内容简介
Robert Carter III, thegrandson of Tidewater legend Robert “King” Carter, was born intothe highest circles of Virginia’s Colonial aristocracy. He wasneighbor and kin to the Washingtons and Lees and a friend and peerto Thomas Jefferson and George Mason. But on September 5, 1791,Carter severed his ties with this glamorous elite at the stroke ofa pen. In a document he called his Deed of Gift, Carter declaredhis intent to set free nearly five hundred slaves in the largestsingle act of liberation in the history of American slavery beforethe Emancipation Proclamation.
How did Carter succeed in the very action that George Washingtonand Thomas Jefferson claimed they fervently desired but werepowerless to effect? And why has his name all but vanished from theannals of American history? In this haunting, brilliantly originalwork, Andrew Levy traces the confluence of circumstance,conviction, war, and passion that led to Carter’s extraordinaryact.
How did Carter succeed in the very action that George Washingtonand Thomas Jefferson claimed they fervently desired but werepowerless to effect? And why has his name all but vanished from theannals of American history? In this haunting, brilliantly originalwork, Andrew Levy traces the confluence of circumstance,conviction, war, and passion that led to Carter’s extraordinaryact.