"Better to kill them off at once": race, violence, and human rights in antebellum western state constitutional conventions. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- "Better to kill them off at once": race, violence, and human rights in antebellum western state constitutional conventions. Issue 1 (2nd January 2019)
- Main Title:
- "Better to kill them off at once": race, violence, and human rights in antebellum western state constitutional conventions
- Authors:
- Siddali, Silvana R.
- Abstract:
- ABSTRACT: My paper argues that delegates to antebellum western state constitutional conventions, in both slave and free states, expressed violent, even homicidal ideas about free black people. They predicted and described mass exterminations, lynching, and even a race war. These delegates sought to enshrine coercive measures in their state constitutions, including re-enslavement and forcible removals, and they employed ferocious language to support their arguments. My paper explores the delegates' efforts to mount legal and constitutional justifications for violence toward free black people. I compare the language in antebellum western conventions to coeval debates in other regions. Although no state legitimized lynching, let alone genocide, these debates provide a useful window into the delegates' efforts to find constitutional justifications for the removal – or even extermination – of free black people from the new western states.
- Is Part Of:
- American nineteenth century history. Volume 20:Issue 1(2019)
- Journal:
- American nineteenth century history
- Issue:
- Volume 20:Issue 1(2019)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 20, Issue 1 (2019)
- Year:
- 2019
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2019-0020-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 19
- Page End:
- 40
- Publication Date:
- 2019-01-02
- Subjects:
- Race -- violence -- state constitutions -- free black people -- western states
United States -- History -- 19th century -- Periodicals
973.5 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fanc20/current ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗
http://ninetta.ingentaselect.com/vl=5559989/cl=69/nw=1/rpsv/cw/fcp/14664658/contp1.htm ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1080/14664658.2019.1605756 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 1466-4658
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 0847.030000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 10845.xml