Deliver Us from Evil
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A major contribution to our understanding of slavery in the early republic, Deliver Us from Evil illuminates the white South's twisted and tortured efforts to justify slavery, focusing on the period from the drafting of the federal constitution in 1787 through the age of Jackson. Drawing heavily on primary sources, including newspapers, government documents, legislative records, pamphlets, and speeches, Lacy Ford recaptures the varied and sometimes contradictory ideas and attitudes held by groups of white southerners as they debated the slavery question. He excels at conveying the political, intellectual, economic, and social thought of leading white southerners, vividly recreating the mental world of the varied actors. He also shows that there was not one antebellum South but many, and not one southern white mindset but several, with the debates over slavery in the upper South quite different in substance from those in the deep South. An ambitious, thought-provoking, and highly insightful book, Deliver Us from Evil is essential for anyone interested in the history of slavery in the United States.Features
- Sweeping regional study of ideas about slavery in the South, which highlights evolution over time and subregions
- Close look at the development of paternalism as an ideology of slaveholding
- Emphasizes the controversial role of the internal slave trade in defining the relationships among Southern states
Reviews
"Ford painstakingly unravels the divergent perspectives on slavery, making 'Deliver Us From Evil' required reading for anyone interested in the development of Southern society... In dismissing the stale notions that slaveholder paternalism developed from the ancient habit of noblesse oblige or from the peculiar conditions of Southern slavery, Ford makes his most important contribution to our understanding of the development of Southern society."--Ira Berlin, New York Times Book Review
"...through depth, detail and focus, Ford's comprehensive study forges a fresh path.... the historical detail is engrossing.... Ford's monumental book delineates a "twisted and tortured" intellectual history; signs of his mastery of previous scholarship and his immersion in fresh primary sources abound.... Ford's lucid prose and summary introductions illuminate the way. Lay readers will appreciate his guidance, and academic readers will find his revelations groundbreaking."--Publishers Weekly" (starred review)
"Ford's book... does provide an intricate, textured argument about the intellectual, social, and political interests shaping "the slavery question".... Essential for all students of this subject."--Library Journal
"Rarely has anyone heard this case made with the force and detail that Lacy K. Ford, chairman of the University of South Carolina's history department, has pulled together in his important new work... Those seeking the slaves' perspective won't find much here, as the author readily notes up front, but there's arguably no single better book for anyone wishing to explore the mind-set that kept them in chains."--Charleston Post & Courier
"[A] long-awaited, heavily documented, and precisely argued study." --H-Law
"Ford's vitally important book reminds us of the complicated calculus employed by
white southerners to answer various 'slavery questions' over southern time and space." --North Carolina Historical Review
About the Author(s)
Lacy K. Ford is Professor of History and Chair of the Department at the University of South Carolina.
