Free Delivery Over $100
|
|
|||
|
||||
OverviewSlavery's Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution unearths a long-hidden factor that led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. While historians have generally acknowledged that patriot leaders assembled in response to postwar economic chaos, the threat of popular insurgencies, and the inability of the states to agree on how to fund the national government, Timothy Messer-Kruse suggests that scholars have discounted Americans' desire to compel Britain to return fugitives from slavery as a driving force behind the convention. During the Revolutionary War, British governors offered freedom to enslaved Americans who joined the king's army. Thousands responded by fleeing to English camps. After the British defeat at Yorktown, American diplomats demanded the surrender of fugitive slaves. When British generals refused, several states confiscated Loyalist estates and blocked payment of English creditors, hoping to apply enough pressure on the Crown to hand over the runaways. State laws conflicting with the 1783 Treaty of Paris violated the Articles of Confederation the young nation's first constitution but Congress, lacking an executive branch or a federal judiciary, had no means to obligate states to comply. The standoff over the escaped slaves quickly escalated following the Revolution as Britain failed to abandon the western forts it occupied and took steps to curtail American commerce. More than any other single matter, the impasse over the return of enslaved Americans threatened to hamper the nation's ability to expand westward, develop its commercial economy, and establish itself as a power among the courts of Europe. Messer-Kruse argues that the issue encouraged the founders to consider the prospect of scrapping the Articles of Confederation and drafting a superseding document that would dramatically increase federal authority the Constitution. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Timothy Messer-KrusePublisher: Louisiana State University Press Imprint: Louisiana State University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 22.90cm ISBN: 9780807182765ISBN 10: 0807182761 Pages: 248 Publication Date: 31 October 2024 Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Professional & Vocational , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Forthcoming Availability: Not yet available  This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release. Table of ContentsReviewsAuthor InformationTimothy Messer-Kruse is a professor in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies at Bowling Green State University and author of The Patriots' Dilemma: White Abolition and Black Banishment in the Founding of the United States of America (Pluto Press, 2024). Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
||||
