<<The>> Underground Railroad and the geography of violence in antebellum America

Le site de l'éditeur indique : "As runaway slaves fled from the South to escape bondage, slave catchers followed in their wake. The arrival of fugitives and slave catchers in the North set off violent confrontations that left participants and local residents enraged and embittered. Historian Robert H. Churchill places the Underground Railroad in the context of a geography of violence, a shifting landscape in which clashing norms of violence shaped the activities of slave catchers and the fugitives and abolitionists who defied them. Churchill maps four distinct cultures of violence: one that prevailed in the South and three more in separate regions of the North: the Borderland, the Contested Region, and the Free Soil Region. Slave catchers who followed fugitives into the North brought with them a Southern culture of violence that sanctioned white brutality as a means of enforcing racial hierarchy and upholding masculine honor, but their arrival triggered vastly different violent reactions in the three regions of the North. Underground activists adapted their operations to these distinct cultures of violence, and the cultural collisions between slave catchers and local communities transformed Northern attitudes, contributing to the collapse of the Fugitive Slave Act and the coming of the Civil War." "One summer night in 1845 thirteen slaves escaped from a plantation in northern Kentucky and ran for the Ohio River, led by Louis Talbert. They had planned to cross the Ohio on a raft, but building the craft took longer than expected, and only half of the band had made the passage before daylight. The delay of a day to bring the others over the river under cover of darkness cost them dearly. Their escape was now common knowledge on both banks of the river, and the underemployed white men of the area scoured the northern bank in hopes of a sizeable reward from their claimants. Once they were all across the river, they were unable to travel far before daylight forced them to go to ground again. As they had now been forty-eight hours without eating, some of the party went to a nearby farm house to purchase food. Unfortunately this desperate act revealed their location to the various slave catching posses scouring the countryside. Slave catchers soon gave chase and the party of fugitives scattered, but most were recaptured. Talbert and three others managed to avoid capture, and slowly made their way overland to Newport, IN, a well-known abolitionist stronghold and center of the Underground Railroad. Quaker Underground activist Levi Coffin took in Talbert and his companions and facilitated their travel further north to Canada"-- Provided by publisher Le site de l'éditeur indique : "As runaway slaves fled from the South to escape bondage, slave catchers followed in their wake. The arrival of fugitives and slave catchers in the North set off violent confrontations that left participants and local residents enraged and embittered. Historian Robert H. Churchill places the Underground Railroad in the context of a geography of violence, a shifting landscape in which clashing norms of violence shaped the activities of slave catchers and the fugitives and abolitionists who defied them. Churchill maps four distinct cultures of violence: one that prevailed in the South and three more in separate regions of the North: the Borderland, the Contested Region, and the Free Soil Region. Slave catchers who followed fugitives into the North brought with them a Southern culture of violence that sanctioned white brutality as a means of enforcing racial hierarchy and upholding masculine honor, but their arrival triggered vastly different violent reactions in the three regions of the North. Underground activists adapted their operations to these distinct cultures of violence, and the cultural collisions between slave catchers and local communities transformed Northern attitudes, contributing to the collapse of the Fugitive Slave Act and the coming of the Civil War." As runaway slaves fled from the South to escape bondage, slave catchers followed in their wake. The arrival of fugitives and slave catchers in the North set off violent confrontations that left participants and local residents enraged and embittered. Historian Robert H. Churchill places the Underground Railroad in the context of a geography of violence, a shifting landscape in which clashing norms of violence shaped the activities of slave catchers and the fugitives and abolitionists who defied them. Churchill maps four distinct cultures of violence: one that prevailed in the South and three more in separate regions of the North: the Borderland, the Contested Region, and the Free Soil Region. Slave catchers who followed fugitives into the North brought with them a Southern culture of violence that sanctioned white brutality as a means of enforcing racial hierarchy and upholding masculine honor, but their arrival triggered vastly different violent reactions in the three regions of the North. Underground activists adapted their operations to these distinct cultures of violence, and the cultural collisions between slave catchers and local communities transformed Northern attitudes, contributing to the collapse of the Fugitive Slave Act and the coming of the Civil War. -- Provided by publisher 01.0_pp_i_ii_The_Underground_Railroad_and_the_Geography_of_Violence_in_Antebellum_America 02.0_pp_iii_iii_The_Underground_Railroad_and_the_Geography_of_Violence_in_Antebellum_America 03.0_pp_iv_iv_Copyright_page 04.0_pp_v_vi_Dedication 05.0_pp_vii_viii_Contents 06.0_pp_ix_x_Maps 07.0_pp_xi_xiv_Acknowledgments 08.0_pp_1_22_Introduction 09.0_pp_23_48_Origins_to_1838 09.1_pp_25_48_Refugees_All 10.0_pp_49_136_18381850 10.1_pp_51_87_Under_Siege 10.2_pp_88_111_Bondage_and_Dignity 10.3_pp_112_136_Free_Soil 11.0_pp_137_224_18501860 11.1_pp_139_170_Law_and_Degradation 11.2_pp_171_201_Above_Ground 11.3_pp_202_224_The_End_of_Toleration 12.0_pp_225_232_Epilogue 13.0_pp_233_242_Appendix 14.0_pp_243_256_Index The story of fugitives from enslavement and their travels on the Underground Railroad is a story of violence. This book tells the story of violent encounters between slave catchers, fugitives, Underground activists, and Northern communities and how these encounters contributed to sectional alienation and the coming of the Civil War.