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A
Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War By
Melvin Patrick Ely Thomas Jefferson condemned slavery but denied that
whites and liberated blacks could live together in harmony. Jefferson’s young cousin Richard Randolph
and ninety African Americans set out to prove the sage of Monticello
wrong. When Randolph died in 1796, he
left land for his formidable bondman Hercules White and for dozens of other
slaves. There they could build new
lives as free people alongside white neighbors and other blacks who had
gained their liberty earlier. Fittingly, the Randolph freedpeople called their
promised land Israel Hill. These black
Israelites and other free African Americans established farms, plied skilled
trades, and navigated the Appomattox River in freight-carrying “batteaux.” Hercules White’s son Sam and other free
blacks bought and sold boats, land, and buildings, and they won the respect
of whites. Melvin Patrick Ely captures a series of remarkable
personal and public dramas: free black
and white people do business with one another, sue each other, work side by
side for equal wages, join forces to found a Baptist congregation, move west
together, and occasionally settle down as man and wife. Even still-enslaved blacks who face charges
of raping or killing whites sometimes find ardent white defenders. Yet slavery’s long shadow darkens this landscape in
unpredictable ways. After Nat Turner’s
slave revolt, county officials confiscate and auction off free blacks’
weapons--and then vote to give the proceeds to the blacks themselves. One black Israelite marries an enslaved
woman and watches, powerless, as a white master carries three of their
children off to Missouri; a free black miller has to bid for his own wife at
a public auction. Proslavery hawks
falsely depict Israel Hill to the nation as a degenerate place whose supposed
failure proves blacks are unfit for freedom.
The Confederate Army compels free black men to build fortifications
far from home, until Lee finally surrenders to Grant a few miles from Israel
Hill. Ely tells a moving story of hope and hardship, of black
pride and achievement. He shows us an
Old South we hardly know, where ties of culture, faith, affection, and
economic interest crossed racial barriers--a society in which, ironically,
many whites felt secure enough to deal fairly and even cordially with free
African Americans partly because slavery still held most blacks firmly in its
grip. To see
more information and read an excerpt of Israel on the Appomattox, click here. To see
honors and media notices for the book, click
here. To read
a review of Israel on the Appomattox from the Boston Globe, click
here. To read
an interview with Ely about about his book, click here.
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Praise Click here for more from reviews. “Rich
with new insights on the dimensions of bondage and freedom. Ely’s meticulous research and elegant
writing make the experience of reading it both a reward and a pleasure.” --James
M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom “Extraordinary—inspiring
and heart-breaking, by turns.” --John
Demos, author of The Unredeemed Captive “Fascinating
. . . . Ely’s story is so rich and
compelling . . . that it is sure to leave its mark on Southern history for
years to come.” --Washington
Post Book World “In an
astonishing act of historical research and imagination, Melvin Ely has
recreated an entire world, [whose people] stand before us in sharp relief.” --Edward
L. Ayers, author of In the Presence of Mine Enemies “Extraordinary
. . . . A surprising and often
heartening story of human struggle, personal dignity, and complex interracial
cooperation in the deep shadow of slavery.
It poses striking possibilities for America’s future.” --James
Oliver Horton, co-author of Hard Road to Freedom “Pathbreaking,
superbly documented, seminal, and destined for controversy.” --Gerald
David Jaynes, author of Branches Without Roots “Invite[s]
us to imagine . . . the more optimistic vision of an America that might have been,
one in which ‘generous energy’ prevailed over bloodshed.” --New
York Times Book Review “[No
one] has examined the quality of [free blacks’] lives in the detail or with
the sophistication of Melvin Patrick Ely.” --Eric
Foner, Los Angeles Times “No
less than a systematic deconstruction of the ways in which many Americans
have come to think of race, slavery, and the Old South.” --James
A. Miller, Boston Globe “A
remarkably rich story . . . .
Accen-tuate[s] the biracial—and tragic—aspects of Southern history.” --Atlantic
Monthly “A remarkable civics lesson in hope,
strength, endurance, and quiet courage that most will find important and
uplifting.” --Rocky
Mountain News “Certain
to generate controversy. . . . Fresh
and provocative.” --St.
Louis Post-Dispatch “Masterful
. . . . [A] wondrous array of primary
sources and engaging prose.” --Choice
“An
inspiring, informative, and uplifting story, . . . now available for everyone
to read and savor.” --Tennessee
Tribune “An
amazing cast of vividly drawn characters, black and white.” --Virginia
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