About this Book

"Vermonters take pride in the fact that the 1777 Vermont constitution abolished adult slavery. Textbooks and scholars of early America routinely highlight Vermont's landmark act and the absence of slavery in the state. But the reality was more complicated than the conventional narrative suggests. In fact, for African Americans in Vermont a real threat of reenslavement and forced labor persisted into the early 19th century. The story is revealed in this collection of 31 documents -- including laws, bills of sale, a probate record, and runaway slave ads - and the accompanying essay by Harvey Amani Whitfield, Associate Professor of History at the University of Vermont. Without diminishing the significance of Vermont's unprecedented abolition clause, Whitfield shows that some white people in the state persisted in human trafficking and many others tolerated the extreme exploitation of black people" -- Publisher's description.