A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200, Volume I, Western Slavery, National Impasse
edited by Jeffrey L. Pasley and John Craig Hammond
University of Missouri Press, 2021 Cloth: 978-0-8262-2231-2 | eISBN: 978-0-8262-7458-8 Library of Congress Classification E373 Dewey Decimal Classification 973.54
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK Many new states entered the United States around 200 years ago, but only Missouri almost killed the nation it was trying to join. When the House of Representatives passed the Tallmadge Amendment banning slavery from the prospective new state in February 1819, it set off a two-year political crisis in which growing northern antislavery sentiment confronted the southern whites’ aggressive calls for slavery’s westward expansion. The Missouri Crisis divided the U.S. into slave and free states for the first time and crystallized many of the arguments and conflicts that would later be settled violently during the Civil War. The episode was, as Thomas Jefferson put it, “a fire bell in the night” that terrified him as the possible “knell of the Union.”
Drawing on the participants in two landmark conferences held at the University of Missouri and the City University of New York, this first of two volumes finds myriad new perspectives on the Missouri Crisis. Celebrating Missouri’s bicentennial the scholarly way, with fresh research and unsparing analysis, this eloquent collection of essays from distinguished historians gives the epochal struggle over Missouri statehood its due as a major turning point in American history.
Contributors include the editors, Christa Dierksheide, David N. Gellman, Sarah L. H. Gronningsater, Robert Lee, Donald Ratcliffe, Andrew Shankman, Anne Twitty, John R. Van Atta, and David Waldstreicher.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Jeffrey L. Pasley is Professor of History and Associate Director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri. He is the author of The First Presidential Contest: 1796and the Founding of American Democracy and lives in Columbia, Missouri.
John Craig Hammond is Associate Professor of History and Assistant Director of Academic Affairs at Penn State University–New Kensington and author of numerous books and articles on slavery and politics in the early American republic. He lives in suburban Pittsburgh.
REVIEWS
“The essays in A Fire Bell in the Past are brilliant commentaries on one of the most pivotal events in American history. These fresh perspectives on the Missouri Crisis breathe new life into this much-written about subject, and could not be more timely given our current-day grappling with the question of race and citizenship.”—Annette Gordon-Reed, Harvard University, author of On Juneteenth
“This book will reset the standard by which historians understand the Missouri Crisis, the politics of slavery, and the Early National era more broadly. The editors did an outstanding job of bringing together scholars who approach the topic from a variety of perspectives, and in doing so, not only re-center the Missouri Crisis historiographically, but offer compelling new lenses through which all historians will need to consider the political history of slavery and anti-slavery in the early United States.”— Ryan A. Quintana, Wellesley College, author of Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina
“Because the achievement of statehood by Missouri was tied to the expansion of slavery, its two hundredth anniversary is a problem for those who want their commemorations to be celebrations. But what makes Missouri’s admission a bad bicentennial for the state’s boosters makes for really good scholarship in A Fire Bell in the Past. These bold essays ring loud, awakening readers to how much this crisis mattered—and still matters.”—Stephen Aron, UCLA and Autry Museum of the American West, author of American Confluence: The Missouri Frontier from Borderland to Border State
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTORS xi
FOREWORD
A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200 xv Jeffrey L. Pasley
INTRODUCTION
The Missouri Crisis as Early American History 3 Jeffrey L. Pasley and John Craig Hammond
PART I: BACKGROUND TO THE MISSOURI CRISIS, 1770–1820
1. The Centrality of Slavery:
Enslavement and Settler Sovereignty in Missouri, 1770–1820 43 John Craig Hammond
2. The Boon’s Lick Land Rush and the
Coming of the Missouri Crisis 77 Robert Lee
3. Slavery, War, and Democracy
The Winding Road to the Missouri Crisis 113 Jeffrey L. Pasley
PART II: STATE, SECTIONAL, AND POLITICAL POWER IN THE
MISSOURI CRISIS
4. Border Control: Slavery, Diffusion, and
State Formation in the Era of the Missouri Crisis 161 Christa Dierksheide
5. “At War with their Equal Rights”:
The Missouri Crisis in Southern Eyes 183 John R. Van Atta
6. The Surprising Politics of the Missouri Compromise:
Antislavery Doughfaces, Maine, and the Myth of Sectional Balance 213 Donald Ratcliffe
PART III: THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL IN THE MISSOURI CRISIS
7. James Tallmadge Jr. and the Personal Politics of Antislavery 253 Sarah L. H. Gronningsater
8. Litigating Freedom during the Missouri Crisis 285 Anne Twitty
9. Sharing the Founders’ Flame: John Jay, Missouri, and Memory 321 David N. Gellman
10. John Quincy Adams, the Missouri Crisis, and the
Long Politics of Slavery 345 David Waldstreicher
11. Daniel Raymond, Mathew Carey, the Missouri Crisis, and the
Global 1820s 373 Andrew Shankman
INDEX 401
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A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200, Volume I, Western Slavery, National Impasse
edited by Jeffrey L. Pasley and John Craig Hammond
University of Missouri Press, 2021 Cloth: 978-0-8262-2231-2 eISBN: 978-0-8262-7458-8
Many new states entered the United States around 200 years ago, but only Missouri almost killed the nation it was trying to join. When the House of Representatives passed the Tallmadge Amendment banning slavery from the prospective new state in February 1819, it set off a two-year political crisis in which growing northern antislavery sentiment confronted the southern whites’ aggressive calls for slavery’s westward expansion. The Missouri Crisis divided the U.S. into slave and free states for the first time and crystallized many of the arguments and conflicts that would later be settled violently during the Civil War. The episode was, as Thomas Jefferson put it, “a fire bell in the night” that terrified him as the possible “knell of the Union.”
