University of Virginia Press

An authoritative study of the free people of color in the largest state of the Old South. Virginia was the state with the most enslaved people prior to the Civil War. It was also at one time the state with the most resident free people of color—free from the legal disabilities specifically associated with enslavement but still denied many basic civil rights. Written by an award-winning expert on free people of color in the American South, Freedom in the Age of Slavery is the first modern comprehensive history of free Virginians of color from the colonial period through Reconstruction. Milteer recounts in granular detail the discriminatory policies and resulting hardships that free Virginians of color faced, while also documenting the openings they created for themselves and the successes they enjoyed against overwhelming odds. Throughout, he highlights the commonwealth's significance as the laboratory for legal discrimination throughout the nation, while never losing sight of the ways free people of color seized their opportunities wherever possible and built meaningful lives in the face of massive white resistance.

A master historian uncovers a spellbinding story illustrating the stakes for the new nation in the American War for IndependenceHow does a new country demonstrate to the world that it is prepared to uphold the rule of law? During the winter of 1778, in the midst of revolution, a bizarre and dramatic court-martial forced an American community to confront the full implications of its independence from Great Britain—and produced a frank reexamination of a struggling nation's cultural and political values. British General John Burgoyne, a prisoner of war, accused an American colonel of mistreating fellow British prisoners. Angry and embarrassed after surrendering his army at Saratoga, he demanded an unprecedented full trial before an American jury. In a stunning decision, American military officers not only acquiesced to an unprecedented request for a court-martial but also allowed Burgoyne, an enemy commander, to serve as prosecutor. Why were the Americans so accommodating of this audacious request? Burgoyne's challenge, as T. H. Breen shows, had become about much more than an American soldier's individual transgression—it sparked an emotional rejection of aristocratic privilege that went to the heart of the revolutionary cause itself. The American Revolution on Trial spectacularly illustrates how the platform provided to Burgoyne offered the new, rebellious republic an opportunity to demonstrate, to themselves and the world, that they were sufficiently civilized to deliver genuine justice. This saga and its larger significance address questions about the rule of law and a nation's honor that challenge us to this day.

For decades, Louisiana has had the highest incarceration rate in the United States. If it were a country, it would have the second-highest incarceration rate in the world. Far from a modern phenomenon, this distinction is rooted in more than three centuries of historyroots that extend out from the principal city of New Orleans, once the epicenter of the American slave trade, to the agricultural fields of the Louisiana State Prison, commonly known as Angola. In its examination of the states long march toward confining more of its citizens than almost anywhere on earth, Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration arrives at an irrefutable truth: that the institutions of slavery and mass incarceration are historically linked. Adapted from the groundbreaking exhibition of the same name, Captive State traces the evolution of laws and customs that created this carceral system and that, by design, have disproportionately harmed Black Louisianians. Captive State accentuates this narrative with profiles of people impacted by these systems, spotlights on key historical objects, and insightful data visualizations. As the human and financial costs continue to mount, this book details the choices that led us here--and asks whether Louisiana is fated to remain captive to its history.Captive State is supported by a grant from Borealis Philanthropys Spark Justice Fund. Distributed for the Historic New Orleans Collection

A collection of works by one of twentieth-century Morocco’s greatest writers Appearing for the first time in English translation, this is the only career-spanning collection of short prose by the fiery, radical Moroccan writer Mohammed KhaIr-Eddine, beginning with the first story he ever published (which won the Prix de la nouvelle maghrÉbine) and ending with a posthumously published monologue written in the voice of an African head of state worrying about the fragility of the nation his death is about to bereave. Throughout his celebrated career, KhaIr-Eddine’s work mused on exile, on his use of the French language rather than his native Chleuh, on the colonial pacification of the Moroccan hinterlands, and on his ancestors. Like the young boy he remembers corralling fish in the seasonal streams of southern Morocco, or the unfortunate travelers waylaid by djinns and hyenas, KhaIr-Eddine finds there is life even in the desert and there is wisdom abounding in the asylum—one need only be patient enough to see it.

