"What to the slave is the Fourth of July?," asked Frederick Douglass in 1852. In Enjoy the Same Liberty, Edward Countryman addresses Douglass's question. He shows how the American Revolution began the world-wide destruction of slavery, how black Americans who seized their chances for freedom during the Revolution changed both themselves and their epoch, and how their heirs, including Douglass, pondered what the Revolution meant for them. Thanks in good part to black people, what began as colonial tax protests became something of far greater significance. But this book also shows how that same Revolution led to an immensely powerful slave society in the South, so strong that destroying it required the cataclysm of the Civil War.

In this cohesive narrative, Edward Countryman explores the American Revolution in the context of the African American experience, asking a question that blacks have raised since the Revolution: What does the revolutionary promise of freedom and democracy mean for African Americans? Countryman, a Bancroft Prize-winning historian, draws on extensive research and primary sources to help him answer this question. He emphasizes the agency of blacks and explores the immense task facing slaves who wanted freedom, as well as looking at the revolutionary nature of abolitionist sentiment. Countryman focuses on how slaves remembered the Revolution and used its rhetoric to help further their cause of freedom. Many contend that it is the American Revolution that defines us as Americans. Edward Countryman gives the reader the chance to explore this notion as it is reflected in the African American experience.

The official comprehensive and definitive history of the Company. Celebrating 450 years of this historic organisation and its members.

Part 1 of a three part series, City of promises : a history of the Jews of New York, Deborah Dash Moore, general editor.

[This book] gives readers [an] introduction to the French Revolution that is also grounded in the latest ... scholarship ... The book presents a succinct narrative of the Revolution.-Back cover. [In this book, the authors] follow a wide range of events, including the social and cultural events as well as the military and political ones. Women's history and gender relations ... have been integrated into the general story.-Pref.