Symbols of Freedom: Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War by Matthew J. Clavin (review)

Reviewed by: Symbols of Freedom: Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War by Matthew J. Clavin Carole Emberton Clavin, Matthew J. – Symbols of Freedom: Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War. New York: New York University Press, 2023. 273 p. Matthew J. Clavin's Symbols of Freedom is a book steeped in early American political culture, but its central question is as important for scholars and activists in the twenty-first century as it was for those in the nineteenth: Is there anything redeemable in American democracy, or is it irrevocably tainted by both the principles and practices of White supremacy? Clavin's answer is a resounding yes. Despite what he describes as a scholarly and political "aversion to nationalism" (p. 5) that first emerged in the mid-twentieth century and has grown more vociferous in the early decades of this one, Clavin endeavours to reclaim American nationalism by showing its centrality to one of the most transformative social justice movements in this country's history, the anti-slavery movement. In so doing, Clavin hopes not just to revive the importance of the nationalism framework for those who, one might argue, may have lacked critical ideological tools for dismantling slavery in the nineteenth century, but rather to inspire current critics to see the revolutionary potential in the ideal of American freedom. The book is organized thematically in three sections. In the first section, "Contesting," Clavin examines how both anti-slavery and pro-slavery advocates struggled to control the meaning of American independence and the ideological power of the nation's revolutionary heritage. In chapters examining the American flag, the Fourth of July holiday, and Frederick Douglass's iconic "Fifth of July" speech in 1852, Clavin reveals the importance of nationalist symbolism and rhetoric for the Black freedom struggle as well as the efforts to defend slaveholding as an essentially American endeavour. Anti-slavery activists like Douglass argued that chattel bondage violated the very premise of America's founding and looked longingly and hopefully to a time when the nation would rid itself of slavery's stain. In Douglass's mind, the constitutional compromises that protected property in slaves were the result of greed and poor judgment. In contrast, pro-slavery politicians like Virginia's John Randolph and South Carolina's John C. Calhoun embraced those provisions as essential components of American democracy. The two camps were not neatly divided; conflict developed among both groups as to the desirability of embracing American nationalism for their respective causes. During the early nineteenth century, Clavin relates, many White Southerners simply stopped celebrating the Fourth of July as a revolutionary holiday, instead turning into a carnival of food, drink, and good times that took little or no interest in remembering the patriot fight against British tyranny. On the other side, the Garrisonians rejected any embrace of American nationalism. Their leader, William Lloyd Garrison, called the United States Constitution "an agreement with Hell" and vowed "No Union with Slaveholders" decades before the Civil War. For Garrison, reform or improvement, the kind Douglass—once a Garrisonian himself—hoped for, was impossible. End Page 176 These debates are hardly unfamiliar to anti-slavery scholars, but Clavin reminds us that questions about the power of nationalism to either promote or stymie social change lay at their heart. In the book's second section, "Fighting," Clavin shifts gears to examine the grassroots interpretations of American nationalism among enslaved people themselves. In arguably the book's most insightful chapter, Clavin recounts how actions such as running away and even suicide were ways that enslaved people "repeatedly proved their Americanness," particularly when those acts occurred in and around celebrations of American independence (p. 103). Runaways and rebels often spoke of their commitment to the ideals of American liberty, repeating Patrick Henry's popular ultimatum of "Liberty or Death." The proclivity of enslaved people to run away or plot rebellion, as Nat Turner did, on the Fourth of July was the primary reason White Southerners distanced themselves from the holiday and stripped their celebrations of any revolutionary rhetoric. Nonetheless, the words and actions of the revolutionary generation continued to inspire enslaved people, who understood their fight for liberation as a fight...