Burning Down the House: Slavery and Arson in America

Immerwahr examines methods and evidence from environmental, urban, and intellectual history that attest to the connection between slavery and arson. By the 1830s, as slavery concentrated in the South, many saw fire as a form of sectional warfare. Arson amplified North-South divisions by raising the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of American history (Bloomington, Ind.) Vol. 110; no. 3; pp. 449 - 473
Main Author Immerwahr, Daniel
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Organization of American Historians 01.12.2023
Subjects
American Civil War
Antebellum period
Arson
Slavery
Subversive activities
Southern states
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Summary:Immerwahr examines methods and evidence from environmental, urban, and intellectual history that attest to the connection between slavery and arson. By the 1830s, as slavery concentrated in the South, many saw fire as a form of sectional warfare. Arson amplified North-South divisions by raising the prospect that northern actions might kindle southern fires, and this fear became central to the brewing crisis. Enslavers identified abolition with incendiarism, and abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and John Brown embraced that identification.
ISSN:0021-8723
1945-2314
DOI:10.1093/jahist/jaad263