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Author Harris, J. William, 1946-

Title The hanging of Thomas Jeremiah : a free Black man's encounter with liberty / J. William Harris
Published New Haven : Yale University Press, ©2009

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Description 1 online resource (223 pages) : illustrations, maps, portraits
Contents Trials -- Liberty and slavery. "Slavery may truly be said to be the peculiar curse of this land" ; "Those natural and inherent rights that we all feel, and know, as men" ; "God will deliver his own people from slavery" -- Liberty's trials. "A plan, for instigating the slaves to insurrection" ; "The young King was about to alter the world, & set the Negroes free" ; "Dark, hellish plots" ; "Justice is satisfied" -- Thomas Jeremiah and the historians
Summary The tragic untold story of how a nation struggling for its freedom denied it to one of its own.In 1775, Thomas Jeremiah was one of fewer than five hundred "Free Negros" in South Carolina and, with an estimated worth of £1,000 (about. 00,000 in today's dollars), possibly the richest person of African descent in British North America. A slaveowner himself, Jeremiah was falsely accused by whites-who resented his success as a Charleston harbor pilot-of sowing insurrection among slaves at the behest of the British.Chief among the accusers was Henry Laurens, Charleston's leading patriot, a slaveowner and former slave trader, who would later become the president of the Continental Congress. On the other side was Lord William Campbell, royal governor of the colony, who passionately believed that the accusation was unjust and tried to save Jeremiah's life but failed. Though a free man, Jeremiah was tried in a slave court and sentenced to death. In August 1775, he was hanged and his body burned.J. William Harris tells Jeremiah's story in full for the first time, illuminating the contradiction between a nation that would be born in a struggle for freedom and yet deny it-often violently-to others
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-210) and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Jeremiah, Thomas, -1775 -- Trials, litigation, etc
Laurens, Henry, 1724-1792.
Campbell, William, 1745-1781.
Campbell, William, 1745-1781
Jeremiah, Thomas, -1775
Laurens, Henry, 1724-1792
Free African Americans -- South Carolina -- Charleston -- Social conditions
Free African Americans -- Legal status, laws, etc. -- South Carolina -- Charleston
Liberty -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 18th century
Liberty -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 18th century
Slavery -- United States -- History -- 18th century
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Historical.
HISTORY -- State & Local.
HISTORY -- Americas (North, Central, South, West Indies)
Free African Americans -- Social conditions
Liberty -- Political aspects
Liberty -- Social aspects
Race relations
Slavery
Social conditions
Charleston (S.C.) -- Race relations -- 18th century
Charleston (S.C.) -- Social conditions -- 18th century
South Carolina -- Charleston
United States
Genre/Form Trial and arbitral proceedings
Biographies
History
Trials, litigation, etc.
Biographies.
Trial and arbitral proceedings.
Biographies.
Comptes rendus de procès et d'arbitrage.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2009015233
ISBN 9780300155693
0300155697
0300152140
9780300152142