| By examining how ordinary Virginia citizens grappled with
the vexing problem of slavery in a society dedicated to universal
liberty, Eva Sheppard Wolf broadens our understanding of such
important concepts as freedom, slavery, emancipation, and
race in the early years of the American republic. She frames
her study around the moment between slavery and liberty—emancipation—shedding
new light on the complicated relations between whites and
blacks in a slave society.
Wolf argues that during the post-Revolutionary period, white
Virginians understood both liberty and slavery
to be racial concepts more than political ideas. Through an
in-depth analysis of archival records, particularly those
dealing with manumission between 1782 and 1806, she reveals
how these entrenched beliefs shaped both thought and behavior.
In spite of qualms about slavery, white Virginians repeatedly
demonstrated their unwillingness to abolish the institution.
The manumission law of 1782 eased restrictions on individual
emancipation and made possible the liberation of thousands,
but Wolf discovers that far fewer slaves were freed in Virginia
than previously thought. Those who were emancipated posed
a disturbing social, political, and even moral problem in
the minds of whites. Where would ex-slaves fit in a society
that could not conceive of black liberty? As Wolf points out,
even those few white Virginians who proffered emancipation
plans always suggested sending freed slaves to some other
place. Nat Turner's bloody rebellion in 1831 led to a heated
public debate over ending slavery as the best means to protecting
white Virginians, after which discussions of emancipation
in the Old Dominion largely disappeared as the eastern slaveholding
elite tightened its grip on political power in the state.
This well-informed and carefully crafted book outlines important
and heretofore rarely examined changes in whites' views of
blacks and liberty in the new nation. By linking the Revolutionary
and antebellum eras, it shows how white attitudes hardened
during the half-century that followed the declaration that
"all men are created equal."
Eva Sheppard Wolf is an associate professor
of history at San Francisco State University.
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