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Sean Wilentz
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No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding (The Nathan I. Huggins Lectures) Hardcover – September 6, 2018

by Sean Wilentz (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars 128 ratings

A radical reconstruction of the founders’ debate over slavery and the Constitution.

Americans revere the Constitution even as they argue fiercely over its original toleration of slavery. Some historians have charged that slaveholders actually enshrined human bondage at the nation’s founding. The acclaimed political historian Sean Wilentz shares the dismay but sees the Constitution and slavery differently. Although the proslavery side won important concessions, he asserts, antislavery impulses also influenced the framers’ work. Far from covering up a crime against humanity, the Constitution restricted slavery’s legitimacy under the new national government. In time, that limitation would open the way for the creation of an antislavery politics that led to Southern secession, the Civil War, and Emancipation.

Wilentz’s controversial and timely reconsideration upends orthodox views of the Constitution. He describes the document as a tortured paradox that abided slavery without legitimizing it. This paradox lay behind the great political battles that fractured the nation over the next seventy years. As Southern Fire-eaters invented a proslavery version of the Constitution, antislavery advocates, including Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, proclaimed antislavery versions based on the framers’ refusal to validate what they called “property in man.”

No Property in Man invites fresh debate about the political and legal struggles over slavery that began during the Revolution and concluded with the Confederacy’s defeat. It drives straight to the heart of the most contentious and enduring issue in all of American history.

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  1. Part of series
    The Nathan I. Huggins lectures
  2. Print length
    368 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Harvard University Press
  5. Publication date
    September 6, 2018
  6. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0674972228
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0674972223
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“What does Wilentz know that others have gotten so terribly wrong about the founding connection between slavery and racism? In his revealing and passionately argued book, he insists that because the framers did not sanction slavery as a matter of principle, the antislavery legacy of the Constitution has been ‘slighted’ and ‘misconstrued’ for over 200 years.”―Khalil Gibran Muhammad, New York Times

“Demonstrating that the Constitution both protected slavery and left open the possibility of an antislavery politics, Wilentz’s careful and insightful analysis helps us understand how Americans who hated slavery, such as Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, could come to see the Constitution as an ally in their struggle.”―Eric Foner, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery

“Stimulating…draws on letters, speeches and public debates to enlarge our sense of slavery’s political dimension in the founding period.”―David S. Reynolds, Wall Street Journal

“Wilentz shows what we dearly need to see now as much as ever: that slavery and antislavery were joined at the hip in the American founding, as well as in the tragic history that led to the Civil War. The Constitution possessed fatal complicity with racial slavery but also sowed seeds of its destruction. Wilentz brings a lifetime of learning and a mastery of political history to this brilliant book.”―David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

“Examines the debate over the legal status of enslaved people that began with the writing of the Constitution and continued up to the Civil War―a period in American history in which he finds an important lesson for how to achieve political change in a democracy…No American historian of his generation has written so well on so many different subjects; few even come close.”―The Nation

“Sean Wilentz offers readers a forceful argument, an attentiveness to competing perspectives, an appreciation for nuance and irony, a thorough mastery of pertinent sources, and elegant writing. This is a book that both specialists and generalists will profit from reading.”―Randall Kennedy, author of For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law

“Like Sherlock Holmes noticing the dog that didn’t bark, Sean Wilentz discerns the revealing absence of a property right in slaves that hardline southerners failed to secure at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Clearly and without apology, Wilentz explains the framers’ familiar compromises with slavery. But until now no historian has examined the critical concession antislavery delegates refused to make. There would be no constitutional right of property in man.”―James Oakes, author of The Scorpion’s Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War

“Was the U.S. Constitution, as the South Carolinian states-man John C. Calhoun believed, a pro-slavery document, or did it, as President Abraham Lincoln argued, deny slavery a place in national law and point toward abolition? Although most Americans outside the academy would assume that Calhoun was wrong and Lincoln right, the contrary view has gained so much ground among academics in recent years that Wilentz’s qualified endorsement of Lincoln’s interpretation is both bracing and brave. Wilentz’s thoroughly researched argument serves as a useful example of solid scholarship and effective writing on a sensitive topic.”―Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs

“Will reshape American thinking on a deep American matter…Goes to the heart of the present-day consternation over the national identity and its history.”―Paul Berman, The Tablet

“Undeniably enlightening.”―Kirkus Reviews

“An insightful account of slavery’s place in United States politics from the nation’s founding to the start of the Civil War. One of the leading political historians of our time, Wilentz draws on his extensive knowledge of the period to give readers fresh insights into historians’ long-running debate over slavery’s place in American politics.”―Frank Towers, Labour

About the Author

Sean Wilentz is George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University. He is the author of numerous books on American history and politics, including The Rise of American Democracy, which won the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and The Politicians and the Egalitarians, chosen as Best History Book of the Year by Kirkus and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Wilentz’s writings on American music have earned him two Grammy nominations and two Deems-Taylor-ASCAP awards.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 6, 2018
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ First Edition
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674972228
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674972223
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.15 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.25 x 8.5 inches
  • Part of series ‏ : ‎ The Nathan I. Huggins lectures
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 128 ratings

