The Great Stain: Witnessing American Slavery

Description

The Great Stain tells the story of American slavery from its origins in Africa to its abolition with the end of the Civil War. In this `essential' (Kirkus) new work, Noel Rae integrates first-hand accounts into a narrative history that brings the reader face-to-face with slavery's everyday reality, expertly weaving together narratives that span hundreds of years. From the travel journals of sixteenth-century Spanish settlers who offered religious instruction and `protection' in exchange for farm labor, to the diaries of poetess Phillis Wheatley and Reverend Cotton Mather, to Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted's book about traveling through the `cotton states,' Rae provides a comprehensive accounting of parties from throughout the antebellum history of the nation. Most significant are the texts from and interviews with former slaves themselves, ranging from the famous Solomon Northup to the virtually unknown Mary Reynolds, sold away from her mother and subsequently bought back because after losing her daughter the family's wet nurse began to waste away from grief. Surpassing a dispassionate listing of atrocities, Rae places the reader within the era. Drawing on thousands of original sources, The Great Stain tells of repression and resistance in a society based on the exploitation of the cheapest labor and fallacies of racial superiority. Meticulously researched, this is a work of history that is profoundly relevant to our world today.

NOEL RAE is an historian who received an honours degree in history from Oxford University. His books include People's War: Original Voices of the American Revolution and Witnessing America: the Library of Congress Book of Firsthand Accounts of Life in America, which was #1 on the Washington Post's political bestseller list.

`Noel Rae expertly assembles the most consequenti al accounts from the era of the American slave trade. Drawing on a wide range of sources, he frames a vivid and comprehensive picture of a period in American history about which many only have a vague understanding' -- Ibram X. Kendi, Nati onal Book Award-winning author of Stamped From the Beginning: The Definiti ve History of Racist Ideas in America