Review of Herbert Aptheker
Review of Herbert Aptheker, Abolition: A Revolutionary Movement
The Abolition movement was the first attack on the treatment of slaves and the enslavement of the entire black race in America. The Abolitionist led their movement with the basic idea of terminating the power of the slaveholding class, who ruled everything from political parties to every branch of the Federal government. They also had control over the domestic and foreign policies of the nation. This gave them the power to have control over the ideological structure of society. The only way to terminate the power of these slaveholders was the “elimination of the property upon which its power rests.” The book focuses on two fundamental concepts of Abolitionism: (1) its revolutionary nature, and (2) its organization. Throughout the book the many Abolitionists and their attempts at dismantling the institution of slavery were discussed. It depicts how widespread of a movement this really was by showing the diversity of people who tried to make this movement a reality. Herbert Aptheker was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 31, 1915. Accompanying his father on a business trip to Alabama, he learned of the Jim Crow Laws in the South which he found to be troubling. Here he learned first-hand the oppression of the African Americans and this is what fuels most of his works. He attended Columbia University in New York, where he obtained his Bachelor’s, Master, and Ph.D. in sociology. He taught at Bryn Mawr College, City University of New York, Yale University, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara University, Humbolt University, and the Law School at UC Berkeley. He has written more than 50 books, mostly in the fields of African-American history and general U.S. history. Some of his works include, The Negro in the Civil War, The Negro in the Abolitionist Movement, American Negro Slave Revolts, A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, also 38 volumes of The Collected Published Writings of
The Abolition movement was the first attack on the treatment of slaves and the enslavement of the entire black race in America. The Abolitionist led their movement with the basic idea of terminating the power of the slaveholding class, who ruled everything from political parties to every branch of the Federal government. They also had control over the domestic and foreign policies of the nation. This gave them the power to have control over the ideological structure of society. The only way to terminate the power of these slaveholders was the “elimination of the property upon which its power rests.” The book focuses on two fundamental concepts of Abolitionism: (1) its revolutionary nature, and (2) its organization. Throughout the book the many Abolitionists and their attempts at dismantling the institution of slavery were discussed. It depicts how widespread of a movement this really was by showing the diversity of people who tried to make this movement a reality. Herbert Aptheker was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 31, 1915. Accompanying his father on a business trip to Alabama, he learned of the Jim Crow Laws in the South which he found to be troubling. Here he learned first-hand the oppression of the African Americans and this is what fuels most of his works. He attended Columbia University in New York, where he obtained his Bachelor’s, Master, and Ph.D. in sociology. He taught at Bryn Mawr College, City University of New York, Yale University, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara University, Humbolt University, and the Law School at UC Berkeley. He has written more than 50 books, mostly in the fields of African-American history and general U.S. history. Some of his works include, The Negro in the Civil War, The Negro in the Abolitionist Movement, American Negro Slave Revolts, A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States, also 38 volumes of The Collected Published Writings of