The Scorpion's Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War

The Scorpion’s Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War is a non-fiction book by James Oakes published in 2014 by W. W. Norton & Company. The book is the second in a trilogy of histories by Oates dealing with anti-slavery constitutionalism, preceded by Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865 (2013) and followed by The Crooked Path to Abolition (2021).Kreitner, 2021

"The Scorpion's Sting" was a much-repeated political trope in the years preceding the Civil War, based on the myth that scorpions when "girt by fire," i.e. encircled by flames, could be induced to sting themselves to death.Masó, 2021Burin, 2014 p. 279: "If these policies were implemented, so the theory went, a cordon of freedom would encircle slavery, and like a scorpion girt by fire, it would sting itself to death."

Applying this vivid image as an analogy, anti-slavery constitutionalists argued that hemming in the existing US slave states with free states to the north, banning slavery in the federal territories to the west, and suppressing slavery on the high seas would, in time, lead to the decline and voluntary dismantling of the institution in the South.Burin, 2014 p. 279Rable, 2014 p. 80-81: "Many opponents [of slavery] maintained that the demise of slavery was inevitable because the Federal government and the free states could surround the slave states with a 'cordon of freedom' that would eventually bring about universal emancipation."Kreitner, 2021: "[T]he Republicans had come to believe that by closing slavery in with a 'cordon of freedom,' they would be able to achieve its ultimate demise. Like a scorpion surrounded by fire, slavery would sting itself to death."

Oates also presents an overview of The Law of Nations and the Rules of War as understood by the radical anti-slavery leadership: that armed conflict would make military emancipation an option for the federal government.Burin, 2014 p. 279: "Oakes discusses at length military emancipation during the American Revolution, War of 1812, and Second Seminole War, establishing that there was a broad consensus regarding the legitimacy of such measures."

Contents INTRODUCTION: At Stake “Like a Scorpion Girt by Fire” The Right versus the Wrong of Property in Man Race Conflict The Wars Over Wartime Emancipation EPILOGUE: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Her British Sisters

Reviews Historian David S. Reynolds praises Oakes's success in distinguishing between the conflicting proslavery and antislavery views regarding property: one asserting the sanctity of property as a defense of human bondage, the other arguing that natural self-ownership established an individual's right to freedom. Reynolds also notes Oates’s emphasis on the roles that the Union military and congressional legislation played in effecting emancipation and abolition.Reynolds, 2017

Professor Eric Burin summarizes Oakes's overview of the peacetime methods by which Republicans expected to gradually extinguish slavery based on the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution, namely, the recognition of fundamental human equality and the suppression of slavery in all domains subject to federal jurisdiction. Threatened with political and economic decline, "the secessionists opted for war."Burin, 2014 p. 278-279: "If these policies were implemented, so the theory went, a cordon of freedom would encircle slavery, and like a scorpion girt by fire, it would sting itself to death." Burin locates Oakes's key contribution in his emphasis on the transformative function of the Union army on Republican's war aims.Burin, 2014 p. 279

Writing in Foreign Affairs, Professor Walter Russell Mead notes the contemporary significance of The Scorpion's Sting to contemporary geopolitics:

Footnotes

Sources Burin, Eric. 2014. Review: "The Scorpion's Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War by James Oakes" The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography , 2014, Vol. 122, No. 3 (2014), pp. 278-280. Accessed 11 June, 2026. Kreitner, Richard. 2021. "Did the Constitution Pave the Way to Emancipation?" The Nation, October 6, 2021. Accessed 11 June, 2026. Masó, Albert. 2013. "Why do scorpions 'commit suicide' when surrounded by fire?" Metode, November 7, 2013. Accessed 11 June, 2026. Mead, Walter Russell. 2014. Review: "The Scorpion’s Sting: Anti-Slavery and the Coming of the Civil War" Foreign Affairs. Accessed 09 June, 2026. Oakes, James. 2014. The Scorpion’s Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War. W. W. Norton & Company. Rable, George C. 2014. Review: "Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861—1865 by James Oakes" Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association, SUMMER 2014, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 80-84. Accessed 10 June, 2026. Reynolds, David S. 2017. "The Hidden History of Slavery" The Kenyon Review, May/June, 2017. Accessed 09 June, 2026.