Drawing on the participants in two landmark conferences held at the University of Missouri and the City University of New York, this first of two volumes finds myriad new perspectives on the Missouri Crisis. Celebrating Missouri’s bicentennial the scholarly way, with fresh research and unsparing analysis, this eloquent collection of essays from distinguished historians gives the epochal struggle over Missouri statehood its due as a major turning point in American history.
Contributors include the editors, Christa Dierksheide, David N. Gellman, Sarah L. H. Gronningsater, Robert Lee, Donald Ratcliffe, Andrew Shankman, Anne Twitty, John R. Van Atta, and David Waldstreicher.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Jeffrey L. Pasley is Professor of History and Associate Director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri. He is the author of The First Presidential Contest: 1796and the Founding of American Democracy and lives in Columbia, Missouri.
John Craig Hammond is Associate Professor of History and Assistant Director of Academic Affairs at Penn State University–New Kensington and author of numerous books and articles on slavery and politics in the early American republic. He lives in suburban Pittsburgh.
REVIEWS
“The essays in A Fire Bell in the Past are brilliant commentaries on one of the most pivotal events in American history. These fresh perspectives on the Missouri Crisis breathe new life into this much-written about subject, and could not be more timely given our current-day grappling with the question of race and citizenship.”—Annette Gordon-Reed, Harvard University, author of On Juneteenth
“This book will reset the standard by which historians understand the Missouri Crisis, the politics of slavery, and the Early National era more broadly. The editors did an outstanding job of bringing together scholars who approach the topic from a variety of perspectives, and in doing so, not only re-center the Missouri Crisis historiographically, but offer compelling new lenses through which all historians will need to consider the political history of slavery and anti-slavery in the early United States.”— Ryan A. Quintana, Wellesley College, author of Making a Slave State: Political Development in Early South Carolina
“Because the achievement of statehood by Missouri was tied to the expansion of slavery, its two hundredth anniversary is a problem for those who want their commemorations to be celebrations. But what makes Missouri’s admission a bad bicentennial for the state’s boosters makes for really good scholarship in A Fire Bell in the Past. These bold essays ring loud, awakening readers to how much this crisis mattered—and still matters.”—Stephen Aron, UCLA and Autry Museum of the American West, author of American Confluence: The Missouri Frontier from Borderland to Border State
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTORS xi
FOREWORD
A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200 xv Jeffrey L. Pasley
INTRODUCTION
The Missouri Crisis as Early American History 3 Jeffrey L. Pasley and John Craig Hammond
PART I: BACKGROUND TO THE MISSOURI CRISIS, 1770–1820
1. The Centrality of Slavery:
Enslavement and Settler Sovereignty in Missouri, 1770–1820 43 John Craig Hammond
2. The Boon’s Lick Land Rush and the
Coming of the Missouri Crisis 77 Robert Lee
3. Slavery, War, and Democracy
The Winding Road to the Missouri Crisis 113 Jeffrey L. Pasley
PART II: STATE, SECTIONAL, AND POLITICAL POWER IN THE
MISSOURI CRISIS
4. Border Control: Slavery, Diffusion, and
State Formation in the Era of the Missouri Crisis 161 Christa Dierksheide
5. “At War with their Equal Rights”:
The Missouri Crisis in Southern Eyes 183 John R. Van Atta
6. The Surprising Politics of the Missouri Compromise:
Antislavery Doughfaces, Maine, and the Myth of Sectional Balance 213 Donald Ratcliffe
PART III: THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL IN THE MISSOURI CRISIS
7. James Tallmadge Jr. and the Personal Politics of Antislavery 253 Sarah L. H. Gronningsater
8. Litigating Freedom during the Missouri Crisis 285 Anne Twitty
9. Sharing the Founders’ Flame: John Jay, Missouri, and Memory 321 David N. Gellman
10. John Quincy Adams, the Missouri Crisis, and the
Long Politics of Slavery 345 David Waldstreicher
11. Daniel Raymond, Mathew Carey, the Missouri Crisis, and the
Global 1820s 373 Andrew Shankman
INDEX 401
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE