The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832

by Alan Taylor

Book Overview

Frederick Douglass recalled that slaves living along Chesapeake Bay longingly viewed sailing ships as "freedom's swift-winged angels." In 1813 those angels appeared in the bay as British warships coming to punish the Americans for declaring war on the empire. Over many nights, hundreds of slaves paddled out to the warships seeking protection for their families from the ravages of slavery. The runaways pressured the British admirals into becoming...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039334973X
• ISBN13: 9780393349733
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 1.13 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

We need to teach this in school.

Great detailed description of the central role slavery played in the founding of the country. Exposes, through primary contemporaneous sources the hypocrisy of the founding fathers as well as the religious members of society in justifying enslaving people while crying for their own "freedom" from "British "oppression". Amazing.