TY - BOOK AU - Salafia,Matthew TI - Slavery's Borderland: Freedom and Bondage Along the Ohio River T2 - Early American Studies SN - 9780812245219 AV - E445.K5 S25 2013 U1 - 306.3/620977 23 PY - 2013///] CY - Philadelphia : PB - University of Pennsylvania Press, KW - Slavery KW - Indiana KW - Kentucky KW - Ohio KW - American History KW - HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877) KW - bisacsh KW - American Studies KW - History N1 - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Introduction. Listening to the River --; Chapter one. Origins of the Border between Slavery and Freedom --; Chapter two. Crossing the Line --; Chapter three. Slaveholding Liberators --; Chapter four. Steamboats and the Transformation of the Borderland --; Chapter five. Politics of Unity and Difference --; Chapter six. Fugitive Slaves and the Borderland --; Chapter seven. The Nature of Antislavery in the Borderland --; Chapter eight. The Borderland and the Civil War --; Notes --; Index --; Acknowledgments; restricted access; Issued also in print N2 - In 1787, the Northwest Ordinance made the Ohio River the dividing line between slavery and freedom in the West, yet in 1861, when the Civil War tore the nation apart, the region failed to split at this seam. In Slavery's Borderland, historian Matthew Salafia shows how the river was both a physical boundary and a unifying economic and cultural force that muddied the distinction between southern and northern forms of labor and politics.Countering the tendency to emphasize differences between slave and free states, Salafia argues that these systems of labor were not so much separated by a river as much as they evolved along a continuum shaped by life along a river. In this borderland region, where both free and enslaved residents regularly crossed the physical divide between Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, slavery and free labor shared as many similarities as differences. As the conflict between North and South intensified, regional commonality transcended political differences. Enslaved and free African Americans came to reject the legitimacy of the river border even as they were unable to escape its influence. In contrast, the majority of white residents on both sides remained firmly committed to maintaining the river border because they believed it best protected their freedom. Thus, when war broke out, Kentucky did not secede with the Confederacy; rather, the river became the seam that held the region together.By focusing on the Ohio River as an artery of commerce and movement, Salafia draws the northern and southern banks of the river into the same narrative and sheds light on constructions of labor, economy, and race on the eve of the Civil War UR - https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812208665 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780812208665 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780812208665/original ER -