A HOUSE DIVIDED

A journalist surveys the role of slavery in U.S. history.

Despite dramatic shifts in interpretations of the nation’s past, there remains a persistent narrative that minimizes the role of slavery in the nation’s founding, reducing the “peculiar institution” to having only “episodic influence in the nation’s life,” as McNitt puts it. This sweeping narrative history of the United States from the signing of the Constitution to the Civil War seeks to dismantle this false view, emphasizing the “continuous pull slavery had on the nation’s political life” during that era in both the North and South. He also constantly reminds readers of Black men and women in America who were agitators, warriors, and participants in the nation’s political debates. Tellingly, as the book opens in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall with the Founding Fathers deliberating the nascent Constitution, McNitt draws readers’ attention to another figure in the room: Billy Lee, a Black “body servant” enslaved by the Constitutional Convention’s president, George Washington. Black abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass, who spent their lives fighting political battles against slavery, and men such as Nat Turner, who violently lashed out against the enslaving regime, receive ample coverage. McNitt also notably offers deliberate, precise descriptions of the South, which will remind readers that accounts that paint it as a monolithically backward region erase the story of its Black inhabitants, who made up a majority of its population. As CNN’s former Cairo bureau chief and Middle East correspondent, McNitt shows a sharp ability to distill decades of complicated material into an approachable story that carefully balances nuance with readability. Although there’s not much new here that academic historians will find revelatory, it’s an ideal history for general audiences that effectively incorporates contemporary scholarship. The endeavor is complemented by a rich assortment of images, including paintings of presidents and reproductions of primary sources, that make for an engaging read.

A skillfully written account of the American past that challenges persistent, Whitewashed tropes.