Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits, and the Struggle for the Constitution

On September 17, 1787, at the State House in Philadelphia, thirty-ninemen from twelve states, after months of often bitter debate, signedAmerica's Constitution. Yet very few of the delegates, at the start, had had any intention of creating a nation that would last. Most weredriven more by pragmatic, regional interests than by idealistic vision.Many were meeting for the first time, others after years of contention,and the inevitable clash of personalities would be as intense as theadvocacy of ideas or ideals. No issue was of greater concern to thedelegates than that of slavery: it resounded through debates on thedefinition of treason, the disposition of the rich lands west of theAlleghenies and the admission of new states, representation andtaxation, the need for a national census, and the very make-up of thelegislative and executive branches of the new government. As isprovocatively made clear in Dark Bargain, "to a significant anddisquieting degree, America's most sacred document was molded and shaped by the most notorious institution in its history." Dark Bargainchronicles the forging of the Constitution through the prism of thecrucial compromises made by men consumed with the needs of the slaveeconomy. As the daily debates and backroom conferences in inns andtaverns stretched through July and August of that hot summer--and as the philosophical leadership of James Madison waned--Lawrence Goldstoneclearly reveals how tenuous the document was, and how an agreementbetween unlikely collaborators--John Rutledge of South Carolina, andRoger Sherman and Oliver Ellsworth of Connecticut--got the delegatespast their most difficult point. Dark Bargain recounts an event asdramatic and compelling as any in our nation's history.