The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont, 1777-1810

This Vermont Historical Society book forces us to squarely consider the deepest questions about what freedom actually meant for African Americans in Vermont well into the nineteenth century.

The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont joins the growing literature on the complicated history of race, emancipation, and antislavery in antebellum New England.

Review - Melish
"The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont explodes this myth, demonstrating conclusively that the enslavement of people of color under various guises persisted in the state for another thirty years," attests Joanne Pope Melish, Associate Professor of History, University of Kentucky. According to Melish, "Amani Whitfield provides a rich array of documentary evidence demonstrating the legal ambiguities and contradictions of efforts that were primarily aimed at limiting, rather than ending, slavery, and the determined efforts of many whites to evade or resist such efforts.

Review - Taylor
"Challenging myth with careful reasoning and thorough research...Whitfield deftly reveals the challenges of abolishing slavery even in Vermont... The work of an exemplary historian, [this book] reveals the tangled interplay of freedom and slavery in the American past," says Alan Taylor, Thomas Jefferson Professor of History at the University of Virginia.

Review - Breen
T. H. Breen, James Marsh Professor at the University of Vermont, declares, "From time to time, an historian comes along and overturns everything we thought we knew about an event in the past... This [book] is an important contribution to the study of race and racism in Revolutionary America."