"The marrow of the most important historiographical controversy since the 1970s."—Michael Johnson, University of California, Irvine "A debate of intellectual

Frederick Douglass and George Fitzhugh disagreed on virtually every major issue of the day. On slavery, women's rights, and the preservation of the Union their

Essays discuss proslavery arguments in the churches, the urge toward compromise and unity, the coming of schisms in the various denominations, and the role of l

This anthology brings together under one cover the most important abolitionist and--unique to this volume--proslavery documents written in the United States bet

A Necessary Evil? is divided into seven chapters: the first establishes the background for slavery in the new nation and sets the stage for the debate while the