Between Slavery and Freedom

Bill E. Lawson, Howard Mcgary Jr.

Description

Using the writings of slaves and former slaves, as well as commentaries on slavery, Between Slavery and Freedom explores the American slave experience to gain a better understanding of six moral and political concepts—oppression, paternalism, resistance, political obligation, citizenship, and forgiveness. The authors use analytical philosophy as well as other disciplines to gain insight into the thinking of a group of people prevented from participating in the social/political discourse of their times.

Between Slavery and Freedom rejects the notion that philosophers need not consider individual experience because philosophy is "impartial" and "universal." A philosopher should also take account of matters that are essentially perspectival, such as the slave experience. McGary and Lawson demonstrate the contribution of all human experience, including slave experiences, to the quest for human knowledge and understanding.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Philosophy and American Slavery: An Introduction
Howard McGary and Bill Lawson

One. Oppression and Slavery
Bill Lawson

Two. Paternalism and Slavery
Howard McGary

Three. Resistance and Slavery

Four. Citizenship and Slavery
Bill Lawson

Five. Moral Discourse and Slavery

Six. Forgiveness and Slavery
Howard McGary

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Ethnic Studies
• PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophie et théologie
• América
• General officer
• General
• American

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 22 février 1993
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780253012791
• Langue: English

Extrait

Between Slavery and Freedom
BLACKS IN THE DIASPORA
Darlene Clark Hine, John McCluskey, Jr., and David Barry Gaspar General Editors
Between Slavery and Freedom
Philosophy and American Slavery
Howard McGary and Bill E. Lawson
Indiana University Press
BLOOMINGTON INDIANAPOLIS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
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1992 by Bill E. Lawson and Howard McGary
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition .
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.

Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McGary, Howard, date
Between slavery and freedom : philosophy and American slavery / by Howard McGary, Bill E. Lawson.
p. cm.-(Blacks in the diaspora)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-253-33272-9 (cloth). - 0-253-20745-2 (pbk.)
1. Slaves writings, American-History and criticism. 2. Slavery-United States. I. Lawson, Bill E., date. II. Title. III. Series.
E444.M44 1992
306.3 62 0973-dc20
92-7738
3 4 5 6 7 06 05 04 03 02 01
I would like to dedicate this book to the memory of my parents, Myrtis and Howard; my grandmother, Mencie Jedkins; my wife, LaVern; my children, Mya and Gaston; and my brother and sisters.
-Howard McGary
I would like to dedicate this book to my parents, Edmond and Annie Lawson; my wife, Barbara; my son, William; and my brothers and sisters.
-Bill Lawson
Article XIII
Sec. 1 . Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Sec. 2 . Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Article XIV
Sec. 1 . All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The United States Constitution
Contents
PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