Examining the early debates in the United States over how best to educate the constituents of the new nation. When the founding fathers of the United States inaugurated a system of government that was unprecedented in the modern world, they knew that a functioning democracy required an educated electorate capable of making rational decisions. But who would validate the information that influenced citizens' opinions? By spotlighting various institutions of learning, George Oberle provides a comprehensive look at how knowledge was created, circulated, and consumed in the early American republic. Many of the founders, including George Washington, initially favored the creation of a centralized national university to educate Americans from all backgrounds. Over the first half of the nineteenth century, however, politicians moved away from any notion of publicly educated laypeople generating useful knowledge. The federal government ultimately founded the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, to be run by experts only. Oberle's insightful analysis of the competing ideas over the nature of education offers food for thought as we continue to grapple with a rapidly evolving media landscape amid contested meanings of knowledge, expertise, and the obligations of citizenship.

A treasury of poetry and prose from an unsung trailblazer of Black literature Lucia M. Pitts ( 1904-1973) was an African American writer and Army veteran whose story has never been told. Her poetry, including love lyrics of striking sensuality and honesty, was admired by Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Dorothy West. Her work first appeared during the Harlem Renaissance, influenced by Harriet Monroe's Poetry magazine and blues singers Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. A native of Chicago's Bronzeville, Pitts challenged discrimination and segregation throughout her remarkable life, both as a member of President Franklin Roosevelt's 'Black Cabinet' and as the first African American woman employed at the War Department. Then, in 1943, Pitts joined the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the Army's only all-Black, all-female battalion, which later received the Congressional Gold Medal. Pitts's own account of her service with the Six Triple Eight, however, has remained unpublished until now. This volume brings together a biography of Pitts, her complete military memoir, and one hundred of her finest poems.

Finalist for the 2024 George Washington Prize The Spurgin family of North Carolina experienced the cataclysm of the American Revolution in the most dramatic ways—and from different sides. This engrossing book tells the story of Jane Welborn Spurgin, a patriot who welcomed General Nathanael Greene to her home and aided Continental forces while her loyalist husband was fighting for the king as an officer in the Tory militia. By focusing on the wife of a middling backcountry farmer, esteemed historian Cynthia Kierner shows how the Revolution not only toppled long-established political hierarchies but also strained family ties and drew women into the public sphere to claim both citizenship and rights—as Jane Spurgin did with a dramatic series of petitions to the North Carolina state legislature when she fought to reclaim her family’s lost property after the war was over. While providing readers with stories of battles, horse-stealing, bigamy, and exile that bring the Revolutionary era vividly to life, this book also serves as an invaluable examination of the potentially transformative effects of war and revolution, both personally and politically.

How the United States' confrontation with North African raiders established its legitimacy on the world stage For the fledgling United States of America, the first major foray onto the international stage came off the North African coast in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. When Barbary corsairs preyed on American merchant ships, their young government and new navy were compelled to step in. Barbary Entanglements shows how interactions with the 'Barbary states' - the independent empire of Morocco and the semi-autonomous Ottoman regencies of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli - over the issue of privateering transcended economic grievances and allowed American consuls and servicemen to demonstrate the viability and reliability of their new nation within the European diplomatic system. More than simply protecting trade, US intervention against Barbary corsairs between 1784 and 1825 aimed to establish American sovereignty and demonstrate treaty-worthiness to their European 'sister nations.' In this deeply researched and insightful study, John Chamberlin not only offers a granular account of how the 'Barbary system' of corsairing and ransom-slavery worked over four decades. He also highlights nascent federal authorities' coordinating diplomatic efforts with lesser European powers such as Sweden and Denmark to gain legitimacy, and he makes unprecedented use of Arabic language sources to reframe what we know about the development of early American foreign policy. In the process, he offers a dramatic retelling of how the United States first announced itself as a force to be reckoned with on the international scene.

A ground-breaking exploration of one of America's most iconic and misunderstood authorsEdgar Allan Poe: A Life is the most comprehensive critical biography of Poe yet produced, exploring his fascinating life, his extraordinary work, and the vital relationship between the two. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre found in such works as The Raven, Annabel Lee, and The Tell-Tale Heart, this legendary American author continues to intrigue and enthral his devoted readers. Written by one of the world's leading Poe experts, this biography is a rich and rewarding study for the general reader as well as for the seasoned scholar. Richard Kopley combines a biographical narrative of Poe's enduring challenges—including his difficult foster father, his personal losses, his great struggles with depression and alcoholism, and the poverty that dogged his existence—with close readings of his work that focus not only on plot, character, and theme but also on language, allusion, and structure in a way that enhances our understanding of both. While incorporating past Poe scholarship, this volume also relates unknown stories of Poe culled from privately held letters unavailable to previous biographers, presenting a range of ground-breaking archival discoveries that illuminates the man and his oeuvre in ways never before possible.