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Empire of necessity slavery, freedom, and deception in the New World

"One morning in 1805, off a remote island in the South Pacific, Captain Amasa Delano, a New England seal hunter, climbed aboard a distressed Spanish ship carrying scores of West Africans he thought were slaves. They weren't. In fact, they were performing an elaborate ruse, having risen up earlier an...

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Main Author: Grandin, Greg, 1962-
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Picador, 2015.
Edition:1st Picador ed.
Subjects:
Delano, Amasa, > 1763-1823.
Slavery > South America > History > 19th century.
Slave trade > South America > History > 19th century.
Slave insurrections > South America > History > 19th century.
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Summary:"One morning in 1805, off a remote island in the South Pacific, Captain Amasa Delano, a New England seal hunter, climbed aboard a distressed Spanish ship carrying scores of West Africans he thought were slaves. They weren't. In fact, they were performing an elaborate ruse, having risen up earlier and slaughtered most of the crew and officers. When Delano, an idealistic, anti-slavery republican, finally realized the deception--the men and women he thought were humble slaves were actually running the ship--he rallied his crew to respond with explosive violence. Drawing on research from four continents, The Empire of Necessity is the untold history of this extraordinary event and its bloody aftermath. Delano's blindness that day has already inspired one masterpiece--Heman Melville's Benito Cerano. Now historian Greg Grandin returns to these dramatic events to paint an indelible portrait of a world in the throes of revolution, providing a new transitional history of slavery in the Americas--and capturing the clash of peoples, economies, and faiths that was the New World in the early 1800's." -- Provided by Publisher.
Physical Description:360 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., maps ; 21 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9781250062109 (pbk.)
0805094539 (pbk.)
1250062101
9780805094534
1429943173
9781429943178
1780744102
9781780744100
Author Notes:Greg Grandin is the author of The End of the Myth , which won the Pulitzer Prize, and Fordlandia , a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His widely acclaimed books also include The Last Colonial Massacre , Kissinger's Shadow , and The Empire of Necessity , which won the Bancroft and Beveridge awards in American history. He is Peter V. and C. Van Woodward Professor of History at Yale University.

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