Politics and Power in a Slave Society by J Mills Thornton

Politics and Power in a Slave Society by J Mills Thornton

More than three decades after its initial publication, J. Mills Thornton's Politics and Power in a Slave Society remains the definitive study of political culture in antebellum Alabama. Controversial when it first appeared, the book argues against a view of prewar Alabama as an aristocratic society governed by a planter elite. Instead, Thornton claims that Alabama was an aggressively democratic state, and that this very egalitarianism set the stage for secession.

White Alabamians had first-hand experiences with slavery, and these encounters warned them to guard against the imposition of economic or social reforms that might limit their equality. Playing upon their fears, the leaders of the southern rights movement warned that national consolidation presented the danger that fanatic northern reformers would force alien values upon Alabama and its residents. These threats gained traction when national reforms of the 1850s gave state government a more active role in the everyday life of Alabama citizens; and ambitious young politicians were able to carry the state into secession in 1861.

Politics and Power in a Slave Society continues to inspire scholars by challenging one of the fundamental articles of the American creed: that democracy intrinsically produces good. Contrary to our conventional wisdom, slavery was not an un-American institution, but rather coexisted with and supported the democratic beliefs of white Alabama.

J. Mills Thornton III is author of Dividing Lines: Municipal Politics and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma and Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800-1860, which was awarded the John H. Dunning Prize by the American Historical Association in 1978. He is also professor emeritus of history at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780807108918
ISBN 10	080710891X
Title	Politics and Power in a Slave Society
Author	J Mills Thornton
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Louisiana State University Press
Year published	1981-09-01
Number of pages	520
Prizes	Winner of James F. Sulzby Book Award 1979
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.