Half Slave and Half Free, Revised Edition: The Roots of Civil War5 reviews Bruce Levine Hill and Wang, 2005 Fabulous book + Graduate Student Review + Thorough, insightful. + The other side of the Civil War, The View of Blacks by South             American Slavery, American Freedom10 reviews Edmund S. Morgan W. W. Norton & Company, 2003 Excellent + Very Good, but with Some Curious Touches + Great book + Important contribution to the scholarship on slavery in colonial America             Sojourner Truth: A Life, a Symbol8 reviews Nell Irvin Painter W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 A Nearly Perfect Book + Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol + Short and very readable book , but quite illuminating + An incredible biography + SOJOURNER TRUTH A LIFE A SYMBOL             American Slavery: 1619-18777 reviews Peter Kolchin Hill and Wang, 2003 Outstanding Survey of American Slavery + Kolchin's Bias + Great overview, with enough details + Excellent History of Slavery in the USA             Black Abolitionists (A Da Capo Paperback)2 reviews Benjamin Quarles Da Capo Press, 1991 The "new school" Negroes' role in the Aboltionists crusade. + A pioneering history I recently reviewed this exceptional book for a college history class: Benjamin Quarles did an exceptional job in supporting his well-balanced and non-biased arugment that even though widely neglected in history, the Negro played a significant role in the abolitionists crusade. Quarles's use of ...             Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation6 reviews John Hope Franklin, Loren Schweninger Oxford University Press, USA, 2000 A seminal work + KIND OF HARD TO READ! + Much research + Provides wealth of details but no context + Lays bare the frail foundation of the antebellum South             The Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-18602 reviews Leonard Richards Louisiana State University Press, 2000 Powerful, absorbing account of South's stranglehold + Superb This is an extremely engrossing history of the (virtual) stranglehold the South maintained on the US government from the birth of America until the election of Abraham Lincoln. It is also on account of the efforts by post-war southern historians to cover up the central fact of slavery as the ...             Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the DIlemma of Black Patriotism17 reviews Roger Wilkins Beacon Press, 2002 Liberty, Slavery, & the Founders - a dilemma examined + A Unifying Look At the Divisiveness of America's Racial Past and Present + A New Moral Calculus for our Heroes? `Jefferson's Pillow' is a brief but powerful work which examines the uncomfortable juxtaposition of America's founding ideals of liberty with the reality that many of the founders were slave owners. It examines four of those founders - Jefferson, Washington, Madison, and Mason, along with their ...             John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights26 reviews David S. Reynolds Knopf, 2005 When is a fanatic not a fanatic? Highly enjoyable read. Not written at arm's length; It's clear that Reynolds "gets" John Brown and the age he lived in, so his heart and imagination are fully engaged as he writes. He doesn't hide Brown's humanity however. What bothered me the most was that Brown seemed to harden his heart ...             Black Rebellion: Five Slave Revolts Thomas Wentworth Higginson Da Capo Press, 1998 Black Rebellion, a fascinating account of five slave insurrections, among them the story of the Maroons, escaped slaves in the West Indies and South America who successfully resisted larger British armies while living an independent existence for generations in the mountains and jungles of Jamaica and Surinam; of Gabriel Prosser, who recruited about 1,000 fellow slaves in 1800 to launch a ...             Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America10 reviews Ira Berlin Belknap Press, 2000 American Slavery Was Local + A must read + Important Synthesis of Early Enslavement + Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America             An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America29 reviews Henry Wiencek Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003 George Washington + George Washington's Moral Evolution + One of my favorite historical novels + Great + A Early History of Black Slavery in America             The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics6 reviews Don E. Fehrenbacher Oxford University Press, USA, 2001 An outstanding book + Superb book!! + A masterpiece of historical exposition + A Really Wonderful Read + Superb             Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution28 reviews Simon Schama Ecco, 2006 Another Side of American Liberty + schama's best yet + Another Masterpiece by a Master Schama is always an interesting writer, but he has seldom been as easy to read as in Rough Crossings. Perhaps the subject itself is so unambiguous that he finds his way to simplicity. That subject is the fate of African and African-American refugees from the Thirteen Colonies, the bold proclaimers ...             The Fate of Their Country: Politicians, Slavery Extension, and the Coming of the Civil War5 reviews Michael F. Holt Hill and Wang, 2005 Excellent introduction to a misunderstood topic + A young Historians outlook... + Clarifies the reasons for the war + A Story of Politicians and the Affect of their Actions + partisan politics at its peak             The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slavery4 reviews Don E. Fehrenbacher Oxford University Press, USA, 2002 Revising the Revisionists + Did they hold those truth to be self evident? + An outstanding work of constitutional-political history + Excellent             Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South11 reviews Kenneth M. Stampp Vintage, 1989 Still THE Sourcebook for Information on American Slavery + First Look Inside Slavery + Deep, Scholarly, Important + A Detailed History             Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution1 review David Waldstreicher Hill and Wang, 2004 Finally, Waldstreicher writes a lucid book!! It should merit 3 stars alone just to have Prof. Waldstreicher actually come out with a book that people can read! His other works have been dreadfully written (esp. his work in Journal of the Early republic), the worst prose in the business. However, not only is this book very nicely written, for ...             Holy Warriors: The Abolitionists and American Slavery1 review James Brewer Stewart Hill and Wang, 1997 A great history of the abolitionist movement In this book, originally published in 1976, Stewart provides a basic history of the abolitionist movement beginning with the period of the American Revolution. While most think of abolition as a 19th-century movement, Stewart demonstrates that this period is also important in examining this ...             Douglass: Autobiographies (Library of America College Editions)4 reviews Frederick Douglass Library of America, 1996 Every student in America should read this book. + a real eye opener + a real eye opener Fredrick Douglass provides a remarkable look at the daily life of a slave. He explains the mechanisms used to maintain the slave system and how it affected the people involved. Many of his observations about education and economics are still valid. The writing style is not dated or affected. ...