Dissertation on Slavery

Tucker, St. George, 1752-1827Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 131K words
Chapters: 14

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Dissertation on Slavery by St. George TuckerAuthor: Tucker, St. George, 1752-1827,Language: English, Class: E300: History: America: Revolution to the Civil War (1783-1861), Release Date: May 3, 2010

Editor's review

Dissertation on Slavery is an essay on slavery by the early American jurist St. George Tucker, classified by Project Gutenberg under the history of the American Revolution through the antebellum period. Its value lies not in literary merit but in its material for intellectual and legal history: readers can observe how American intellectuals discussed slavery from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century, with argumentative methods, wording, and positions bearing distinct marks of their era. Reading requires historical distance—understanding the text in its contemporary context while noting where its ideas differ from today's values. For researchers, it serves as a primary source and classroom discussion material; for general readers, it is better suited as supplementary reading for understanding early American historical debates, to be read alongside introductions or historical background rather than treated as a complete historical narrative.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students of early American history and the slavery debate
Teachers needing public-domain primary sources for classroom discussion
Advanced readers interested in legal and intellectual history
Readers seeking to understand late-eighteenth-century American social thought

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking light stories or literary entertainment
Readers lacking historical background who may read the text out of context
Readers expecting a systematic general history rather than a single essay

Reading tips

Read an introduction to the context of slavery in the early American republic before turning to the original text.
Annotate the author's argumentative premises and positions as you read, distinguishing historical context from personal evaluation.
Read alongside other abolitionist or proslavery texts of the same period to develop a sense of the issues.
After reading, summarize the author's core claims and argumentative path in a paragraph to test your understanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Who is the author of this article?

The author is St. George Tucker (1752–1827), whose birth and death years are given in the source. He was an early American jurist who taught at the College of William & Mary. This text is a public-domain work hosted by Project Gutenberg; its specific writing background and publication information require consultation of reliable historical sources.

Is it suitable to read directly as a general history?

Not really. It is an argumentative essay reflecting the views of a particular author in a particular era, not a systematic general history. It is best treated as a primary source, read alongside an introduction to American history from the founding to the Civil War, in order to understand its argumentative target and historical limitations.

What should I do if the original English is difficult?

Essays of this kind from the late eighteenth century have long sentences and archaic wording. Start with background material in Chinese to understand the issues, then read the original in sections; when encountering long sentences, first identify subject and predicate, and consult a reliable translation or annotated edition when necessary—focus on understanding the argumentative structure rather than translating word by word.

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About the author

Tucker, St. George, 1752-1827 Author · American · 1752–1827

St. George Tucker (1752–1827) was an American jurist, judge, and poet who taught at the College of William and Mary. Born in Bermuda, he later moved to North America, served in the American Revolutionary War, and after the war practiced and taught law in Virginia for many years, also serving as a state judge. A man of broad learning, Tucker combined legal and literary interests, and his writings touched on law, politics, and poetry. The library holds one work by him, Dissertation on Slavery, which examines the legitimacy of slavery through rational argument and reflects the thinking of American intellectuals of his time on the issue, giving it significant historical and intellectual value. Overall, Tucker is a noteworthy figure in early American legal culture and public debate, though Chinese-language material on him remains limited.