Amazon.com
In his final book, Paul Goodman upsets commonly held beliefs about the racial politics of antebellum America. Far from being a "white" republic at its inception, the United States only began to deny African Americans the right to vote after they'd exercised it in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Even those opposed to slavery initially believed that, because racism was so thoroughly ingrained in American society, the only reasonable solution was "colonization," the repatriation of the freed slaves to Africa. But, as Goodman shows, most black American leaders rejected this proposal and were gradually able, primarily through appeal to Christian brotherhood, to convince white abolitionists that genuine racial equality was the ultimate answer to the slavery problem.
Goodman is particularly strong at discussing the secular contributions of working-class Americans and women to the abolitionist movement, which dovetailed with other progressivist agendas. It was in abolitionism, for example, that many protofeminists gained the experience in civic activism that would later benefit their own cause. Women, he writes, "had to contend with a form of discrimination that their male counterparts, however supportive they were, did not. And from the experience of contending with that discrimination ... they tended to find their way to an overarching vision of American society, a vision premised on equal rights for all, regardless of class, color, and gender." Although somewhat dry in tone, Of One Blood is rich in historical insight, and it articulates a vision of democratic equality that still resonates in the modern age. --Ron Hogan
From Library Journal
Using his mastery of religious history, Goodman (Towards a Christian Republic: Anti-Masonry and the Great Transition in New England, 1826-36, Oxford Univ., 1988) provides deeply researched and acutely analyzed insights into the origins and persuasions of abolitionism and racial equality. Goodman, who taught for 30 years at the University of California at Davis and died in 1995, also asserts that "white abolitionism was galvanized" by free blacks who pointed out the racism in proposals to solve the slavery question through black colonization of Africa. Throughout, he focuses on the premise that the abolitionists earnestly advocated?that racial prejudice must be abandoned to achieve true abolition of slavery because God had created humankind "of one blood." The book has no bibliography but excellent notes for each chapter. A very useful addition to the literature on race, particularly slavery; recommended for academic libraries.?Edward G. McCormack, Univ. of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Lib., Long BeachCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review, Albert J. von Frank
Goodman surveys dozens of first-generation abolitionist leaders on the subjects of race and equality and finds their pronouncements consistently on the side of the angels.
From Booklist
Goodman, a distinguished historian, died in 1995 with his manuscript for this title nearly completed. Through this work, he puts abolitionism in the social context of its time: the temperance movement, a budding feminist movement, and growing concern about the heartlessness of capitalism and the industrial revolution. He highlights the role of freed blacks in pushing for equality and resisting efforts, or movements, to send blacks back to Africa. The most famous of such movements was the American Colonization Society, made up of former presidents (including Thomas Jefferson), Supreme Court justices, congressmen, and senators. The group was so powerful and well placed that it was able to get federal funds for its plans to colonize free blacks in Liberia at the same time that many members approved expansion of slavery in U.S. territory outside the South. Goodman is critical of how American Christianity either weakly addressed or ignored racial inequalities, noting that some northern churches advocated against slavery but preserved segregated pews for their black worshipers. Vanessa Bush
From Kirkus Reviews
An important addition to the history of American abolitionism. Goodman, late professor of history at the University of California, Davis, devoted much of his intellectual energies to questions of social justice. His concern is evident in this fine book, which focuses on the beginnings of the antislavery movement and on the role of women and African-Americans in the early struggle; although both were important in making the abolitionist cause widespread, neither has received much treatment in the historical literature. As have other historians, Goodman treats the role of the New England clergy in organizing resistance to the slave trade, departing from them to write of fascinating protagonists like David Walker (17851830), the son of a black father and white mother, who recognized that lack of unity had been fatal to black prospects in the past and who therefore concentrated on forging well-organized communities of free blacks in the North, writing an influential manifesto called Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, which argued persuasively that forcible resistance to slavery was the only way to bring that institution to an end. Goodman looks at other community-minded ministers and politicians who integrated churches in New York City, losing many white members in the process, before addressing the question of women abolitionists, scorned even in antislavery quarters as a parcel of silly women acting as petticoat politicians. Despite this unfriendly reception, figures such as the Bostonian Sarah Grimke, Goodman writes, argued that by working to free slaves, women would begin to liberate themselves; and they won many adherents to their cause. This book makes a fitting close to a distinguished historians career. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
About the Author
Paul Goodman taught at the University of California, Davis, for over thirty years. His previous books include The Democratic-Republicans of Massachusetts: Politics in a Young Republic (1964) and Towards a Christian Republic: Anti-masonry and the Great Transition in New England, 1826-1836 (1988).
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