William Lloyd Garrison’s Shattered Faith in Antislavery Constitutionalism

The Origins and Limits of the “Garrisonian Critique”

Datos Bibliográficos

ID13044366
AutoresJason Ross (0000-0003-3268-899X, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen9
Número2
Páginas199-234
Fecha de publicación2020-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAmerican Political Thought (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2161-1580 • E-ISSN: 2161-1599
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/708444
OpenAlexW3020649441
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas51

This article contributes to an emerging line of challenge against the Garrisonian critique of the Constitution. We show how Garrison, early in his career, endorsed and participated in the project of antislavery constitutionalism, before an emergent proslavery construction of the Constitution was validated by the Taney Court in the 1842 decision Prigg v. Pennsylvania. This decision shattered Garrison’s faith in antislavery constitutionalism, prompting him to concede that the Constitution was a proslavery compact and to call for disunion. We argue, contrary to a common assumption, that Garrison did not draw this conclusion based on a reading of James Madison’s recently published Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787; instead, he excerpted Madison’s Notes in an attempt to undermine continuing abolitionist defenses of the Constitution as antislavery. We close by reflecting on the persistence of the Garrisonian critique as a reminder of the fragility of faith in democratic republican government

Constitutionalism · Democracy · Faith · Political science · Politics · Theology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Law · Philosophy