Expertly edited by David Waldstreicher and Matthew Mason, John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery offers an unusual perspective on the dramatic and shifting politics of slavery in the early republic, as it moved from the margins to the center of public life and from the shadows to the substance of Adams's politics. The editors provide a lucid introduction to the collection as a whole and frame the individual entries from Adams's lifelong diary withbrief and engaging insights, rendering both his life and the controversies over slavery into a mutually illuminating narrative.

• Introduction


• Chapter 1: Rising Son of the Young Republic (1767-1808)


• Chapter 2: American Diplomat (1809-1817)


• Chapter 3: Secretary of State (1817-1824)


• Chapter 4: The Making and Unmaking of a President (1824-1829)


• Chapter 5: The Making of an Antislavery Congressman (1829-1836)


• Chapter 6: Antislavery Whig Congressman (1836-1848)


• Bibliography


• Index

David Waldstreicher is Distinguished Professor of History at the City University of New York's Graduate Center whose work spans political history, cultural history, slavery and antislavery, and print culture in the early republic of the United States. His books include Slavery's Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification and Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery and the American Revolution, and he is the editor of A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams, A Companion to Benjamin Franklin and The Struggle Against Slavery: A History in Documents.
Matthew E. Mason is an Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University. He has written and co-edited several books, including Slavery and Politics in the Early American Republic, The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Anderson; and Contesting Slavery: The Politics of Bondage and Freedom in the New American Nation.