Analysis on The Frontier Against Slavery - Book Report/Review Example

 Book Analysis on “The Frontier against Slavery” The gap between Slaves and Free states was symbolic of the changes that occurred in America. Indeed, the South was devoted to agrarian plantation economy while the North had embraced industrialization, infrastructure growth and large influx of immigrants. As the South recognized its rights to protect slavery, while in the North, abolitionists believed that slavery was morally wrong rather than simply a social evil. The book author, Eugene Berwanger discusses the adoption of Congress’ Northwest Ordinance and its establishment of the Northwest Ohio Territory consisting of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin. This ordinance limits slavery’s expansion and banned slavery immediately. However, because it applied only to the Northwest Territory, the ordinance left the huge region south of the OhioRiver subject to slavery expansion. Slavery at that time was considered by the southern States slaveholders as the common thing and a discriminated behavior for the slave was a common practice. However, in the northern States most of the people have the views of not having the slaves. Eugene Berwanger in his book, The Frontier against Slavery follows the issue of resistance and efforts against expansion of slavery that was continuously extending in the Northwest of Ohio, California, Plain states and Pacific Northwest and informs that this struggle met with profound ethnic abhorrence. By studying the book, it is quite clear that the written content is for scholars, instructors, students of history and law and other people interested in history. The book is quite analytical in its content and not only gives detailed information about the events related to slavery and anti-slavery issues in the eighteenth and nineteenth century but also a critical overview of the author related to the situations occurring at the time. The book’s content is well written for the historians as well as the history students. Societal behaviors were not given much importance in eighteenth century. In this way, the content of the book provides a brief history of the societal behaviors and the trends followed by the people during the colonial times in seventeen and eighteenth century. The book displays an intention for the teachers as well as the students to be familiar with the different approaches that were followed by different people at the colonial time to earn money and make profit by utilizing the tactics of the slavery as well as tactics opposing slavery. Slaves were mostly kept on the farms where they worked all day and they were given no wages. Only shelter and clothing was given and that too was of inhuman quality. The writer writes about the trade of the steam boat. The trade of the steam boats increased as the laws against the slavery dominated and the prices of different products fell to a certain level. The publisher of the book is the University of Illinois press and the year of the publication of the book is 1967. The book was manufactured in the United States of America. As it is University press publication, it has more value as a reference text for the history students as well as other students. It is a scholarly publication and thus, provides unique and good information for the students and the tutors. The book utilizes footnotes that provide a brief description of the content and the source of the content. Footnotes are quite descriptive and give detailed information about the cited reference. The writer has used primary as well as secondary sources and has given specific headings to the bibliography section. The writer has made good utilization of the sources such as Burnett’s Recollections and Opinions of an Old Pioneer (1880), Annual Report of American Anti-Slavery Society (1857-58), Blair’s Collection of Pamphlets on the Slavery Question, Carter’s The Territory of Indiana, 1810-1816 (1939), Constitution of the State of Illinois (1818), Lowa (1857), Indiana (1851), Michigan (1950), Ohio (1851), California (1849), Woodson’s A Century of Negro Migration (1918) and many more. The use of the news articles, debates, court records, etc such as from New York Tribune, New York Times, Emporia News, Columbus Ohio State Journal, Corydon Indiana Gazette and so on provided the primary information to be added in the book while the books by other writers and other publication regarding the similar matter provided the secondary information about the topic. In this way, the book provides the high level of scholarly knowledge to the readers. By reading the book one has a view that the writer has provided the information about each incident that happened at the time. However, at some places, the writer looks biased, favoring the people who were against the slavery and wanted reforms in the laws against the slavery. As evident from the narration of the author, there were a large number of supporters who approved slavery and wanted it to retain forever due to which, they send appeals with the support of State legislators to the Congress to control the struggle against slavery in the Northwest of Ohio from 1787 to 1824. These supporters were slave owners and had their own lands where the slaves worked due to which, they were against any law banning slavery. Anti-slavery societies grew rapidly in the North and upper South. The whole scenario depicts how the Indiana was divided among the people who held slaves and other who did not. Similarly, there were transformations in other states as well such as in Ohio, Illinois, Kansas and others. But the slaveholder community was stronger and they wanted to have laws supporting them. The main reasons behind pro-slavery struggle were financial and ethnic as according to the author, the proslavery group argued, “slavery would reduce economic distress and increase the price of land” (p. 16) and in case of racism, the Michigan Convention of 1836 can be noted that says, “the Negro belonged to a degraded caste of mankind” (p. 33). The writer describes the whole scenario quite well as some of the incidents are depicted regarding the political cultures in the region. The writer shows how strong the people were who were proslavery and in majority to legalize slavery. Most of the proslavery groups were in Northwestern territory. In the book, The Frontier against Slavery written by “Eugene H. Berwanger”, the writer gives his views about the Northwest Ordinance, anti-slavery laws, the role of the Congress and people who are pro and against slavery in making the law against the slavery and the slaves from 1787 to 1824. The majority of the slaves were the Negros. The book tells us how people socially accepted and rejected the laws associated with the slaves and the slavery. The people willing slavery to abolish kept the opinion that it is against humanitarian grounds while the people willing to retain slavery were more interested in their financial stability. The slaveholders had a political domination over the non-slaveholders. However, certain steps were taken towards the opposition of the slavery by a majority of people who want a reform in the law against the slavery. When the book is read in depth, it is quite clear that the book covers the topic in a descriptive and comprehensive manner. The writer used the word research for the book. In this way, the book is more analytical than narrative. However, at some places the writer seems to narrate only, leaving his opinion aside and clearing the facts without making a clear gesture of his aim. The deeper the study goes, the more narrative it becomes. Besides being narrative, the writer fully argues his goals of writing on the matter of the “Western Anti-Negro Prejudice and the Slavery Extension Controversy”. When the writer wrote this book, slavery was controlled to a large extent and anti-slavery movements were quite successful. The publication date is 1967. The writer makes view that the “prejudice against Negros was a factor in the development of the antislavery feeling”. The writer describes the frontiers regions which are ever shifting and the acceptance of the free Negro concept. The writer narrates how both the parties, pro and anti-slavery ones, worked to attain their goals in a respectable manner. The organization of the book to cover the title of the book topic by topic is quite well. The writer covered the topic as the certain happening in the history relating to the topic. The matter discussed in the book is quite well organized in subtopics and chapters. All the six chapters in the book are quite well discussed describing the situation and the matter, analyzing the matter with the perspective of the antislavery and the proslavery parties during eighteenth and nineteenth century. The writer quite well discussed the topic and backed it with enough authorial works and remained intact with the topic throughout the book in presenting the views taken from the newspapers, court debates etc. The deeper the author goes into the topic, the more he clears the matter. According to the narrative of the writer, it is quite clear that two groups were formed, one was anti-slavery on humanitarian grounds while other was proslavery on economic and racial grounds. The author gives detailed analysis on resistance against expansion of slavery in Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, California and so on. The author provided a well-researched topic in the book. For a typical reader, the book would be the best he/she can have. If the reader reads occasionally, he/she at first finds the book less interesting, but as he/she continues to read some of the pages of the book, it will seem interesting to the reader. The literary quality of the book is good and catches the attention of a person who wants to get knowledge in history. Works cited Berwanger, Eugene H. The Frontier Against Slavery: Western Anti-Negro Prejudice and the Slavery Extension Controversy. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1967. Read More