A01=Craig Thompson Friend
abolitionist lecture circuit
Author_Craig Thompson Friend
Black abolitionists
Black biography
Black soldiers in Civil War
Category=DNB
Category=JBSL
Category=NHK
Category=NHTS
Category=WQH
domestic slaves
enslaved family life
entrepreneurialism among free Blacks
entrepreneurialism among the enslaved
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
free Black family life
free Blacks
Lunsford Lane
meritorious service
mortgage deeds
property ownership among Black Americans
redemption by purchase
self-emancipation
slave narratives
slavery in North Carolina
warranty deeds
Whiteness
Product details
- ISBN 9781469685342
- Dimensions: 155 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 27 May 2025
- Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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By challenging the rules of enslavement and, later, pushing the boundaries of free citizenship in North Carolina, Lunsford Lane (1803–79) became a folk hero to many enslaved Southerners, as well as a generation of abolitionists. Author of a unique "slave narrative" and a speaking partner with some of the era's greatest orators, including William Lloyd Garrison, Henry Highland Garnett, William Wells Brown, and Frederick Douglass, Lane became a celebrity who watched as the persona he created gradually faltered and failed him and his family. Yet even as his influence waned, Lane's enemies pounced—a white mob determined to tar and feather him, reformers who saw his contributions to abolition as a threat to their causes, and a neighbor who attempted to set fire to the Lane home while Lunsford and his family slept within. It was also powerful enough to inspire many to remake him for their own purposes: as a fugitive from slavery, an entrepreneur, a Christian minister, and even an abolitionist (an identity he rejected).
In the first biography of Lunsford Lane based on original and extensive research, Craig Thompson Friend portrays a man who dreamed beyond his enslavement, delivered himself and his family from bondage, and spun a story of his life that brought him lasting freedom and fleeting fame. Friend casts light on Lane's family origins as well as his complex relationships with his wife, parents, children, enslavers, fellow abolitionists, and nation. Lane's story is a biography for our times: a man searching to define life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in a changing American society scarred by contentious politics, economic challenges, class tensions, loss of political rights, and racial violence.
In the first biography of Lunsford Lane based on original and extensive research, Craig Thompson Friend portrays a man who dreamed beyond his enslavement, delivered himself and his family from bondage, and spun a story of his life that brought him lasting freedom and fleeting fame. Friend casts light on Lane's family origins as well as his complex relationships with his wife, parents, children, enslavers, fellow abolitionists, and nation. Lane's story is a biography for our times: a man searching to define life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in a changing American society scarred by contentious politics, economic challenges, class tensions, loss of political rights, and racial violence.
Craig Thompson Friend is professor of history at North Carolina State University.
