Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638-187 (African American) [Paperback]

W. E. B. Du Bois (Author)

Book Description

Series: African American | Publication Date: May 27, 1999

Comprehensive, well-documented 1896 classic draws upon a wealth of primary source materials to examine the South's plantation economy and its influence on the slave trade, the role of Northern merchants in financing the slave trade during the 19th century, and much else.

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About the Author

An American civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, historian, author, and editor. Historian David Levering Lewis wrote, "In the course of his long, turbulent career, W. E. B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism- scholarship, propaganda, integration, national self-determination, human rights, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (May 27, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486409104
• ISBN-13: 978-0486409108
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,036,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars America's failure to suppress the slave trade, November 22, 2005

By 

Kirk Kolodji - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America, 1638-1870 (Sourcebooks in Negro History) (Hardcover)

W.E.B. Du Bois, in this 1896 doctoral thesis, uses primarily economic rationales to explain the United States government's lack of suppression of the African slave-trade even after outlawing it in 1808. Du Bois shows how state and federal laws written to suppress the slave trade either lacked enforcement or were eventually repealed to a point at which "the American slave-trade finally came to be carried on principally by United States capital, in United States ships, offered by United States citizens, and under the United States flag." The political efforts to suppress the slave trade are depicted as futile attempts to go against prevalent laissez-faire economic attitudes. The objective way Du Bois writes makes this survey of the American slave trade relevant and shocking, and may explain Du Bois' eventual embrace of socialism due to his focus on economic rationales and disenchantment with what is portrayed as systemic institutional promotion of slavery by a United States government more interested in laissez-faire forces than doing what was right.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dispassionate but riveting, June 7, 2008

By 

J. Morton "L.O.A Reader" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States of America 1638-1870 (Paperback)

Nearly half of the book that I have is made up of appendices, indicating the degree to which DuBois thoroughly, painstakingly researched this essential aspect of American history. While written by an African-American, it is all the more powerful because of the way DuBois lets the evidence speak for itself. There is no ranting or raving, not even much editorializing. Its calm, even, measured tone is remarkable, hypnotic. And the most powerful aspect of his study may be in the reader's natural tendency to apply its insights into American government as it relates to current unresolved issues, say global warming for example, or our political and/or military involvement outside our boundaries. On slavery, we were very slow to react to the issue, and did so with weak-hearted half-measures, until the national calmaity of the Civil War resolved the issue for once and for all -- but at what a risk, and what a cost! In the end, as Dubois says, it took a "fortuitous commingling of moral, political, and economic motives" to end the slave trade and slavery itself once and for all. I was so disappointed when I reached the appendices and realized that the book was over! I found it a gripping read that has fundamentally changed the way I look at America and its governmental processes.