Abolition and Antislavery: A Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic

Edited by Peter Hinks, John McKivigan
Published Jul 31, 2015

The struggle to abolish human slavery is one of the most important reform campaigns in history. The eventual success of this decades-long struggle serves as an inspiring example that even the most deeply rooted social wrongs can be corrected. This valuable reference work details the history of antislavery, abolition, and emancipation to illustrate the various forms of these forces and the courses they followed in the bitterly contested struggle against the institution of slavery, affording readers the most current compendium of the diverse scholarship of this important historical topic.

Geared toward a high school or undergraduate college student studying antislavery and abolition in U.S. history or within the context of an African American history course, Abolition and Antislavery: A Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic addresses a period of particular significance: the years that shaped the sectional debates leading up to the Civil War. The coverage encompasses both white abolitionists such as Theodore Dwight Weld and William Lloyd Garrison and black abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Delaney, and Sojourner Truth. Each alphabetically organized entry contains cross-references as "See Also" at the end of each entry text. An introductory essay ensures that all readers have a clear framework for understanding the subject, regardless of their previous background knowledge.

The struggle to abolish human slavery is one of the most important reform campaigns in history. The eventual success of this decades-long struggle serves as an inspiring example that even the most deeply rooted social wrongs can be corrected. This valuable reference work details the history of antislavery, abolition, and emancipation to illustrate the various forms of these forces and the courses they followed in the bitterly contested struggle against the institution of slavery, affording readers the most current compendium of the diverse scholarship of this important historical topic.

Geared toward a high school or undergraduate college student studying antislavery and abolition in U.S. history or within the context of an African American history course, Abolition and Antislavery: A Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic addresses a period of particular significance: the years that shaped the sectional debates leading up to the Civil War. The coverage encompasses both white abolitionists such as Theodore Dwight Weld and William Lloyd Garrison and black abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Delaney, and Sojourner Truth. Each alphabetically organized entry contains cross-references as "See Also" at the end of each entry text. An introductory essay ensures that all readers have a clear framework for understanding the subject, regardless of their previous background knowledge.

• Offers an accessibly written reference work comprising easy-to-find subject entries for students unfamiliar with this period in history

• Includes primary sources—such as former slave Sojourner Truth's famous speech, "Ar'n't I a Woman?" at a women's convention in Ohio in 1851—that promote critical thinking and interpretive reading skills underscored in the Common Core Standards

• Provides additional reading suggestions and a bibliography of sources to supply avenues for further study