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Theses/Dissertations

Abolition

Illinois State University

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The Revolution's Abolitionist Promise: America's Interdiction Of The Atlantic Slave Trade And The Long Road To Emancipation, 1820-1862, Matthew H. Nalefski Jul 2021

The Revolution's Abolitionist Promise: America's Interdiction Of The Atlantic Slave Trade And The Long Road To Emancipation, 1820-1862, Matthew H. Nalefski

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explore the US commitment to the destruction of the international slave trade following its abolition in 1808, studying its impact on US sovereignty, the coming of the Civil War, and abolitionism. Long ignored by historians, the United States’ attempts from 1808 to 1862 to abolish the illegal international trade in slaves has the potential to change the historiographical understanding of abolitionism in the antebellum period. Slavery was not eradicated overnight, a fact that we accept unquestioningly; but neither was the international slave trade. The parallel evolution of abolitionism on the one hand combined with diplomatic, legal, and …