Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-265) and index.
Contents
Making a covenant with death : slavery and the Constitutional Convention -- Slavery and the Northwest Ordinance : a study in ambiguity -- Evading the Ordinance : the persistence of bondage in Indiana and Illinois -- Implementing the proslavery Constitution : the adoption of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 -- The problem of slavery in the age of Federalism -- "Treason against the hopes of the world": Thomas Jefferson and slavery -- Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and antislavery : Historians and myths.