A01=Gregory May
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american south
antebellum
Author_Gregory May
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HB
Category=NH
civil war
confederacy
congress
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
emancipation
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eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
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freed slaves
john c. calhoun
john randolph
Language_English
legal history
missouri compromise
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
revisionist history
senate
slavery
slaves
softlaunch
u.s. history
union
Product details
- ISBN 9781324092216
- Weight: 695g
- Dimensions: 163 x 236mm
- Publication Date: 18 Apr 2023
- Publisher: WW Norton & Co
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Few legal cases in American history are as riveting as the controversy surrounding the will of Virginia Senator John Randolph (1773–1833), which—almost inexplicably—freed all 383 of his slaves in one of the largest and most publicised manumissions in American history. So famous is the case that Ta-Nehisi Coates has used it to condemn Randolph’s cousin, Thomas Jefferson, for failing to free his own slaves. With this ground-breaking investigation, historian Gregory May now reveals a more surprising story, showing how madness and scandal shaped John Randolph’s wildly shifting attitudes toward his slaves—and how endemic prejudice in the North ultimately deprived the freedmen of the land Randolph had promised them. Sweeping from the legal spectacle of the contested will through the freedmen’s dramatic flight and horrific reception in Ohio, A Madman’s Will is an extraordinary saga about the alluring promise of freedom and its tragic limitations.
Gregory May is the author of Jefferson’s Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt. He practiced law in Washington, DC, and New York for thirty years, and now lives in Virginia.
