Houghton
Mifflin
Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves
Adam Hochschild
From the author of the prize-winning King Leopold's Ghost comes a taut, thrilling account of the first grass-roots human rights campaign, which freed hundreds of thousands of slaves around the world. In 1787, twelve men gathered in a London printing shop to pursue a seemingly impossible goal: ending slavery in the largest empire on earth. Along the way, they would pioneer most of the tools citizen activists still rely on today, from wall posters and mass mailings to boycotts and lapel pins. This talented group combined a hatred of injustice with uncanny skill in promoting their cause. Within five years, more than 300,000 Britons were refusing to eat the chief slave-grown product, sugar; London's smart set was sporting antislavery badges created by Josiah Wedgwood; and the House of Commons had passed the first law banning the slave trade. However, the House of Lords, where slavery backers were more powerful, voted down the bill. But the crusade refused to die, fueled by remarkable figures like Olaudah Equiano, a brilliant ex-slave who enthralled audiences throughout the British Isles; John Newton, the former slave ship captain who wrote "Amazing Grace"; Granville Sharp, an eccentric musician and self-taught lawyer; and Thomas Clarkson, a fiery organizer who repeatedly crisscrossed Britain on horseback, devoting his life to the cause. He and his fellow activists brought slavery in the British Empire to an end in the 1830s, long before it died in the United States. The only survivor of the printing shop meeting half a century earlier, Clarkson lived to see the day when a slave whip and chains were formally buried in a Jamaican churchyard. Like Hochschild's classic King Leopold's Ghost, Bury the Chains abounds in atmosphere, high drama, and nuanced portraits of unsung heroes and colorful villains. Again Hochschild gives a little-celebrated historical watershed its due at last.
Author/Illustrator Bio:
Adam Hochschild was born in New York City in 1942. His first book, HALF THE WAY HOME: A MEMOIR OF FATHER AND SON, was published in 1986. It was followed by THE MIRROR AT MIDNIGHT: A SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNEY (1990) and THE UNQUIET GHOST: RUSSIANS REMEMBER STALIN (1994). FINDING THE TRAPDOOR: ESSAYS, PORTRAITS, TRAVELS won the 1998 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award for the Art of the Essay. Hochschild's books have been translated into five languages and have won prizes from the Overseas Press Club of America, the World Affairs Council, the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, and the Society of American Travel Writers. Three of his books - including KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST - have been named Notable Books of the Year by THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW and LIBRARY JOURNAL. KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST was also awarded the 1998 California Book Awards gold medal for nonfiction. Hochschild has also written for THE NEW YORKER, HARPER'S MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, MOTHER JONES (which he co-founded), THE NATION, and many other magazines and newspapers. A former commentator on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," he teaches writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1997-98 he was a Fulbright Lecturer in India. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Arlie, the sociologist and author. They have two sons.
ISBN: 0618104690; $26.95
Hardcover; 480 pages
Publication Date: 01/07/2005
Illustrations: Two 8-page b/w photo inserts
Trim Size: 9.00 x 1.25
*Prices subject to change without notice
"Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power
Garry Wills
Description:
In "Negro President," the best-selling historian Garry Wills explores a controversial and neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's presidency: it was achieved by virtue of slave "representation," and conducted to preserve that advantage. Wills goes far beyond the recent revisionist debate over Jefferson's own slaves and his relationship with Sally Heming to look at the political relationship between the president and slavery. Jefferson won the election of 1800 with Electoral College votes derived from the three-fifths representation of slaves, who could not vote but who were partially counted as citizens. That count was known as "the slave power" granted to southern states, and it made some Federalists call Jefferson the Negro President -- one elected only by the slave count's margin. Probing the heart of Jefferson's presidency, Wills reveals how the might of the slave states was a concern behind Jefferson's most important decisions and policies, including his strategy to expand the nation west. But the president met with resistance: Timothy Pickering, now largely forgotten, was elected to Congress to wage a fight against Jefferson and the institutions that supported him. Wills restores Pickering and his allies' dramatic struggle to our understanding of Jefferson and the creation of the new nation. In "Negro President," Wills offers a bold rethinking of one of American history's greatest icons.Reviews:
From Kirkus Reviews
"An eye-opening, carefully argued expose of . . . one of the big sleeper issues in American political history."
