A Necessary Evil?: Slavery and the Debate Over the Constitution

John Paul Kaminski

Rowman & Littlefield, 1995 - Political Science - 289 pages

By the early decades of the nineteenth century, Americans wondered, if slavery had become a necessary evil - economically essential but morally reprehensible. A Necessary Evil? is divided into seven chapters: the first establishes the background for slavery in the new nation and sets the stage for the debate while the second chapter records the arguments over slavery from the Constitutional Convention. Chapters three, four, and five turn to the New England, Middle, and Southern states respectively and present the complete record of slavery and the ratification debate in these regions. The next chapter demonstrates the peculiar institution's newly sanctioned role in the young republic and how abolitionists sought to reverse this growing consensus. Finally, the last chapter looks at slavery from the perspective of three of the most influential Americans, Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, to show the complexity and inner turmoil that surrounded slavery.

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Contents

• NEW ENGLAND DEBATES SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION: 67
• THE MIDDLE STATES DEBATE SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION: 115
• THE SOUTH DEBATES SLAVERY AND THE CONSTITUTION: 157

About the author

\John P. Kaminski is the director of The Center for the Study of the American Constitution at the Unversity of Wisconsin-Madison. He has written and spoken widely on the Constitution. He is a former president of The Association for Documentary Editing.

Bibliographic information

• Title: A Necessary Evil?: Slavery and the Debate Over the Constitution; Volume 2 of Constitutional heritage series, ISSN 0895-9633; Volume 2 of Religions of the World and Ecology
• Editor: John Paul Kaminski
• Contributor: University of Wisconsin--Madison. Center for the Study of the American Constitution
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, 1995
• ISBN: 0945612338, 9780945612339
• Length: 289 pages
• Subjects: History / United States / General; Political Science / Constitutions