Matthew J. Clavin's Books

Aiming for Pensacola

Fugitive Slaves on the Atlantic and Southern Frontiers

By: Matthew J. Clavin

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Aiming for Pensacola

Fugitive Slaves on the Atlantic and Southern Frontiers

By: Matthew J. Clavin

Before the Civil War, slaves who managed to escape almost always made their way northward along the Underground Railroad. Matthew Clavin recovers the story of fugitive slaves who sought freedom by paradoxically sojourning deeper into the American South toward an unlikely destination: the small seaport of Pensacola, Florida, a gateway to freedom.

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263

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674088220

ISBN 13

9780674088221

Symbols of Freedom

Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War

By: Matthew J. Clavin

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Symbols of Freedom

Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War

By: Matthew J. Clavin

How American symbols inspired enslaved people and their allies to fight for true freedom In the early United States, anthems, flags, holidays, monuments, and memorials were powerful symbols of an American identity that helped unify a divided people. A language of freedom played a similar role in shaping the new nation. The Declaration of Independence’s assertion “that all men are created equal,” Patrick Henry’s cry of “Give me liberty, or give me death!,” and Francis Scott Key’s “star-spangled banner” waving over “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” were anthemic celebrations of a newly free people. Resonating across the country, they encouraged the creation of a republic where the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” was universal, natural, and inalienable. For enslaved people and their allies, the language and symbols that served as national touchstones made a mockery of freedom. Deriding the ideas that infused the republic’s founding, they encouraged an empty American culture that accepted the abstract notion of equality rather than the concrete idea. Yet, as award-winning author Matthew J. Clavin reveals, it was these powerful expressions of American nationalism that inspired forceful and even violent resistance to slavery. Symbols of Freedom is the surprising story of how enslaved people and their allies drew inspiration from the language and symbols of American freedom. Interpreting patriotic words, phrases, and iconography literally, they embraced a revolutionary nationalism that not only justified but generated open opposition. Mindful and proud that theirs was a nation born in blood, these disparate patriots fought to fulfill the republic’s promise by waging war against slavery. In a time when the US flag, the Fourth of July, and historical sites have never been more contested, this book reminds us that symbols are living artifacts whose power is derived from the meaning with which we imbue them.

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285

Publisher

NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479823252

ISBN 13

9781479823253

Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War

The Promise and Peril of a Second Haitian Revolution

By: Matthew J. Clavin

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Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War

The Promise and Peril of a Second Haitian Revolution

By: Matthew J. Clavin

At the end of the eighteenth century, a massive slave revolt rocked French Saint Domingue, the most profitable European colony in the Americas. Under the leadership of the charismatic former slave François Dominique Toussaint Louverture, a disciplined and determined republican army, consisting almost entirely of rebel slaves, defeated all of its rivals and restored peace to the embattled territory. The slave uprising that we now refer to as the Haitian Revolution concluded on January 1, 1804, with the establishment of Haiti, the first "black republic" in the Western Hemisphere. The Haitian Revolution cast a long shadow over the Atlantic world. In the United States, according to Matthew J. Clavin, there emerged two competing narratives that vied for the revolution's legacy. One emphasized vengeful African slaves committing unspeakable acts of violence against white men, women, and children. The other was the story of an enslaved people who, under the leadership of Louverture, vanquished their oppressors in an effort to eradicate slavery and build a new nation. Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War examines the significance of these competing narratives in American society on the eve of and during the Civil War. Clavin argues that, at the height of the longstanding conflict between North and South, Louverture and the Haitian Revolution were resonant, polarizing symbols, which antislavery and proslavery groups exploited both to provoke a violent confrontation and to determine the fate of slavery in the United States. In public orations and printed texts, African Americans and their white allies insisted that the Civil War was a second Haitian Revolution, a bloody conflict in which thousands of armed bondmen, "American Toussaints," would redeem the republic by securing the abolition of slavery and proving the equality of the black race. Southern secessionists and northern anti-abolitionists responded by launching a cultural counterrevolution to prevent a second Haitian Revolution from taking place.

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Page Count

248

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812201612

ISBN 13

9780812201611

The Battle of Negro Fort

The Rise and Fall of a Fugitive Slave Community

By: Matthew J. Clavin

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The Battle of Negro Fort

The Rise and Fall of a Fugitive Slave Community

By: Matthew J. Clavin

The dramatic story of the United States’ destruction of a free and independent community of fugitive slaves in Spanish Florida In the aftermath of the War of 1812, Major General Andrew Jackson ordered a joint United States army-navy expedition into Spanish Florida to destroy a free and independent community of fugitive slaves. The result was the Battle of Negro Fort, a brutal conflict among hundreds of American troops, Indian warriors, and black rebels that culminated in the death or re-enslavement of nearly all of the fort’s inhabitants. By eliminating this refuge for fugitive slaves, the United States government closed an escape valve that African Americans had utilized for generations. At the same time, it intensified the subjugation of southern Native Americans, including the Creeks, Choctaws, and Seminoles. Still, the battle was significant for another reason as well. During its existence, Negro Fort was a powerful symbol of black freedom that subverted the racist foundations of an expanding American slave society. Its destruction reinforced the nation’s growing commitment to slavery, while illuminating the extent to which ambivalence over the institution had disappeared since the nation’s founding. Indeed, four decades after declaring that all men were created equal, the United States destroyed a fugitive slave community in a foreign territory for the first and only time in its history, which accelerated America’s transformation into a white republic. The Battle of Negro Fort places the violent expansion of slavery where it belongs, at the center of the history of the early American republic.

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263

Publisher

NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479811106

ISBN 13

9781479811106

Symbols of Freedom

Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War

By: Matthew J. Clavin

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Symbols of Freedom

Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War

By: Matthew J. Clavin

In the early United States, the language and symbols of American freedom inspired enslaved people and their allies to wage a real and revolutionary war against slavery"--

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285

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NYU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1479823244

ISBN 13

9781479823246

Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War

The Promise and Peril of a Second Haitian Revolution

By: Matthew J. Clavin

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Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War

The Promise and Peril of a Second Haitian Revolution

By: Matthew J. Clavin

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Page Count

248

Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0812201612

ISBN 13

9780812201611

Aiming for Pensacola

Fugitive Slaves on the Atlantic and Southern Frontiers

By: Matthew J. Clavin

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Aiming for Pensacola

Fugitive Slaves on the Atlantic and Southern Frontiers

By: Matthew J. Clavin

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

263

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674088220

ISBN 13

9780674088221

Book's by Matthew J. Clavin

Aiming for Pensacola

Aiming for Pensacola

Symbols of Freedom

Symbols of Freedom

Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War

Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War

The Battle of Negro Fort

The Battle of Negro Fort

Symbols of Freedom

Symbols of Freedom

Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War

Toussaint Louverture and the American Civil War

Aiming for Pensacola

Aiming for Pensacola

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