Slavery and the peculiar solution : a history of the American Colonization Society /

Burin (Univ. of North Dakota) ably surveys the history of the American Colonization Society (ACS) and especially its problematic relationship to slavery and slaveholders. He deftly weaves together two separate but interrelated themes: the ACS's impact on black bondage generally, and its dynamics and force on slaveholding at the local level. Burin makes a persuasive case that, considered from either perspective, the colonization movement had the effect, if not always the intent, of undermining slavery. Although he covers well-trod territory--an overview of the movement, its ideology, the tensions between abolitionists and colonizationists--Burin does so with an eye toward a nuanced understanding of the complex relationship among the movement, slaveholders, bondspersons, and the law. The freshest and most intriguing chapter focuses on white southerners' response to ACS manumissions. Burin demonstrates that although white southerners were largely concerned with the extent to which efforts at manumission encouraged slave resistance, their reactions to ACS efforts varied according to the location of the manumission, the scale of the emancipation operation, and the slaveholders' proximity to the area of emancipation. Although some of Burin's story will be familiar to readers, his narrative and analysis are fresh and welcome. Summing Up: Recommended. General and undergraduate collections. M. Morrison Purdue University