What Hath God Wrought (128 page)

There are many fine studies of individual rural communities in preindustrial America. Examples include John Brooke,
The Heart of the Commonwealth: Society and Political Culture in Worcester County, Mass.
(1990); John Mack Faragher,
Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie
(1986); and Randolph Roth,
The Democratic Dilemma: Religion, Reform, and the Social Order in the Connecticut Valley of Vermont
(1987). The importance of religious communities for American political thought is argued aggressively by Barry Shain,
The Myth of American Individualism
(1994).

On the origins of consumer culture, see Richard Bushman,
The Refinement of America
(1992); John Crowley,
The Invention of Comfort
(2001); Timothy Breen,
The Marketplace of Revolution
(2004); and Scott Martin, ed.,
Cultural Change and the Market Revolution in America
(2005). On economic integration and convergence, see Kevin O’Rourke and Jeffrey Williamson,
Globalization and History: The Evolution of a Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Economy
(1999).

For perspectives on Americans as a seafaring people, see Daniel Vickers,
Farmers and Fishermen
(1994); Daniel Vickers and Vince Walsh,
Young Men and the Sea
(2005); Mark Kurlansky,
Cod
(1997); and Paul Gilje,
Liberty on the Waterfront
(2004). On whaling, see Lance Davis, Robert Gallman, and Karin Gleiter,
In Pursuit of Leviathan
(1997).

On the fur trade as an economic undertaking, see David Wishart,
The Fur Trade of the American West
(1979) and David Dary,
The Santa Fe Trail
(2000). For its contribution to geographical knowledge, William Goetzmann,
Exploration and Empire
(1978) and
New Lands, New Men: America and the Second Great Age of Discovery
(1986); and John Logan Allen, ed.
North American Exploration
, vol. III,
A Continent Comprehended
(1997). For the excitement of the mountain men, read Bernard DeVoto,
Across the Wide Missouri
(1947) or Dale Morgan,
Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West
(1953).

The great historian David Brion Davis has examined the philosophy and practice of slavery and antislavery on a worldwide scale. See his
The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture
(1966),
The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution
(1975),
Slavery and Human Progress
(1984), and
Challenging the Boundaries of Slavery
(2003). For more on slavery’s international context, see Philip Curtin,
The Atlantic Slave Trade
(1969); Duncan Rice,
The Rise and Fall of Black Slavery
(1975); Peter Kolchin,
Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom
(1987); Robin Blackburn,
The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776–1848
(1988); and Hugh Thomas,
The Slave Trade
(1997).

Life in slavery has been the subject of some of the most powerful and profound American historical writing. Kenneth Stampp,
The Peculiar Institution
(1956) created the modern understanding of the subject. Besides Eugene Genovese’s
Roll, Jordan, Roll
cited above, see Lawrence Levine,
Black Culture and Black Consciousness
(1977); John Boles,
Black Southerners
(1983); Charles Joyner,
Down by the Riverside
(1984); Peter Kolchin,
American Slavery
(1993); Mark M. Smith,
Mastered by the Clock: Time, Slavery, and Freedom in the American South
(1997); Ira Berlin,
Many Thousands Gone
(1998) and
Generations of Captivity
(2003); Deborah White,
Ar’n’t I a Woman?
rev. ed. (1999); and Marie Schwartz,
Born in Bondage
(2000). Claudia Goldin,
Urban Slavery in the American South
(1976) disagrees with Richard Wade,
Slavery in the Cities
(1964), but now historians tend to synthesize them. For autonomy among the slaves, see Ira Berlin and Philip Morgan, eds.,
The Slaves’ Economy: Independent Production by Slaves
(1991); Larry Hudson Jr.,
To Have and to Hold
(1997); and John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger,
Runaway Slaves
(1999).

The lives and mindset of the slaveholders are portrayed in Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene Genovese,
The Mind of the Master Class
(2005); Jeffrey Young,
Domesticating Slavery
(1999); James Oakes,
The Ruling Race
(1982) and
Slavery and Freedom
(1990); Bertram Wyatt-Brown,
Southern Honor
(1982); John Boles,
The South Through Time
(1995); William Scarborough,
Masters of the Big House
(2003); and Richard Follett,
The Sugar Masters
(2005). The intertwined lives of both masters and slaves are treated in a beautiful case study, Erskine Clarke,
Dwelling Place
(2005).

That holding workers in slavery profited their masters does not seem particularly surprising, but it required massive efforts by economic historians to prove it. Alfred Conrad and John Meyer,
The Economics of Slavery
(1964) showed that slaves earned a competitive rate of return for their owners. Robert Fogel and Stanley Engerman,
Time on the Cross
(1974) made slavery seem so economically modern and efficient that critics charged they also made the system seem benign; see Paul David et al.,
Reckoning with Slavery
(1976). A more widely accepted demonstration of the profitability of slavery has been Robert Fogel,
Without Consent or Contract
(1989), which is supported by three supplementary volumes of
Evidence and Methods
(1992). For the consequences of the masters’ pursuit of profit, see William Dusinberre,
Them Dark Days
(1996). For a judicious historiography, see Mark Smith,
Debating Slavery
(1998).

The massive domestic commerce in slaves, local as well as interregional, is described in Steven Deyle,
Carry Me Back
(2005). The scope and horror of the interstate slave trade is portrayed in Daniel Johnson and Rex Campbell,
Black Migration in America
(1981); Michael Tadman,
Speculators and Slaves
(1989); Walter Johnson,
Soul by Soul
(2000); and Robert Gudmestad,
A Troublesome Commerce
(2003). For issues of constitutional law, see David Lightner,
Slavery and the Commerce Power
(2006). Roger Kennedy,
Mr. Jefferson’s Lost Cause
(2003) and Adam Rothman,
Slave Country
(2005) treat the expansion of slavery into the Gulf states.

