A House Divided: the Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865.

A House Divided: The Antebellum Slavery Debates in America, 1776-1865. Edited by Mason I. Lowance Jr. (Princeton, N.J., and Oxford: Princeton University Press, c. 2003. Pp. lxxiv, 492. Paper, $24.95, ISBN 0-691-00228-2; cloth, $75.00, ISBN 0-691-00227-4.)

In A House Divided, Mason I. Lowance Jr. assembles an impressive collection of documents that convey the scope and depth of the national debates over slavery in the antebellum United States, providing a valuable addition to the materials available for studying proslavery and antislavery arguments. Developed originally for a literary audience, this collection exposes the numerous arguments deployed during this era and surveys the significant cultural figures engaged in these disputes rather than taking on conventional historical themes such as the emerging significance of the West in the debates over slavery or the increasing polarization of the nation.

Concentrating on national public debates instead of private sentiments, Lowance brings together material from a host of essayists, fiction writers, activists, and politicians, as well as a few court decisions and laws, choosing published documents over letters, diaries, and sermons. Lowance wishes to highlight the different types of arguments employed in the antebellum era (despite the dates in its title, this really is an antebellum collection), constructing well-focused chapters on such topics as biblical, economic, literary, and scientific arguments over slavery, as well as the abolitionist movement. Short essays, bibliographies for further reading, and biographies introduce and provide context for the documents; a number of the essays examine significant literary issues, reflecting Lowance's (and most of his contributors') area of expertise.

The individual chapters demonstrate how writers used different knowledge claims to assert authority in the debate over slavery. For instance, in a very useful chapter on scientific arguments, Lowance shows how writers used race theory, phrenology, and early American ethnography to advance their beliefs. This chapter includes selections from Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, phrenologist O.S. Fowler's Hereditary Descent, ethnologist Josiah Nott's Types of Mankind, and Frederick Douglass's "The Claims of the Negro Ethnologically Considered." Lowance combines these documents with a clear and informative essay that explains the emergence and development of these fields. Likewise, the chapter on economic arguments about slavery effectively joins selections from important documents with a succinct, instructive introduction. With help from such writers as Edmund Ruffin, George Fitzhugh, and Hinton Rowan Helper, Lowance exposes key formulations of political economy and how they were deployed during debates over slavery. His chapter on Congress would have been greatly strengthened had he similarly sought to uncover emerging political standpoints rather than reproducing excerpts from such well-known documents as the Missouri Compromise and the Thirteenth Amendment.

This volume is focused on surveying various elements of the political culture and not on recreating the historical moment or the energy of the national debate. That is, by bringing to the surface the great variety of public participants, from poets to scientists to reformers to politicians, the book maps the contours of the political landscape instead of exposing the rapidly transforming rhetoric, issues, and tactics during this crucial era. Historians may find it frustrating that the section on "Historical Background" merits less than twenty pages and that significant events that changed the nature and tenor of the national debate, such as Nat Turner's rebellion and "Bleeding Kansas," receive scant notice while Emily Dickinson--who did not join in the public debates--nevertheless receives individual consideration. More disturbing still, rather than provide historical information (or even a bibliography) on slavery and the middle passage, Lowance suggests readers do an Internet "'Google' search" to learn more about the topics (p. 5).

Even with these shortcomings, this work--with its extensive collection of documents and informative contextual essays--will prove useful to students and to those seeking entry into the complex issues surrounding slavery in antebellum political culture.

MONICA NAJAR

Lehigh University