'Eschewing the iconography of emancipation, the nine essays in this volume from a 2013 conference offer 'new ways' of understanding slavery's demise in the US: e.g., Lincoln's 1863 edict did not end slavery, but began freedom's long journey; emancipation impacted all Southerners, not just former slaves; the emancipation state continued its territorial expansion and conquest into the US West; emancipation remained contested terrain by radicals and liberals in the US and diasporic Africans in the Americas. The volume sits within an evolving historiography of 'factors, contingencies, and individual efforts' shaping emancipation. Summing up: recommended. All academic levels/libraries.' J. R. Kerr-Ritchie, Choice
Introduction William A. Link and James Broomall; Part I. Claiming Emancipation: 1. A universe of flight Yael Sternhell; 2. Force, freedom, and the making of emancipation Greg Downs; 3. Military interference in elections as an influence on abolition William A. Blair; Part II. Contesting Emancipation: 4. 'One pillar of the social fabric may still stand firm': bluegrass marriage in the emancipation era Allison Fredette; 5. Axes of empire: race, region, and the 'greater Reconstruction' of federal authority after emancipation Carole Emberton; 6. Fear of reenslavement: black political mobilization in response to the waning of Reconstruction Justin Behrend; Part III. Remembering Emancipation: 7. African Americans and the long emancipation in New South Atlanta William A. Link; 8. 'Washington, Toussaint, and Bolivar, the glorious advocates of liberty': black internationalism and reimagining emancipation Paul Ortiz; 9. Remembering the abolitionists John Stauffer; Epilogue: emancipation and the nation Laura F. Edwards.