Slavemaster president : the double career of James Polk / William Dusinberre.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 2003Description: xiv, 258 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0195157354
  • 9780195157352
Subject(s): Genre/Form: DDC classification:
  • 973.6/1/092 21
  • B 21
LOC classification:
  • E417 .D87 2003
NLM classification:
  • B P7691d
Online resources:
Contents:
A market for labor power -- Flight (I) Tennessee -- Flight (II) the Mississippi planation -- Profit -- The nature of the regime -- The spirit of governance -- Births and deaths -- Family and community -- Privileges -- Polk's early response to the antislavery movement -- Texas and the Mexican War -- Slavery and Union -- Alternatives.
Summary: James K. Polk held the office of President from 1845 to 1849, a period when the expansion of slavery into the territories emerged as a pressing question in American politics. During his presidency, the slave period of Texas was annexed and the future of slavery in the Mexican Cession was debated. Polk also owned a substantial cotton plantation in northern Mississippi and 54 slaves. He was an absentee master who had a string of overseers or agents manage his plantation and did not visit his estate while he was in the White House. In this book, William Dusinberre reconstructs the world of Polk's estate and the lives of his slaves, and analyzes how Polk's experience as a slavemaster conditioned his stance towards slavery-related issues. Dusinberre argues that Polk's policies helped precipitate the civil war he had sought to avert.
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Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Books Books Odessa College Stacks 973.61 P769DS (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 51994001448010

Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-252) and index.

A market for labor power -- Flight (I) Tennessee -- Flight (II) the Mississippi planation -- Profit -- The nature of the regime -- The spirit of governance -- Births and deaths -- Family and community -- Privileges -- Polk's early response to the antislavery movement -- Texas and the Mexican War -- Slavery and Union -- Alternatives.

James K. Polk held the office of President from 1845 to 1849, a period when the expansion of slavery into the territories emerged as a pressing question in American politics. During his presidency, the slave period of Texas was annexed and the future of slavery in the Mexican Cession was debated. Polk also owned a substantial cotton plantation in northern Mississippi and 54 slaves. He was an absentee master who had a string of overseers or agents manage his plantation and did not visit his estate while he was in the White House. In this book, William Dusinberre reconstructs the world of Polk's estate and the lives of his slaves, and analyzes how Polk's experience as a slavemaster conditioned his stance towards slavery-related issues. Dusinberre argues that Polk's policies helped precipitate the civil war he had sought to avert.

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