ABSTRACT
Between Freedom and Bondage looks at the fluctuations of black suffrage in the ante-bellum North, using the four states of New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island as examples. In each of these states, a different outcome was obtained for blacks in their quest to share the vote. By analyzing the various outcomes of state struggles, Malone offers a framework for understanding and explaining how the issue of voting rights for blacks unfolded between the drafting of the Constitution, and the end of the Civil War.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |33 pages
“The Minds of Blacks Are not Competent to Vote”
Racial Voting Restrictions in New York
chapter |43 pages
“An Asylum for the Oppressed Injured Sons of Europe”
The Disenfranchisement of Blacks in Pennsylvania
chapter |42 pages
“Servility Is not Confined to Color”
The Disenfranchisement and Reenfranchisement of Blacks in Rhode Island
chapter |51 pages
“The Vaunted Superiority of the White Race Imposes Corresponding Duties”
Massachusetts—The “Exception” to the Rule
chapter |12 pages
Epilogue
Reconstructing the Two Reconstructions: Antebellum Race Formation and the Nationalization of Party Politics
