The Scorpion's Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War

by James Oakes

Book Overview

Surrounded by a ring of fire, the scorpion stings itself to death. The image, widespread among antislavery leaders before the Civil War, captures their long-standing strategy for peaceful abolition: they would surround the slave states with a cordon of freedom. They planned to use federal power wherever they could to establish freedom: the western territories, the District of Columbia, the high seas. By constricting slavery they would induce a crisis:...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393239934
• ISBN13: 9780393239935
• Release Date: May 2014
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.6"