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First Emancipator : The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves by Andrew Levy (2005, Hardcover)
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- Buy It NowTHE FIRST EMANCIPATOR: THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF ROBERT CARTER BY ANDREW LEVY
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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
ISBN-100375508651
ISBN-139780375508653
eBay Product ID (ePID)43432654
Product Key Features
Book TitleFirst Emancipator : the Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves
Number of Pages336 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication Year2005
TopicSlavery, United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), Social Classes & Economic Disparity, United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775), Revolutionary, General, United States / General
GenreSocial Science, History
AuthorAndrew Levy
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.1 in
Item Weight20.6 Oz
Item Length6.6 in
Item Width9.5 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
LCCN2004-054054
Dewey Edition22
ReviewsAdvance praise forThe First Emancipator "This luminous book recovers from the fog of historical amnesia a wealthy slave-owning Virginia gentleman (and neighbor of George Washington) who tried to lead the slave-bound new nation toward a better future. A gripping, important must-read that will convince many that the founding fathers could have abolished slavery." GARY B. NASH, professor emeritus, UCLA, author of Red, White & Black: The Peoples of Early North America "Robert Carter III and his emancipatory Deed of Gift 'fell out' of American history for the same reason that racial equality disappeared, until recent times, from the American social contract. Andrew Levy's engrossing The First Emancipator rescues an amazing contemporary of the Founders from the void." DAVID LEVERING LEWIS, author of the two-volume biography of W.E.B. Du Bois, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and 2001 "Andrew Levy's vivid biographyof a fabulously rich slaveholder who, imagining the impossible, broke all society's rulesshatters one of our favorite historical mirrors. In the 1790s, freeing hundreds of slaves became a religious obsession for Robert Carter III. How he hammered out a working model for a radically different American future only to have it instantly and permanently forgotten redefines our past in ways that test the resiliency of the American mythos." FORREST CHURCH, author of The American Creed: A Spiritual and Patriotic Primer, Advance praise forThe First Emancipator "This luminous book recovers from the fog of historical amnesia a wealthy slave-owning Virginia gentleman (and neighbor of George Washington) who tried to lead the slave-bound new nation toward a better future. A gripping, important must-read that will convince many that the founding fathers could have abolished slavery." GARY B. NASH, professor emeritus, UCLA, author of Red, White & Black: The Peoples of Early North America "Robert Carter III and his emancipatory Deed of Gift 'fell out' of American history for the same reason that racial equality disappeared, until recent times, from the American social contract. Andrew Levy's engrossing The First Emancipator rescues an amazing contemporary of the Founders from the void." DAVID LEVERING LEWIS, author of the two-volume biography of W.E.B. Du Bois, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and 2001 "Andrew Levy's vivid biographyof a fabulously rich slaveholder who, imagining the impossible, broke all society's rulesshatters one of our favorite historical mirrors. In the 1790s, freeing hundreds of slaves became a religious obsession for Robert Carter III. How he hammered out a working model for a radically different American future only to have it instantly and permanently forgotten redefines our past in ways that test the resiliency of the American mythos." FORREST CHURCH, author of The American Creed: A Spiritual and Patriotic Primer From the Hardcover edition., Advance praise for The First Emancipator "This luminous book recovers from the fog of historical amnesia a wealthy slave-owning Virginia gentleman (and neighbor of George Washington) who tried to lead the slave-bound new nation toward a better future. A gripping, important must-read that will convince many that the founding fathers could have abolished slavery." GARY B. NASH, professor emeritus, UCLA, author of Red, White & Black: The Peoples of Early North America "Robert Carter III and his emancipatory Deed of Gift 'fell out' of American history for the same reason that racial equality disappeared, until recent times, from the American social contract. Andrew Levy's engrossing The First Emancipator rescues an amazing contemporary of the Founders from the void." DAVID LEVERING LEWIS, author of the two-volume biography of W.E.B. Du Bois, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 and 2001 "Andrew Levy's vivid biographyof a fabulously rich slaveholder who, imagining the impossible, broke all society's rulesshatters one of our favorite historical mirrors. In the 1790s, freeing hundreds of slaves became a religious obsession for Robert Carter III. How he hammered out a working model for a radically different American future only to have it instantly and permanently forgotten redefines our past in ways that test the resiliency of the American mythos." FORREST CHURCH, author of The American Creed: A Spiritual and Patriotic Primer
TitleLeadingThe
Dewey Decimal973.3/092 B
SynopsisRobert Carter III, the grandson of Tidewater legend Robert "King" Carter, was born into the highest circles of Virginia's Colonial aristocracy. He was neighbor and kin to the Washingtons and Lees and a friend and peer to Thomas Jefferson and George Mason. But on September 5, 1791, Carter severed his ties with this glamorous elite at the stroke of a pen. In a document he called his Deed of Gift, Carter declared his intent to set free nearly five hundred slaves in the largest single act of liberation in the history of American slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation. How did Carter succeed in the very action that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson claimed they fervently desired but were powerless to effect? And why has his name all but vanished from the annals of American history? In this haunting, brilliantly original work, Andrew Levy traces the confluence of circumstance, conviction, war, and passion that led to Carter's extraordinary act. At the dawn of the Revolutionary War, Carter was one of the wealthiest men in America, the owner of tens of thousands of acres of land, factories, ironworksand hundreds of slaves. But incrementally, almost unconsciously, Carter grew to feel that what he possessed was not truly his. In an era of empty Anglican piety, Carter experienced a feverish religious visionthat impelled him to help build a church where blacks and whites were equals. In an age of publicly sanctioned sadism against blacks, he defied convention and extended new protections and privileges to his slaves. As the war ended and his fortunes declined, Carter dedicated himself even more fiercely to liberty, clashing repeatedly with his neighbors, his friends, government officials, and, most poignantly, his own family. But Carter was not the only humane master, nor the sole partisan of freedom, in that freedom-loving age. Why did this troubled, spiritually torn man dare to do what far more visionary slave owners only dreamed of? In answering this question, Andrew Levy teases out the very texture of Carter's life and soulthe unspoken passions that divided him from others of his class, and the religious conversion that enabled him to see his black slaves in a new light. Drawing on years of painstaking research, written with grace and fire, The First Emancipator is a portrait of an unsung hero who has finally won his place in American history. It is an astonishing, challenging, and ultimately inspiring book.
LC Classification NumberF229.C34L485 2005
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Ratings and Reviews
Most relevant reviews
- Sep 25, 2018
Great book for genealogical and reading research.
Very easy to read and relate to.Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned
- Sep 24, 2019
Interesting
An interesting read!Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned
