Description: This eye-opening volume draws extensively on previously unused sources to chronicle the 1852 Utah territorial legislative session, during which the legislature passed two important statutes: one that legally transformed African American slaves into "servants" but did not pass the condition of servitude on to their children and another that authorized twenty-year indentures for enslaved Native Americans. This Abominable Slavery places these debates within the context of the nation's growing sectional divide and contextualizes the meaning of these laws in the lives of Black enslaved people and Native American indentured servants.
Review Quotes: "In This Abominable Slavery, Reeve and his co-authors have delivered a hugely important contribution to our understanding of slavery and the beginnings of the temple/priesthood ban. There are lessons to be learned here regarding how we relate to the intersection of history and religion. The past is always seen through a murky lens, but works such as This Abominable Slavery go a long way in providing much-needed clarity on both our past and the present." -- Kevin Folkman, Association for Mormon Letters
"This comprehensive work from Reeve, Rich, and Carruth enriches our understanding not only of Utah and Western history but also highlights the importance of historical scholarship in illuminating issues of freedom and justice." -- Amy Tanner Thiriot, Utah Historical Quarterly