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While slavery is often at the heart of debates over the causes of the Civil War, historians are not agreed on precisely what aspect of slavery--with its various social, economic, political, cultural, and moral ramifications--gave rise to the sectional rift. In Calculating the Value of the Union, James Huston integrates economic, social, and political history to argue that the issue of property rights as it pertained to slavery was at the center of the Civil War.In the early years of the nineteenth century, southern slaveholders sought a national definition of property rights that would recognize and protect their ownership of slaves. Northern interests, on the other hand, opposed any national interpretation of property rights because of the threat slavery posed to the northern free labor market, particularly if allowed to spread to western territories. This impasse sparked a process of political realignment that culminated in the creation of the Republican Party, ultimately leading to the secession crisis.Deeply researched and carefully written, this study rebuts recent trends in antebellum historiography and persuasively argues for a fundamentally economic interpretation of the slavery issue and the coming of the Civil War.

RIGHT OF PROPERTY --- UNITED STATES --- LAW --- HISTORY

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Agriculture --- Farms, Size of --- Plantations --- Plantation owners --- Family farms --- Farmers --- Labor --- Slavery --- Regional economics --- Agriculture --- Family farms. --- Farmers. --- Farms, Size of. --- Labor. --- Plantation owners. --- Plantations --- Regional economics. --- Slavery --- War --- Economic aspects --- History --- Economic aspects --- History --- History --- History --- History --- History --- Economic aspects --- History --- Economic aspects. --- Economic aspects. --- Economic aspects. --- Causes. --- American Civil War (1861-1865). --- 1861-1865. --- United States --- Southern States. --- United States. --- History --- Causes

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Historians have long contested the degree to which the central tenet of the Declaration of Independence - that all men are created equal - has manifested itself in American society and national policy. According to James L. Huston, many historians have focused too intently on class differences, slavery, and inequalities arising from ethnicity, sexuality, and gender, while overlooking important areas where notions of equality flourished during the century and a half after the Declaration's signing. In The American and British Debate over Equality, 1776-1920, Huston examines the egalitarian communities in rural northern American, particularlythose enclaves that differed from the openly aristocratic cities and town of the British Isles. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, British and American writers alike recognized that a growing philosophical rift divided the two nations: whereas Great Britain continued to embrace the inequality of its hierarchical class system, the United States professed alliegiance to democratic ideals of equality - limited though these were by racial and gender norms of the day. Huston argues that the two countries engaged in an intellectual debate during the next century engaged in an intellectual debate during the next century and a half over which ideal - equality or inequality - worked best in promoting social stability, political hegemony, and economic success. Exploring the effects of equality and inequality on many aspects of American life, he examines civil behavior, social customs, treatment of others, politics, education, religion, economic opportunity, and general public optimism. Drawing from decades of publications by American and British writers, Huston reveals the rhetorical strategies contemporary observers employed in defending or rejecting the organization of a society around broader notions of human equality. The American and British Debate over Equality, 1776-1920 informs the modern debate over equality and inequality, not by theorizing and philosophizing, but by offering a glimpse into the practical applications of a functioning egalitarian society as compared to one that extolled monarchy and institutionalized inequality. -- from dust jacket.

Equality --- Equality --- History. --- History. --- United States. --- Great Britain. --- United States --- Foreign relations

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