About the author

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Sean Wilentz

Sean Wilentz

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Sean Wilentz is the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979. He received his Ph.D. in history from Yale University (1980) after earning bachelor’s degrees from Columbia University (1972) and Balliol College, Oxford University (1974). He is the author or editor of thirteen books, including The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (2005), which was awarded the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His writings on American music have earned him two Grammy nominations and two Deems-Taylor-ASCAP awards. (He also holds the semi-facetious title of Historian-in-Residence at Bob Dylan's official website, www.bobdylan.com.) Professor Wilentz lectures frequently and has written some four hundred articles, reviews, and op-ed pieces for publications such as the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Le Monde, and Dissent. He has helped prepare speeches and congressional testimony, most notably his own testimony before the House Judiciary Committee in conjunction with the impeachment drive against President Bill Clinton in December 1998. He spent the academic year 2014-15 as the Leah and Michael Weisberg Fellow at the New-York Historical Society and the Siemens Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. He also delivered the annual Nathan I. Huggins Lectures at Harvard, which he is now preparing for publication as "No Property in Man": The Origins of American Antislavery Politics.

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Customers find the book well researched and appreciate its masterful analysis. The readability receives mixed feedback, with some finding it highly worth reading while others describe it as a difficult read.

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11 customers mention "Scholarly content"11 positive0 negative

Customers praise the book's scholarly content, noting its well-researched and masterful analysis, with leading historians at Princeton contributing to the work. One customer highlights how it adds depth and personalization to the historical narrative.

"...Rather, Wilentz shows what is plainly clear: The Constitution tolerated slavery, but its refusal to assent to some Framers’ desires to make property..." Read more

"...The author's very masterful analysis is extremely valuable, though it is challenging to follow all the ins and outs of the debates...." Read more

"This is a great book, by a great historian. period...." Read more

"This book is a fascinating and convincing analysis of (1) the political contest between pro and anti-slavery forces during the founding of the..." Read more

13 customers mention "Readability"9 positive4 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's readability, with some finding it highly worth reading and interesting, while others describe it as a difficult read.

"...A good read. According to an updated preface, his argument has been well received in academia...." Read more

"This is a great book, by a great historian. period...." Read more

"...Short and to the point, yet nuanced and complex, it presumes on the part of the reader a basic familiarity with American history and the U.S...." Read more

"...While I found it interesting and I learned many things I didn’t know previously, I did find the book a bit tedious at times...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • brad
    5.0 out of 5 stars Deep analysis
    Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    James Madison may not have been a stalwart antislavery champion when he told the Federal convention that it would be wrong to admit into the Constitution the idea that there could be property in man. "Of course it was wrong," Charles Sumner (later) exclaimed to the Senate. "It was criminal and unpardonable. Thank God it was not done" That it was not done, though, made all the difference. Despite all the slaveholders won in 1787, despite all the ways the Constitution reinforced human bondage and thwarted its abolition, that exclusion would help inspire and legitimize the politics that, within a long lifetime's memory, brought slavery to its knees." page 268</b>

    Thus ends Sean Wilentz' masterful study of the "paradox" of the Constitution ... a document that at one turn tolerated the existence of slavery, while at the same time steadfastly refused to codify "property in man" ... and thereby created the sliver of daylight by which a future generation of Americans would bring slavery to an end.

    Paradoxes by their nature are hard to argue. For every compelling argument for "X", there is an equally strong claim to be made for "Y". But Wilentz has dug deeply into the Framers writings and speeches and relies heavily on James Madison's published notes on the Federal Convention deliberations to put forth a compelling argument. There was an anti-slavery presence in the national discourse and in its politics from before the Revolution, through the Articles and the Constitution and this anti-slavery sentiment had an impact on the way the Constitution was ultimately argued and crafted and its presence led to Civil War and slavery’s death.

    The US could have become a "slaveholding leviathan" (page 21), but it didn't. It ultimately killed slavery because of "a determined constitutional agitation by antislavery partisans against long odds that the Constitution also helped establish."

    Wilentz expertly weaves together these opposite threads ... the hopes of Southerners to extend and expand slavery, justified by their interpretation of the Constitution as sanctioning "property in man"; against the rising and discordant voices of abolitionism (both within and outside of government) that clung to the Constitution's obvious absence of such a legal distinction. Wilentz is balanced; he presents the strengths and weaknesses of both sides’ arguments.

