10% off all books and free delivery over £40
Buy from our bookstore and 25% of the cover price will be given to a school of your choice to buy more books. *15% of eBooks.

The Forgotten Emancipator

View All Editions

The selected edition of this book is not available to buy right now.
Add To Wishlist
Write A Review

About

The Forgotten Emancipator Synopsis

Congressman James Mitchell Ashley, a member of the House of Representatives from 1858 to 1868, was the main sponsor of the Thirteenth Amendment to the American Constitution, which declared the institution of slavery unconstitutional. Rebecca E. Zietlow uses Ashley's life as a unique lens through which to explore the ideological origins of Reconstruction and the constitutional changes of this era. Zietlow recounts how Ashley and his antislavery allies shared an egalitarian free labor ideology that was influenced by the political antislavery movement and the nascent labor movement - a vision that conflicted directly with the institution of slavery. Ashley's story sheds important light on the meaning and power of popular constitutionalism: how the constitution is interpreted outside of the courts and the power that citizens and their elected officials can have in enacting legal change. The book shows how Reconstruction not only expanded racial equality but also transformed the rights of workers throughout America.

About This Edition

ISBN: 9781107095274
Publication date: 2nd November 2017
Author: Rebecca E. Zietlow
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Format: Hardback
Pagination: 212 pages
Series: Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society
Genres: Slavery and abolition of slavery
Legal history
History of the Americas