[books 2011] Death or Liberty
Aug. 19th, 2011 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro46. Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America by Douglas R Egerton
I bought this in the book shop at the Yorktown Battlefield site.
It's a good companion piece to Simon Schama's Rough Crossings. Schama's book is about how the British let down the black Americans that fought on their side in the Revolutionary War. This is about how white Americans failed to follow through on the ideals of liberty and remained a slave-owning society.
I'm fascinated by the Revolutionary War. All history is More Complicated Than That, but the making of the USA is *really* more complicated than most people think.
I hadn't been aware, or didn't remember, that the issue of slavery nearly put a stop to the United States becoming one country; it was the elephant in the room throughout the formation of the country and the delegations from South Carolina and Georgia frequently threatened to walk out if they didn't get their way. While most people then and now thought they were bluffing, it is interesting that nobody cared enough to call their bluff. As early as the 1780s people in the know were prophesying civil war to solve the slavery problem.
The book's other take-home message is that most of the advancements made by slaves and free black people were made by their own hard work, not the paternalism of well-meaning white people.
Definitely recommended, if you are at all interested in this sort of thing.
I bought this in the book shop at the Yorktown Battlefield site.
It's a good companion piece to Simon Schama's Rough Crossings. Schama's book is about how the British let down the black Americans that fought on their side in the Revolutionary War. This is about how white Americans failed to follow through on the ideals of liberty and remained a slave-owning society.
I'm fascinated by the Revolutionary War. All history is More Complicated Than That, but the making of the USA is *really* more complicated than most people think.
I hadn't been aware, or didn't remember, that the issue of slavery nearly put a stop to the United States becoming one country; it was the elephant in the room throughout the formation of the country and the delegations from South Carolina and Georgia frequently threatened to walk out if they didn't get their way. While most people then and now thought they were bluffing, it is interesting that nobody cared enough to call their bluff. As early as the 1780s people in the know were prophesying civil war to solve the slavery problem.
The book's other take-home message is that most of the advancements made by slaves and free black people were made by their own hard work, not the paternalism of well-meaning white people.
Definitely recommended, if you are at all interested in this sort of thing.
