Chained to History: Slavery and US Foreign Relations to 1865

In Chained to History, Steven J. Brady places slavery at the center  of the story of America's place in the world in the years prior to the  calamitous Civil War. Beginning with the immediate aftermath of the War  of the American Revolution, Brady follows the military, economic, and  moral lines of the diplomatic challenges of attempting to manage, on the  global stage, the actuality of human servitude in a country dedicated  to human freedom. Chained to History shows how slavery was interwoven  with America's foreign relations and affected policy controversies  ranging from trade to extradition treaties to military alliances.

Brady  highlights the limitations placed on American policymakers who, working  in an international context increasingly supportive of abolition, were  severely constrained regarding the formulation and execution of  preferred policy. Policymakers were bound to the slave interest based in  the Democratic Party and the tortured state of domestic politics bore  heavily on the conduct of foreign affairs. As international powers not  only abolished the slave trade but banned human servitude as such, the  American position became untenable.

From the Age of Revolutions  through the American Civil War, slavery was a constant factor in shaping  US relations with the Atlantic World and beyond. Chained to History  addresses this critical topic in its complete scope and shows the  immoral practice of human bondage to have informed how the United States  re-entered the community of nations after 1865.