Analytical Evaluation of Race 1
Running Head: ANALYTICAL EVALUATION OF RACE AND REVOLUTION
Analytical Review of Race and Revolution by Gary B. Nash
Steven R. Pearson
Excelsior College
Analytical Evaluation of Race 2
Abstract
Gary B. Nash presents a compelling case that the Revolutionary Generation was the generation when slavery could have and should have been abolished. Nash presents evidence that the Revolutionary Generation supported abolition, he shows the failure abolitionist, and presents what the life of a black person during the Revolution was like. Nash presents a vast array of documents to support his position.
Analytical Evaluation of Race 3
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. These words from the Declaration of Independence would haunt the Revolutionary Generation with the question: “How can we demand this of Britain, and yet enslave our fellow man”? In his book Race and Revolution, Gary B. Nash examines this very question and contends that the time of the Revolutionary Generation (1770-1810) was the best time to abolish slavery. As a professor of History at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Nash has authored or co-authored over 30 books on history; served on numerous editorial advisory boards, faculty advisory committees, prize and nominating committees; served as Director of the National Center for History in the Schools; co-chaired the National History Standards Project; was a Founding Member and Board of Trustees, National Council for History Education; and served as the President of the Organization of American Historians making him uniquely qualified to examine this question.
Race and Revolution is written with the assumption that the slave trade and holding slaves is incompatible with the “Declaration of Independence”. Many Americans...