immorality, the people often expressed their will to abolish slavery. The American Revolutionary War had been the perfect moment for people to take action. However, because they had to act according to their leaders, no serious actions had been taken in order to end slavery.

Nash's Race and Revolution proves that it is not enough to think of a certain thing in hope that it will resolve itself. While building the foundations of a free nation, the Founding Fathers did not comprehend that the concept of slavery had been against the concepts of freedom and justice for all. The Constitution itself had been hypocritically written at the time, as it contradicted with the American way of life.

All things considered, readers are provided with a story that stands against centuries of lies concerning the Founding Fathers and slavery. Even if the subject is controversial, Nash presents proof that it had actually been possible for slavery to end along with the American Revolution.

Nash's book is accountable for having had surprised numerous historians because of the issues that it relates to. Nash does not only refer to slavery during the American Revolution, as he presents the matter in a much wider context. It appears that people did not have to wait almost a century and fight the American Civil war in order for slavery to be abolished. Even if the Founding Fathers had been scared that abolition of slavery would lead to secession, there could not have been a more perfect time than the American Revolution for the matter to be addressed.

With the end of the British control over the American colonies, Americans wanted to become free people, with no obligations whatsoever. However, conditions and ignorance have lead to slavery extending even more into becoming what it had been by the half of the nineteenth century.

The first things that come to mind when relating to slavery would be its early ages, the years before the Civil War, the Civil War, and the reconstruction. People today generally feel that the Civil War and slavery had been unavoidable events in the nineteenth century. Nash helps clarify the problem by describing the events prior, during, and after the Revolutionary War.

Gary Nash focuses his book on the Constitution and on the effect that its conditions had on the black people in America. Also, Nash gives his readers an image of what life had been during Revolutionary War era, with blacks being considered subhuman creatures that deserved no attention. A white-dominated society which just set itself free from its oppressor refrained from taking freedom even further.

According to Nash, only in the recent decades have historians managed to shed some light concerning slavery in the same period with the Revolutionary War. Gathering evidence from around the country, Nash received help from numerous political leaders and religious spokesmen.

Books written during the era "provide further evidence of the strength of antislavery sentiment" (Nash, pp. 16), in spite of the "deep-seated belief in the innate inferiority of blacks" (Nash, pp. 16) Even with the fact that there had been isolate attempts to take the antislavery sentiment further, none of the attempts succeeded in getting attention from someone influential enough to make a difference.

Considering the fact that the issue had not been dealt with until recently, some people might not take Nash seriously. Apparently, the Founding Fathers are not as innocent as they have been considered to be. There is no difference whatsoever between the slaveholders from the Revolutionary War period and the slaveholders that lived in the nineteenth century.

According to earlier historians, as if it had not been enough for the slaveholders to be ignorant when concerning the liberating of the slaves, the slaves themselves have been ignorant for the fact that they have not been interested in achieving their own freedom. During the Revolutionary War, the slavery matter had become more vulnerable than ever. The revolution provided both the slaves and their masters with the opportunities of improving their condition. Unfortunately, none of the groups took advantage of the chance and slavery continued to flourish. Consequently to finding out about the respective events as they had been recounted by historians, the whole world believed that slavery had not been a matter to blame during the revolution, since the entire nation appeared to be confused and things completely out of the ordinary.

Nash's book disagrees with numerous historical writings relating to the Revolutionary War. In the chapter Black Americans in a White Republic Nash shows how one would have to be inexperienced to actually believe that black people could be anything but against slavery. Apparently, black people went through great efforts in order for them to achieve freedom. As a result of the continuous attempts made by abolitionists to put an end to slavery, a group of black people had gone at fighting slavery themselves. Because they were mostly ignored by historians, African-Americans have been considered to be passive during the revolution. "In reality, the American Revolution represents the largest slave uprising in our history." (Nash, pp. 57)

The colonist rebellion had been inspirational for the black slaves living during the era. Blacks had been aware that significant changes would take place subsequent to the revolution. With the nation feeling that they had to escape their oppressor, the black people started to express their will to become free people. Before the commencing of the war, there had been isolate cases of black people urging the government to abolish slavery. However, as the war started, slaves had become more courageous. While the early petitions had involved slaves desperately asking for mercy from their masters, the later petitions had black people demanding for their rights as free people. This happened because blacks had learnt that they no longer had to obey the people that illegitimately enslaved them.

Slaves had been determined to fight for their freedom through any means possible, and, they took advantage of any opportunity that they had to become free. According to Nash, tens of thousands of slaves have left the American continent as the British forces advanced inland. Apparently, a great number of black people wanted the British to win the war, as they believed that such an event would set them free.

As Nash describes it, the people that wrote the Constitution hadn't considered the fact that they still had slavery present within the borders of their so-called free country. By the time of the Constitution, however, people had already begun to relate to other issues, believing that slavery had been too insignificant for them to give credit to. Consequent to the period, people began to pay lesser and lesser attention to slavery and to the dangers that it posed. Slavery, as it had been in the nineteenth century, is one of the main factors which lead to the racism existing in the twentieth century.

Nash considers both the supporters of slavery and the abolitionists from the Revolutionary War era to have supplemented each other, with no one actually expecting an outcome from the event. People preferred to leave the subject aside, as they believed slavery to be somewhat beneficial to the country. At the same time, they considered abolitionists to be eccentric people that encouraged revolutionary beliefs.

The colonists have gotten to the point where they regarded slavery as being a common thing. It did not matter to them that black people were obliged to work against their will, as they believed any low-skilled work to be equal to slave work. To the colonists, abolitionism had been threatening for the health of the newly formed country. Historians argued that colonists have had some reasons to fear that the union might be harmed by a potential abolitionism attack. Apparently, the Union would have risked secession if abolitionists were to put pressure on southerners in order for them to give up slavery. Nash, however, does not agree with abolition being avoided because fear of secession. In fact, the South would not risk declaring secession, as the southern colonies needed the North more than the latter needed them.

Slavery supporters constantly brought fear among abolitionists with stories regarding a great war between the races. Even if the Civil War did take place, it would have been less possible for it to take place as a result of slavery being abolished in the eighteenth century.

Nash appreciates the number of voluntary missions which have made great efforts in order to free slaves from the upper South. However, concurrently, the writer condemns the fact that the Northerners did not take their beliefs further into including a series of antislavery articles in the Constitution. According to Nash, the main reason for the North's reluctance to promote antislavery principles even more had been that the Northern leaders have also had economic interests.

When regarding the motives for slavery's continuity after the Revolutionary War in America, most traditional explanations point to the Lower South as being guilty. Nash demonstrates the fact that by pardoning Southerners for the fact that they made a compromise, Northerners have succeeded in masking the racism present in the North. Along with having abolitionist principles, numerous Northerners have also had racist convictions. They did not regard abolitionism as being something that would better the lives of the black people, but as something that would better their own lives and their country. What is curious is the fact that the whole country had ignored the fact that racism and slavery supporters had also been existent in the North.