TY - JOUR
T1 - Securing the “Interests” of the South: John Mitchel, A.G. Magrath, and the Reopening of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
AU - Gleeson, David
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Traditionally scholars have downplayed the importance of southern calls to reopen the transatlantic slave trade in the 1850s. Those who have paid serious attention to this effort see it as another endeavor by aristocratic planters to enshrine their social, economic, and political power in the antebellum South. The advocates were, as one puts it, “no champions of the common white man.” Two Irish-American leaders who supported the reopening, John Mitchel and Andrew Gordon Magrath, complicate this view of the attempt as just a planters’ plot. Their actions and opinions indicate that some proponents did see importing African slaves as something that would benefit all whites and not just the elite, and, as a result, protect the overall “interests” of the South. Mitchel and Magrath's support of Ireland and Irish immigrants and their opposition to British power influenced their positions on the matter.
AB - Traditionally scholars have downplayed the importance of southern calls to reopen the transatlantic slave trade in the 1850s. Those who have paid serious attention to this effort see it as another endeavor by aristocratic planters to enshrine their social, economic, and political power in the antebellum South. The advocates were, as one puts it, “no champions of the common white man.” Two Irish-American leaders who supported the reopening, John Mitchel and Andrew Gordon Magrath, complicate this view of the attempt as just a planters’ plot. Their actions and opinions indicate that some proponents did see importing African slaves as something that would benefit all whites and not just the elite, and, as a result, protect the overall “interests” of the South. Mitchel and Magrath's support of Ireland and Irish immigrants and their opposition to British power influenced their positions on the matter.
KW - transatlantic slave trade
KW - Andrew Gordon Magrath
KW - John Mitchel
KW - Irish America
KW - ethnicity
U2 - 10.1080/14664658.2010.520928
DO - 10.1080/14664658.2010.520928
M3 - Article
VL - 11
SP - 279
EP - 297
JO - American Nineteenth Century History
JF - American Nineteenth Century History
SN - 1466-4658
IS - 3
ER -