Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

The Empire of Necessity: The Untold History of a Slave Rebellion in the Age of Liberty

0/5 ( ratings)

"Compelling, brilliant and necessary." —Toni Morrison

From the acclaimed author of Fordlandia, the story of a remarkable slave rebellion that illuminates America’s struggle with slavery and freedom during the Age of Revolution and beyond.

One morning in 1805, off a remote island in the South Pacific, Captain Amasa Delano, a New England seal hunter, climbed aboard a distressed Spanish ship carrying scores of West Africans he thought were slaves. They weren’t. Having earlier seized control of the vessel and slaughtered most of the crew, they were staging an elaborate ruse, acting as if they were humble servants. When Delano, an idealistic, anti-slavery republican, finally realized the deception, he responded with explosive violence.

Drawing on research on four continents, The Empire of Necessity explores the multiple forces that culminated in this extraordinary event—an event that already inspired Herman Melville’s masterpiece Benito Cereno. Now historian Greg Grandin, with the gripping storytelling that was praised in Fordlandia, uses the dramatic happenings of that day to map a new transnational history of slavery in the Americas, capturing the clash of peoples, economies, and faiths that was the New World in the early 1800s.

Format: Kindle Edition

Release: January 05, 2014

The Empire of Necessity: The Untold History of a Slave Rebellion in the Age of Liberty

0/5 ( ratings)

"Compelling, brilliant and necessary." —Toni Morrison

From the acclaimed author of Fordlandia, the story of a remarkable slave rebellion that illuminates America’s struggle with slavery and freedom during the Age of Revolution and beyond.

One morning in 1805, off a remote island in the South Pacific, Captain Amasa Delano, a New England seal hunter, climbed aboard a distressed Spanish ship carrying scores of West Africans he thought were slaves. They weren’t. Having earlier seized control of the vessel and slaughtered most of the crew, they were staging an elaborate ruse, acting as if they were humble servants. When Delano, an idealistic, anti-slavery republican, finally realized the deception, he responded with explosive violence.

Drawing on research on four continents, The Empire of Necessity explores the multiple forces that culminated in this extraordinary event—an event that already inspired Herman Melville’s masterpiece Benito Cereno. Now historian Greg Grandin, with the gripping storytelling that was praised in Fordlandia, uses the dramatic happenings of that day to map a new transnational history of slavery in the Americas, capturing the clash of peoples, economies, and faiths that was the New World in the early 1800s.

Format: Kindle Edition

Release: January 05, 2014

More books from Greg Grandin

Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City

3.6/5 ( ratings)

The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America

4.3/5 ( ratings)

Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism

The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Kissinger's Shadow: The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman

I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala

3.8/5 ( ratings)

The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War

3.8/5 ( ratings)

The Blood of Guatemala: A History of Race and Nation

3.8/5 ( ratings)

A Century of Revolution: Insurgent and Counterinsurgent Violence during Latin America's Long Cold War

3.8/5 ( ratings)

The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics

4.3/5 ( ratings)

Who Is Rigoberta Menchu?

3.1/5 ( ratings)

FREE Icon Books eBook Sampler

2.7/5 ( ratings)

A Revolução Guatemalteca

2.7/5 ( ratings)

The World According to Tomdispatch: America in the New Age of Empire

2.7/5 ( ratings)

El síntoma Trump: Qué hacer ante la ola reaccionaria (Contextos)

2.7/5 ( ratings)

Human Rights and Revolutions

2.7/5 ( ratings)

Imperium konieczności: Niewolnictwo, wolność i oszustwo w Nowym Świecie

2.7/5 ( ratings)

Quiet Genocide: Guatemala 1981-1983

2.7/5 ( ratings)

Human Rights and Revolutions

2.7/5 ( ratings)

A sombra de Kissinger: O longo alcance do mais controverso estadista americano

2.7/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?