From its origins in the 1750s, the white-led American abolitionist
movement adhered to principles of "moral suasion" and
nonviolent resistance as both religious tenet and political strategy.
But by the 1850s, the population of enslaved Americans had increased
exponentially, and such legislative efforts as the Fugitive Slave Act
and the Supreme Court's 1857 ruling in the Dred Scott case
effectively voided any rights black Americans held as enslaved or
free people. As conditions deteriorated for African Americans, black
abolitionist leaders embraced violence as the only means of shocking
Northerners out of their apathy and instigating an antislavery war.
In Force and
Freedom, Kellie Carter Jackson provides the first historical
analysis exclusively focused on the tactical use of violence among
antebellum black activists. Through rousing public speeches, the
bourgeoning black press, and the formation of militia groups, black
abolitionist leaders mobilized their communities, compelled national
action, and drew international attention. Drawing on the precedent
and pathos of the American and Haitian Revolutions, African American
abolitionists used violence as a political language and a means of
provoking social change. Through tactical violence, argues Carter
Jackson, black abolitionist leaders accomplished what white
nonviolent abolitionists could not: creating the conditions that
necessitated the Civil War. Force and Freedom takes readers
beyond the honorable politics of moral suasion and the romanticism of
the Underground Railroad and into an exploration of the agonizing
decisions, strategies, and actions of the black abolitionists who,
though lacking an official political voice, were nevertheless
responsible for instigating monumental social and political change.