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South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War

South to Freedom: Runaway Slaves to Mexico and the Road to the Civil War

by Alice L. Baumgartner

Basic Books ·2020 ·368 pages
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About This Book

A brilliant and surprising account of the coming of the American Civil War, showing the crucial role of slaves who escaped to MexicoThe Underground Railroad to the North promised salvation to many American slaves before the Civil War. But thousands of people in the south-central United States escaped slavery not by heading north but by crossing the southern border into Mexico, where slavery was abolished in 1837.In South to Freedom, historian Alice L. Baumgartner tells the story of why Mexico abolished slavery and how its increasingly radical antislavery policies fueled the sectional crisis in the United States. Southerners hoped that annexing Texas and invading Mexico in the 1840s would stop runaways and secure slavery's future. Instead, the seizure of Alta California and Nuevo México upset the delicate political balance between free and slave states. This is a revelatory and essential new perspective on antebellum America and the causes of the Civil War.


Reviews

"Gripping and poignant stories ..."

Andrew R. Graybill· The Wall Street Journal Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"This vivid history of 'slavery's other border' delivers a valuable new perspective on the Civil War."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Baumgartner brings to life the stories of slaves who escaped to Mexico and how they made it to freedom ..."

Dave Pugl· Library Journal Read review ↗ Near the Top

"This work traces not only how the country gained 'moral power through the rejection of slavery,' but also the pathways that enslaved men, women, and children used in Mexico to claim freedom and citizenship ..."

María Esther Hammack· Los Angeles Review of Books Read review ↗ Near the Top

"Many individuals on all sides are portrayed here, but the most compelling stories are those of enslaved people who, at considerable risk, escaped for what they hoped would be a better life in Mexico ..."

Roger Bishop· BookPage Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"to the Republic of Mexico before the Civil War ..."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Near the Top

"masterfully researched, yet [the author's] greatest contribution lies in the radical implications of [her] thesis: that 19th-century American politics were shaped as much by Black resistance to enslavement as by the institution of slavery itself ..."

Kerri Greenidge· The New York Times Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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