The American Crucible: Slavery, Emancipation and Human Rights [Hardcover]

As doyens of the 60s "revolution", Robin Blackburn and I no doubt marched at one time or another behind the same banners. It therefore comes as no surprise that I'm able to find agreement with much of what he has to say in American Crucible. I dare say, though, that most people would share our indignation at the inhumanity of the institution of slavery, disappointment, to say the least, that its official abolition came at such a high price, and frustration that in one form or another it still exists. I also dare say that most general readers will find this a valuable read.

This is a long way from being a rant against colonialism. Blackburn carefully makes a distinction between old world slavery and that which developed in the Americas following their colonisation by Europeans. Similarly he differentiates between the simple racism of earlier times and the more insidious, quasi-intellectual type which developed in part to justify slavery and, at the same time, the dispossession, and coincidental virtual extermination, of the indigenous population of the New World. He evaluates the various opposing forces in the struggle over slavery, showing that this was far more nuanced than a simple battle between Good and Evil. Many paradoxes existed in the 18th and 19th centuries, with some slaveholders, at least on paper, opposed to the institution. And some of the people who have gone down in history as heroes of the abolitionist struggle sometimes displayed feet of clay when it came to going all out, with some apparently content to put an end only to the transatlantic movement of new slaves or other half measures. But the book is scathing of revisionist attempts to talk up antebellum abolitionism, pointing out that the British military in that period freed more slaves than did American institutions, and that it required the expedient of a brutal civil war for abolition to come to fruition.

One particularly outstanding feature is the explanation of the detrimental economic effect slavery had on the southern United States. The plantations were not averse to adopting new technology, with the use of steam engines for power and clock time to drive higher productivity. Nor were they in themselves unprofitable: the author gives evidence that their owners were very comfortably off. But physical capital accumulation in the region was weak, with the majority of "capital" being in the form of slaves, driving out investment in capital equipment. And the existence of slave labour and its unpalatable concomitants deterred many settlers from the region, with the consequence that whilst the populations of North and South were equal at around 2.6 million in 1800, by 1860 they were respectively 20 million and 11 million. Hence post-bellum the South was left with a very poor endowment, particularly as before the war education of slaves had been forbidden and of whites at best negligent.

Perhaps one of the things Blackburn underemphasises is the significance of western expansion of the United States, particularly into Texas, a move which Robert Kagan, a neoconservative commentator, in Dangerous Nation, says was partly motivated by the fact that Texas would bring additional pro-slavery representation into the US legislature. Nevertheless, as Blackburn suggests and Sharma, in The American Future, makes specific, there was plenty of resistance to slavery in the state, not least from the German population, whose presence is still evident in place names on the drive between Houston and San Antonio on I10. And it was Germans who had fled Europe after the upheavals of 1848, Blackburn says, who flocked to the Union and abolitionist cause. The fact that so many were attracted in this way also points up a weakness in Union propaganda, too often timid in its anti-slavery message at the cost of support both at home and away, as brought home well by Amanda Foreman in A World On Fire.

As a treatise on the institution of American slavery, this work is first class. Blackburn recounts its development and overthrow, its aftermath and aftershocks, its rationale and weaknesses as an economic proposition, as well as its inexcusable brutality and inhumanity. The author's erudition shines throughout, although a proper bibliography would have been useful. Blackburn conducts a constant debate with other authors, sometimes contradicting, sometimes acknowledging the strength of their arguments, and sometimes admitting that on some points it's too difficult to say what's right. There's a clear position taken on the major principles, but he also concedes there are occasional grey areas in the detail.

The book has, overall been well-edited, with only a few typos, such as "had trod", "deire" for desire, "sliver" for silver, and the mildly amusing "redical", which may just be an attempted neologism. It is though mildly irritating that such a work adheres to the BC/AD convention rather than BCE/CE.

Whilst the author clearly knows a lot about his subject, his writing is awful.

There are constant repetitions often on the same page. The sentences ramble on and on often obscuring their meaning. There is constant use of French, Spanish and Portuguese terms which only serve to show that he knows these words.

From time to time the book disappears into the world of academe as Blackburn gives his opinion of other writers' work on the subject.

There are often unnecessary lists of names which belong in the bibliography or, the already prodigious, footnotes.

In short, this feels like it was thrown together and could have done with a good editor (although they may have ended up writing most of the book.)

Avoid!