ISBN: 0618343989; $25.00
Hardcover; 288 pages
Publication Date: 11/01/2003
January 12, 2005
Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves
Adam Hochschild
From the author of the prize-winning King Leopold's Ghost comes a taut, thrilling account of the first grass-roots human rights campaign, which freed hundreds of thousands of slaves around the world. In 1787, twelve men gathered in a London printing shop to pursue a seemingly impossible goal: ending slavery in the largest empire on earth. Along the way, they would pioneer most of the tools citizen activists still rely on today, from wall posters and mass mailings to boycotts and lapel pins. This talented group combined a hatred of injustice with uncanny skill in promoting their cause. Within five years, more than 300,000 Britons were refusing to eat the chief slave-grown product, sugar; London's smart set was sporting antislavery badges created by Josiah Wedgwood; and the House of Commons had passed the first law banning the slave trade. However, the House of Lords, where slavery backers were more powerful, voted down the bill. But the crusade refused to die, fueled by remarkable figures like Olaudah Equiano, a brilliant ex-slave who enthralled audiences throughout the British Isles; John Newton, the former slave ship captain who wrote "Amazing Grace"; Granville Sharp, an eccentric musician and self-taught lawyer; and Thomas Clarkson, a fiery organizer who repeatedly crisscrossed Britain on horseback, devoting his life to the cause. He and his fellow activists brought slavery in the British Empire to an end in the 1830s, long before it died in the United States. The only survivor of the printing shop meeting half a century earlier, Clarkson lived to see the day when a slave whip and chains were formally buried in a Jamaican churchyard. Like Hochschild's classic King Leopold's Ghost, Bury the Chains abounds in atmosphere, high drama, and nuanced portraits of unsung heroes and colorful villains. Again Hochschild gives a little-celebrated historical watershed its due at last.
Author/Illustrator Bio:
Adam Hochschild was born in New York City in 1942. His first book, HALF THE WAY HOME: A MEMOIR OF FATHER AND SON, was published in 1986. It was followed by THE MIRROR AT MIDNIGHT: A SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNEY (1990) and THE UNQUIET GHOST: RUSSIANS REMEMBER STALIN (1994). FINDING THE TRAPDOOR: ESSAYS, PORTRAITS, TRAVELS won the 1998 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award for the Art of the Essay. Hochschild's books have been translated into five languages and have won prizes from the Overseas Press Club of America, the World Affairs Council, the Eugene V. Debs Foundation, and the Society of American Travel Writers. Three of his books - including KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST - have been named Notable Books of the Year by THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW and LIBRARY JOURNAL. KING LEOPOLD'S GHOST was also awarded the 1998 California Book Awards gold medal for nonfiction. Hochschild has also written for THE NEW YORKER, HARPER'S MAGAZINE, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, MOTHER JONES (which he co-founded), THE NATION, and many other magazines and newspapers. A former commentator on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered," he teaches writing at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1997-98 he was a Fulbright Lecturer in India. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, Arlie, the sociologist and author. They have two sons.
ISBN: 0618104690; $26.95
Hardcover; 480 pages
Publication Date: 01/07/2005
Illustrations: Two 8-page b/w photo inserts
Trim Size: 9.00 x 1.25
*Prices subject to change without notice
"Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power
Garry Wills
Description:
In "Negro President," the best-selling historian Garry Wills explores a controversial and neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's presidency: it was achieved by virtue of slave "representation," and conducted to preserve that advantage. Wills goes far beyond the recent revisionist debate over Jefferson's own slaves and his relationship with Sally Heming to look at the political relationship between the president and slavery. Jefferson won the election of 1800 with Electoral College votes derived from the three-fifths representation of slaves, who could not vote but who were partially counted as citizens. That count was known as "the slave power" granted to southern states, and it made some Federalists call Jefferson the Negro President -- one elected only by the slave count's margin. Probing the heart of Jefferson's presidency, Wills reveals how the might of the slave states was a concern behind Jefferson's most important decisions and policies, including his strategy to expand the nation west. But the president met with resistance: Timothy Pickering, now largely forgotten, was elected to Congress to wage a fight against Jefferson and the institutions that supported him. Wills restores Pickering and his allies' dramatic struggle to our understanding of Jefferson and the creation of the new nation. In "Negro President," Wills offers a bold rethinking of one of American history's greatest icons.Reviews:
From Kirkus Reviews
"An eye-opening, carefully argued expose of . . . one of the big sleeper issues in American political history."
ISBN: 0618343989; $25.00
Hardcover; 288 pages
Publication Date: 11/01/2003
January 12, 2005