    Spending a good 40% of the book on the Federal Convention and the deliberations therein over the 3/5th Compromise, the Electoral College and the Fugitive Slave clause (which doesn't refer to such fugitives as "slaves", nor does the Constitution ever use the term), Wilentz moves over the later half of the book to cover with less detail but certainly with precision the debates over the Constitutional authority, specifically as it relates to the extension of slavery into territories that hadn't existed in at the time of the Constitution's writing. The Missouri Compromise, the rise of the Liberty and Republican Parties, the growing abolitionist movement, the Compromise of 1850, popular sovereignty and the Dred Scott case are all signposts on the way to Civil War and slavery's demise. At each stop, Wilentz shows how both Southerners and Northerners were interpreting the Constitution's treatment of slavery to bolster their cause, but he steadfastly reminds the reader of his thesis: this paradox was created by the Founders and would work, ultimately, on behalf of anti-slavery forces.

    Wilentz does not come across dogmatically, however. While his thesis is clear, this is not a tome written to score social and cultural points in our current (and retro-styled) divide over race in America. Rather, Wilentz shows what is plainly clear: The Constitution tolerated slavery, but its refusal to assent to some Framers’ desires to make property of men was the slow-release poison pill that would one day bring slavery to its end.

    A good read. According to an updated preface, his argument has been well received in academia. Dense in evidence but a clear and provocative point is made
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  • Ronald H. Clark
    5.0 out of 5 stars Did the Constitution Recognize and Protect Slavery?
    Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2019
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    This is an outstanding work of historical scholarships authored by one of our leading historians at Princeton. A number of prominent Justices and others have argued that the constitution recognized the right to own slaves, and incorporated a number of provisions implementing this practice. I heard this so often I just assumed Thurgood Marshall and others were correct in making this assertion. Thanks to this excellent study by Sean Wilentz I now understand that such assertions are without a factual basis. The author convincingly demonstrates that the constitution not only does not recognize the right to hold slaves as "property," hence the book's title, it does not even use the term "slave" anyplace, preferring to use "persons" instead. In 340 pages, the author validates his thesis beyond question, writing some fine historical analysis in the process. His introduction lays out his conclusions in a general way.

    The first section of the book deals with slavery during the period prior to the constitutional convention in 1787. There was certainly a lot more going on during this span than I had imagined: for example, anti-slavery organizations were active; various types of state emancipation statutes were in operation; slave holders were arguing that they owned slaves just like any other type of property; and abolitionists argued that slaves had a natural right to the property in their bodies.

    The key section of the book is the author's meticulous examination of what transpired at the constitutional convention. To be sure the pro-slavery contingent won some battles, securing the 3/5 compromise, agreement not to impair the Atlantic slave trade for 20 years, a fugitive slave provision, and a ban on export duties (probably also the electoral college). However, the author asks: what didn't they get? And that was no recognition of the right to own slaves (that was left untouched in state laws) and no admission that slaves could be construed as property. It is this failure that ultimately led to the Civil War and the end of slavery in the 13th amendment. The author traces the arguments back and forth at the convention, but makes clear that the anti-slavery contingent newer conceded the "no property in man" argument.

    The next section reviews what happened at the ratification conventions in New England, the middle Atlantic statues, and the southern slave-holding states. Surprisingly despite all the fire and brimstone at the convention, slavery was not a big topic in these conventions. The major development was Virginia's strong support for ending the Atlantic slave trade. As the most powerful state, this position overwhelmed the other southern states and sped ratification.

    In chapter 4, the author traces the development of increasing friction over slavery up to the Missouri crisis in 1820. The highly toxic issue during this period was whether Congress had the authority (and gumption) to foreclose slavery in the territories (also here in D.C. ) and block the admission of new slave states. The author's very masterful analysis is extremely valuable, though it is challenging to follow all the ins and outs of the debates. |The final chapter, also outstanding, follows all the subsequent developments up to the outbreak of the Civil War. Increased friction and desperation on the slave holders' side led to strange events such as bans on anti-slavery petitions to Congress, the Dred Scott decision, the defeat of the Wilmot Proviso, and "bloody Kansas." Eventually, the only way to settle the arguments was by force of arms. Throughout the entire period from 1787 until 1860, the anti-slavery forces in Congress and elsewhere never deviated from their refusal to recognize "property in man." And that is what ultimately destroyed slavery.

    All of this is skillfully analyzed in this book. It is a remarkable reconstruction of how the "no property in man" concept played such a vital role in eventually ending slavery. Every reader can now understand how this issue developed and its ultimate impact. All questions are simply resolved.
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Michael Brown
    4.0 out of 5 stars A great historian's argument, however...
    Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2023
    Verified Purchase
    This is a great book, by a great historian. period. However, his argument that the Constitution did not "grant property in man" is a distinction without a difference to the African American's imported, born into, or sold into bondage between the years 1787 and 1865, and their descendants. To say nothing of the decimation of Native Americans, entire nations, in the then southwest, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, who were displaced and moved westward after the cotton boom beginning after 1790. The Trans-Atlantic Slave trade may have been abolished here after 1808, however, millions of humans were sold from the upper South to the Lower South to provide the manual labor to feed the inexorable growth of King Cotton. In a theory, perhaps, the Constitution may not have recognized property in man, but in practice millions of human beings were sold like objects into perpetual bondage, as well as their children between the years 1787-1865.
    Still, highly worth reading.
    One person found this helpful
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