Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for LibertyBeacon Press, 2006 - 281 strani Cassandra Pybus adds greatly to the work of [previous] scholars by insisting that slaves stand at the center of their own history . . . Her 'biographies' of flight expose the dangers that escape entailed and the courage it took to risk all for freedom. Only by measuring those dangers can the exhilaration of success be comprehended and the unspeakable misery of failure be appreciated.--Ira Berlin, from the Foreword During the American Revolution, thousands of slaves fled their masters to find freedom with the British.Epic Journeys of Freedomis the astounding story of these runaways and the lives they made on four continents. Having emancipated themselves, with the rhetoric about the inalienable rights of free men ringing in their ears, these men and women struggled tenaciously to make liberty a reality in their own lives. This alternative narrative of freedom fought for and won is uniquely compelling; historian Cassandra Pybus's groundbreaking research has uncovered individual stories of runaways who left America to forge difficult new lives in far-flung corners of the British Empire. Harry, for example, one of George Washington's slaves, escaped from Mount Vernon in 1776, was evacuated to Nova Scotia in 1783, and eventually relocated to Sierra Leone in West Africa with his wife and three children. Ralph Henry, who ran away from the Virginia firebrand Patrick Henry in 1776, took a similar path to precarious freedom in Sierra Leone, while others, such as John Moseley and John Randall, were evacuated with the British forces to England. Stranded in England without skills or patronage during a period of high unemployment, they were among thousands of newly freed poor blacks who struggled just to survive. While some were relocated to Sierra Leone, others, like Moseley and Randall, found themselves transported to the distant penal colony of Botany Bay, in Australia. Epic Journeys of Freedom,written in the best tradition of history from the bottom up, is a fascinating insight into the meaning of liberty; it will change forever the way we think about the American Revolution. |
Vsebina
Liberty or Death | 3 |
Crossing over to Freedoms Shore | 21 |
Marching to Catastrophe | 37 |
Fleeing the Founding Fathers | 57 |
Starving in the Streets of London | 75 |
Bound for Australias Fatal Shore | 89 |
Relief for Londons Black Poor | 103 |
Recalcitrant Convicts in New South Wales | 123 |
Promises Unfulfilled in Sierra Leone | 169 |
In Bondage to This Tyrannous Crew | 183 |
Epilogue | 203 |
Acknowledgments | 207 |
Biographies of Significant Black Refugees | 209 |
Notes | 221 |
Sources | 253 |
271 | |
The Province of Freedom in Sierra Leone | 139 |
At the End of the World in New South Wales | 157 |
Druge izdaje - Prikaži vse
Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and ... Cassandra Pybus Omejen predogled - 2006 |
Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and ... Cassandra Pybus Prikaz kratkega opisa - 2006 |
Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and ... Cassandra Pybus Predogled ni na voljo - 2007 |
Pogosti izrazi in povedi
Africa American Revolution April army Baptist Birchtown black convicts Black Poor black recruits black refugees black settlers Book of Negroes Boston King Botany Bay British Burke Caesar Campbell captain Carleton Charleston Clarkson Collins colony Cornwallis Daddy Moses Dawes December Dunmore Dunmore's England enslaved evacuated to Nova Falconbridge fleet freedom Freetown George Washington Gordon governor Granville Sharp Granville Town Gwynn Island Harry Washington Henry hundred Isaac Anderson Island James January Jefferson John Moseley July June Koya Temne land later Laurens letter London Lord Loyalist Claims Commission Luke Jordan Lund Macaulay Journal Madison Martin Methodist Mount Vernon Norfolk Nova Scotia November October officers Papers Patriot Peters petition plantation Portsmouth preacher Provey quit rent Quote Records Regiment Revolutionary River Royal sent sentenced servants settlement ship Sierra Leone Company slavery South Carolina South Wales Sydney Cove Temne Tench Thomas transportation University Press wife William women York Yorktown