PHILOSOPHY AND AMERICAN SLAVERY: AN INTRODUCTION

Howard McGary and Bill Lawson

One. Oppression and Slavery
BILL LAWSON

Two. Paternalism and Slavery
HOWARD McGARY

Three. Resistance and Slavery
HOWARD McGARY

Four. Citizenship and Slavery
BILL LAWSON

Five. Moral Discourse and Slavery
BILL LAWSON

Six. Forgiveness and Slavery
HOWARD McGARY

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX
PREFACE
Between Slavery and Freedom is a work that has been percolating for many years. As a graduate student at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s, I had the good fortune of discussing slavery and slave narratives with Ralph Crowder, then a talented graduate student in history. After reading numerous slave narratives, I was struck by what the slaves had to say about slavery and the slave experience. These narratives gave me new insights and caused me to rethink claims about slavery that I took to be obviously true.
I began to collect and read various sources on slavery and audited a graduate seminar on the topic. This research only increased my enthusiasm for knowledge on American chattel slavery. At the same time, I was working my way through a graduate program in philosophy at the University of Minnesota. In the early seventies these two activities seemed unrelated. Philosophy was one thing and research on slavery was another. When, however, I was asked to create and teach a course on philosophy and black experience in the department of philosophy at the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1972, I began to explore the philosophical issues involved in the subject of slavery. It was at this point that the idea of philosophical examination of the issues raised by slavery merged with the exploration of the history of slavery.
As luck would have it, my colleague at the University of Illinois, Irving Thalberg, in addition to being a first-rate philosopher, was an avid reader of African-American history and culture. Conversations with Thalberg made it clear that there were issues connected with the American slavery experience that needed to be addressed philosophically.
I taught courses on philosophy and the black experience at both the University of Illinois and Rutgers University. In these courses, I examined such issues as slave resistance, paternalism and slavery, and personal identity. The need to write on philosophy and slavery using the slave narratives became even more important after reading Henry Louis Gates and Charles T. Davis s work on these sources (The Slaves Narrative , 1985). The idea gelled even more when I met my coauthor, Bill Lawson.
Howard McGary
I became interested in philosophy and the black experience while a graduate student at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I benefited from being able to discuss the writings of nineteenth-century black political theorists with a fellow graduate student, Wakesa Madzimoyo, a speech and communications major studying the speeches of antebellum black nationalist thinkers.
While my interest in slavery intensified, I continued to research the topic in a nonsystematic manner. In 1978, prior to completing my dissertation, I was asked to teach a course on Pan-Africanism. This course and my work with Paul Ziff, a noted philosopher of language, made me appreciate the power of language in our moral discourse. My philosophic research focused on understanding what is meant by certain political terms like political obligations and oppression. I wanted to understand these terms in the light of the insights gained from a reading of the history of black Americans.
At Spelman College, I was asked to teach on philosophy and the black experience. During this period, I invited members of diverse black nationalistic groups-The Republic of New Africa, The Original Hebrew Israelites, The Shrine of the Black Madonna, and others-to speak in my class. I was struck by the differing uses of the slavery experiences to explain and justify programs to alleviate the oppression of blacks in America. These various claims prompted me to study American slavery further. My research on slavery and political obligations continued when I accepted an appointment at Montclair State College.
In 1983 I met Howard and discovered that we both had a deep interest in slavery and how it affected the formulation of ethical and social concepts. Howard asked me if I would like to coauthor a book on slavery which addressed our mutual philosophical concerns. Thus the collaboration began.
The work started out as a philosophical examination of two slave narratives: My Bondage and Freedom by Frederick Douglass and Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. Along the way we realized that there were some recurring concepts that needed to be examined. The decision was made to examine several crucial ethical and social notions armed with what we took to be valuable but neglected insights gained from slave narratives as well as commentaries on slavery and philosophic analysis. This work is the result of our labor. We would like to thank Darken Clark Hine for her support and encouragement.
Bill Lawson
Portions of chapter 3 were published as The Concept of Resistance: Black Resistance during Slavery in Creighton Peden and James Sterba, eds., Freedom, Equality, and Social Change (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1989). Portions of chapter 4 originally appeared as Locke and the Legal Obligations of Black Americans in Public Affairs Quarterly 3:3 (1989), and parts of chapter 5 originally appeared as Nobody Knows Our Plight: Moral Discourse, Slavery, and Social Progress in Social Theory and Practice 18:2 (1992). Chapter 6 was first published as Forgiveness in American Philosophical Quarterly 26:4 (1989).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Throughout the various stages of this book, I have benefited from the comments of numerous individuals and from the support of Rutgers University. The comments of my colleagues Mary Gibson, Douglas Husak, and Brian McLaughlin are greatly appreciated.
I also want to thank the participants at the first Irving Thalberg memorial lectures for their comments on a version of the chapter on forgiveness. Thanks are also owed to the participants at philosophy colloquia at the College of Charleston, Union College, and the University of Minnesota for their comments on a version of the chapter on paternalism. Finally, a note of thanks to the participants at the second international conference on social philosophy at Colorado College for their insightful remarks on a version of the chapter on resistance.
A special debt is owed to the following: John Dolan, for believing in me at a time