Publisher's Synopsis
This fascinating book represents the only major synthesis to date integrating the 'scientific' racism developed in the antebellum period with the growth of the political antislavery movement. Thoroughly researched, the book examines the racial attitudes of numerous Free Soil and Republican politicians, journalists and popular writers in the context of that racism prevalent in the scientific/intellectual community. Since Southern slavery meant the presence in the United States of large numbers of black-skinned people, questions touching the future status of that institution were, to many antislavery politicians and writers, racial questions as well as sectional or economic ones. This work details how Free Soil and Republican policy was influenced by the racist dogma of the period.
