Utilizing traditional historical sources, many of which have been digitized, Abbott offers scholars a deeply researched and well-crafted narrative of how international antislavery movements shaped the thinking of American activists. By the early nineteenth century, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands had begun to end slavery, and, as Abbott demonstrates convincingly, black and white abolitionists in the United States watched these changes in geopolitics with intense interest. Reversing the long-standing self-perception of America as a “shining city on a hill,” Abbott shows that antislavery proponents in the United States actually learned from, and took solace in, freedom movements across the globe.
To create this persuasive and smoothly written study, Abbott followed two methodological tracks, one conventional and one only recently made possible by the digital proliferation of primary-source databases. The bibliography evinces deep research into abolitionist newspapers, correspondence, and reports. The Liberator, Nile’s Weekly Register, the New York...