Slave uprisings have attracted a considerable literature. Douglas Egerton,
Rebels, Reformers, and Revolutionaries
(2002) is a collection of thoughtful essays. The most reliable accounts of the Vesey conspiracy are in Douglas Egerton,
He Shall Go Out Free
, rev. ed.(2004) and John Lofton,
Denmark Vesey’s Revolt
(1983). Howard Jones,
Mutiny on the Amistad
(1987) is the best treatment of its subject. For Nat Turner, see Kenneth Greenberg, ed.,
Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory
(2003); Mary Kemp Davis,
Nat Turner Before the Bar of Judgment
(1999); and Stephen Oates,
The Fires of Jubilee
(1975). On the incendiary pamphleteer David Walker, see Peter Hinks,
To Awaken My Afflicted Brethren
(1997).

Not all African Americans lived in slavery; on the free black people, see Gary Nash,
Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community
(1988); Leslie Harris,
In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1868
(2003); Donald Wright,
African Americans in the Early Republic
(1993); Mary Frances Berry and John Blassingame,
Long Memory: The Black Experience in America
(1982); James Horton,
Free People of Color
(1993); James and Lois Horton,
In Hope of Liberty
(1997); and Melvin Ely,
Israel on the Appomattox
(2004).

The harshest judgment on Madison’s presidency was rendered by Henry Adams in his
History of the United States During the Administrations of James Madison
(1891), the most favorable by Irving Brant in
James Madison: Commander in Chief
(1961). Judicious assessments are offered by George Dangerfield,
The Awakening of American Nationalism
(1965); Drew McCoy,
The Last of the Fathers
(1989); and Garry Wills,
James Madison
(2002). See also Norman K. Risjord,
The Old Republicans
(1965) and Lance Banning,
The Jeffersonian Persuasion
(1978).

George Dangerfield,
The Era of Good Feelings
(1952) is the classic account of that period. See also Shaw Livermore,
The Twilight of Federalism
(1962); Murray Rothbard,
The Panic of 1819
(1962); Richard Hofstadter,
The Idea of a Party System
(1969); David Waldstreicher,
In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes
(1998); Ralph Ketcham,
Presidents Above Party
(1984); Marshall Foletta,
Coming to Terms with Democracy
(2001); and Stephen Skowronkek,
The Politics Presidents Make
(1993), which is particularly good on Monroe.

Dexter Perkins,
History of the Monroe Doctrine
(1963); Ernest Nay,
The Making of the Monroe Doctrine
(1965); Bradford Perkins,
Castlereagh and Adams
(1964); and Donald Dozer, ed.,
The Monroe Doctrine
(1976) treat the most famous principle in American diplomacy.

Trans-Appalachian white migration into the Old Southwest is treated in Thomas Abernathy,
From Frontier to Plantation in Tennessee
(1932); Clayton James,
Antebellum Natchez
(1968); Malcolm Rohrbough,
The Trans-Appalachian Frontier
(1978); Daniel Feller,
The Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics
(1984); John Otto,
Southern Frontiers
(1989); Joan Cashin,
A Family Venture: Men and Women on the Southern Frontier
(1991); Harvey Jackson,
Rivers of History
(1995); Daniel Dupre,
Transforming the Cotton Frontier
(1997); and Samuel Hyde Jr., ed.,
Plain Folk of the Old South Revisited
(1997). Two well-written books lament the passing of the frontier in Kentucky: Stephen Aron,
How the West Was Lost
(1996) and Craig Friend,
Along the Maysville Road
(2005).

The development of an economy based on slave-grown cotton is analyzed in Gavin Wright,
The Political Economy of the Cotton South
(1978); Roger Ransom,
Conflict and Compromise: The Political Economy of Slavery
(1989); and David Carlton and Peter Coclanis,
The South, the Nation, and the World
(2003). The classic account of the importance of cotton to the American economy is Douglass North,
The Economic Growth of the United States
(1961).

The industrial revolution sparked by cotton textiles marked a turning point in the history of the world. See David Jeremy,
The Transatlantic Industrial Revolution
(1981); Jonathan Prude,
The Coming of Industrial Order
(1983); Philip Scranton,
Proprietary Capitalism
(1983); Barbara Tucker,
Samuel Slater and the Origins of the American Textile Industry
(1984); Walter Licht,
Industrializing America
(1995); and Angela Lakwete,
Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth
(2003). For copious illustrations, see Brooke Hindle and Steven Labar,
Engines of Change: The American Industrial Revolution, 1790–1860
(1991). New England’s innovative role is the subject of Robert Dalzell Jr.,
Enterprising Elite
(1987); Theodore Steinberg,
Nature Incorporated: Industrialization and the Waters of New England
(1991); and Naomi Lamoreaux,
Insider Lending: Banks, Personal Connections, and Economic Development in Industrial New England
(1994). For the evolution of the corporation, see Kenneth Lipartito and David Sicilia, eds.,
Constructing Corporate America
(2004). Two fascinating community studies are Anthony Wallace,
Rockdale
(1978) and Thomas Dublin,
Lowell
(1992). Michael Zakim,
Ready-Made Democracy: A History of Men’s Dress in the American Republic
(2003) analyzes both consumers and producers. On the cultural impact of the industrial revolution, see David Nye,
America as Second Creation
(2003).