POSTCOLONIAL ASPECTS OF THE ANTI–SLAVERY DISCOURSE OF THE DEBATE IN THE US CONGRESS ON THE OREGON TERRITORIAL BILL IN MAY-AUGUST 1848

Abstract

The article examines the special, post-colonialist aspects of the anti-slavery argument used during the debates in the US Congress on the Oregon Territorial Bill. These aspects were formed in the political consciousness of Americans, primarily in the northern states, in the process of rethinking their colonial past and anti-colonial struggle. They sounded in the form of stable ideological justifications for preventing any further territorial spread of slavery. The understanding of slavery as a "cursed colonial legacy", a "shameful stigma" on the bright image of an independent American nation and slavery as evidence of postcolonial economic and civilizational backwardness had a decisive effect on the ideological opposition to the spread of slavery to new territories. The ideas of saving the nationality of honor, conversion and following revolutionary ideals decisively influenced the anti-slavery rhetoric of congressmen.