Table of Contents

Prologue: The Trials of William Lee: A Life in the Age of Revolution
1: Equiano's World: The British Atlantic Empire in 1763
2: Richard's Cup: Slavery and the Coming of the Revolution
3: The Transformation of Colonel Tye: Black Combatants and the War
4: Quok Walker's Suit: Emancipation in the North
5: Absalom's "Meritorious Service": Antislavery in the Upper South
6: Captain Vesey's Cargo: Continuity in the Carolinas and Caribbean
7: Mum Bett Takes a Name: The Emergence of Free Black Communities
8: Harry Washington's Atlantic Crossings: The Migrations of Black Loyalists
9: A Suspicion Only: Racism in the Early Republic
10: Eli Whitney's Cotton Engine: The Expansion of Slavery
11: General Gabriel's Flag: Unsuccessful Coda to the American Revolution

About the Author

Douglas R. Egerton is Joseph C. Georg Professor of History at Le Moyne College. His books include Year of Meteors: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War.

Reviews

"This rich volume focuses on the 'Age of Revolution' through the experiences of enslaved and free Africans and African Americans in North America...Death or Liberty by Douglas Egerton provides an overview of the much-neglected topic of the black experience in early America."--Journal of African American History
"Reflecting broad research and reading, these musings from a mature historian of early America advance fresh perspectives that both clarify and complicate our understanding of the distinct radical dynamics and values at the nation's start."--Thomas J. Davis, Publishers Weekly
"The monumental accomplishments of Founding Fathers like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington seem trivial in comparison to what many of their African American contemporaries achieved. Seizing the unprecedented opportunities presented by the Revolutionary War, thousands of enslaved Americans--including slaves owned by Jefferson and Washington--made their own declarations of independence and undertook the arduous and perilous journey from slave to freedom.
Now, for the first time, the scores of recent investigations of black participation in the American Revolution have been synthesized into an elegant and seamless narrative. In Death or Liberty--a title
taken not from Patrick Henry but from a participant in Gabriel's Rebellion in 1800--Douglas Egerton shows that African Americans not only extracted the most liberty from the Revolutionary experience but also paid the highest price for it."--Woody Holton, University of Richmond
"Slowly, American understanding of the vital Revolutionary era is becoming more open, subtle, and realistic. Douglas Egerton's suggestive book uses real lives to weave surprising new threads into this familiar old flag."--Peter H. Wood, author of Strange New Land: Africans in Colonial America
"In this highly readable account Douglas Egerton weaves together the stories of black and white men and women in a seamless and deeply human telling of the American Revolutionary war. Even scholars familiar with the subject matter will find fresh and original insights on virtually every aspect of American Revolutionary history."--Sylvia R. Frey, author of Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age
"Egerton...has combined his own research with a wealth of scholarship to create a learned and persuasive synthesis."--New England Quarterly
"A brilliant synthesis of African American struggles for freedom between 1763 and 1800...Sparkles with insight."--Reviews in American History
"This book offers an engaging and persuasive view that, on balance, the American Revolution was a disillusioning failure for the Africans and African Americans who struggled to make it meaningful for themselves."--American Historical Review
"[A]n important work...[I]t draws together the vast body of literature on this subject and provides a coherent narrative that scholars of the revolutionary era cannot afford to ignore."--Journal of American History
"Offers new revelations to readers familiar with the field, even as it provides a lucid and informative introduction to those not deeply immersed in it...Learned, textured, and sobering."--Common-place