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In Death or Liberty, Douglas R. Egerton offers a sweeping chronicle of African American history stretching from Britain's 1763 victory in the Seven Years' War to the election of slaveholder Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800.While American slavery is usually identified with the cotton plantations, Egerton shows that on the eve of the Revolution it encompassed everything from wading in the South Carolina rice fields to carting goods around Manhattan to serving the households of Boston's elite. More important, herecaptures the drama of slaves, freed blacks, and white reformers fighting to make the young nation fulfill its republican slogans. Although this struggle often unfolded in the corridors of power, Egerton pays special attention to what black Americans did for themselves in these decades, and hisnarrative brims with compelling portraits of forgotten figures such as Quok Walker, a Massachusetts runaway who took his master to court and thereby helped end slavery in that state; Absalom Jones, a Delaware house slave who bought his freedom and later formed the Free African Society; and Gabriel,a young Virginia artisan who was hanged for plotting to seize Richmond and hold James Monroe hostage. Egerton argues that the Founders lacked the courage to move decisively against slavery despite the real possibility of peaceful, if gradual, emancipation. Battling huge odds, African Americanactivists and rebels succeeded in finding liberty--if never equality--only in northern states.Canvassing every colony and state, as well as incorporating the wider Atlantic world, Death or Liberty offers a lively and comprehensive account of black Americans and the Revolutionary era in America."Now, for the first time, the scores of recent investigations of black participation in the American Revolution have been synthesized into an elegant and seamless narrative. In Death or Liberty...Douglas Egerton shows that African Americans not only extracted the most liberty from the Revolutionaryexperience but also paid the highest price for it."--Woody Holton, author of Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution… (mais)
The book quickly became a slogging read and I put it down for several months after barely making it three-quarters of the way through.
I really liked the profiles of Black Americans around the Revolutionary War. Their stories are important and should not be lost, which this book helps to prevent. However, their tales become overshadowed by Douglas R. Egerton's unveiled contempt for 18th century racial duplicity. Yes, slavery and disenfranchisement of Black Americans was woefully contrary to our founding principles, but Egerton goes to great length to essentially minimize any benefit to America's hard fought independence.
In essence, Death or Liberty castigates every American. Without disagreement slave-holders who worked hard to justify their system of labor resorted to contemporary scientific theory. Yet there is much disdain for abolitionists from the author because they worked too slowly, ineffectively, or with ulterior motives in "freeing" blacks.
I believe the seething disgust woven into this recount of American history detracts from all the scholarship related in this work, that is why I awarded it two and one-half stars. ( )
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês.Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
For the women in my life, Alison Hannah Kearney
Primeiras palavras
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês.Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
Thanks to portraitists John Trumbull and Edward Savage, he became one of the two most recognizable slaves of the late-eighteenth century Atlantic world. [of William Lee]
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Últimas palavras
Informação do Conhecimento Comum em inglês.Edite para a localizar na sua língua.
Below the bridge and behind the trees, rusty cars leak oil onto the blacktop just above Gabriel's bones.
In Death or Liberty, Douglas R. Egerton offers a sweeping chronicle of African American history stretching from Britain's 1763 victory in the Seven Years' War to the election of slaveholder Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800.While American slavery is usually identified with the cotton plantations, Egerton shows that on the eve of the Revolution it encompassed everything from wading in the South Carolina rice fields to carting goods around Manhattan to serving the households of Boston's elite. More important, herecaptures the drama of slaves, freed blacks, and white reformers fighting to make the young nation fulfill its republican slogans. Although this struggle often unfolded in the corridors of power, Egerton pays special attention to what black Americans did for themselves in these decades, and hisnarrative brims with compelling portraits of forgotten figures such as Quok Walker, a Massachusetts runaway who took his master to court and thereby helped end slavery in that state; Absalom Jones, a Delaware house slave who bought his freedom and later formed the Free African Society; and Gabriel,a young Virginia artisan who was hanged for plotting to seize Richmond and hold James Monroe hostage. Egerton argues that the Founders lacked the courage to move decisively against slavery despite the real possibility of peaceful, if gradual, emancipation. Battling huge odds, African Americanactivists and rebels succeeded in finding liberty--if never equality--only in northern states.Canvassing every colony and state, as well as incorporating the wider Atlantic world, Death or Liberty offers a lively and comprehensive account of black Americans and the Revolutionary era in America."Now, for the first time, the scores of recent investigations of black participation in the American Revolution have been synthesized into an elegant and seamless narrative. In Death or Liberty...Douglas Egerton shows that African Americans not only extracted the most liberty from the Revolutionaryexperience but also paid the highest price for it."--Woody Holton, author of Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution
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(3.58)
1
I really liked the profiles of Black Americans around the Revolutionary War. Their stories are important and should not be lost, which this book helps to prevent. However, their tales become overshadowed by Douglas R. Egerton's unveiled contempt for 18th century racial duplicity. Yes, slavery and disenfranchisement of Black Americans was woefully contrary to our founding principles, but Egerton goes to great length to essentially minimize any benefit to America's hard fought independence.
In essence, Death or Liberty castigates every American. Without disagreement slave-holders who worked hard to justify their system of labor resorted to contemporary scientific theory. Yet there is much disdain for abolitionists from the author because they worked too slowly, ineffectively, or with ulterior motives in "freeing" blacks.
I believe the seething disgust woven into this recount of American history detracts from all the scholarship related in this work, that is why I awarded it two and one-half stars. (