An important new interpretation of the American colonists' 150-year struggle to achieve independence"What do we mean by the Revolution?" John Adams asked Thomas Jefferson in 1815. "The war? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an effect and consequence of it." As the distinguished historian Thomas P. Slaughter shows in this landmark book, the long process of revolution reached back more than a century before 1776, and it touched on virtually every aspect of the colonies' laws, commerce, social structures, religious sentiments, family ties, and political interests. And Slaughter's comprehensive work makes clear that the British who chose to go to North America chafed under imperial rule from the start, vigorously disputing many of the colonies' founding charters.When the British said the Americans were typically "independent," they meant to disparage them as lawless and disloyal. But the Americans insisted on their moral courage and political principles, and regarded their independence as a great virtue, as they regarded their love of freedom and their loyalty to local institutions. Over the years, their struggles to define this independence took many forms, and Slaughter's compelling narrative takes us from New England and Nova Scotia to New York and Pennsylvania, and south to the Carolinas, as colonists resisted unsympathetic royal governors, smuggled to evade British duties on imported goods (tea was only one of many), and, eventually, began to organize for armed uprisings.Britain, especially after its victories over France in the 1750s, was eager to crush these rebellions, but the Americans' opposition only intensified, as did dark conspiracy theories about their enemies―whether British, Native American, or French.In Independence, Slaughter resets and clarifies the terms in which we may understand this remarkable evolution, showing how and why a critical mass of colonists determined that they could not be both independent and subject to the British Crown. By 1775–76, they had become revolutionaries―going to war only reluctantly, as a last-ditch means to preserve the independence that they cherished as a birthright.

Product Description: JohnWoolman was one of the most significant Americans of the eighteenth century, though he was not a famous politician, general, scientist, or man of letters, and he never held public office. This superb book makes it clear why he mattered so much...read more

Explores the lives of the early American naturalists John Bartram and his son William

A fascinating account of the famed expedition draws on the personal journals of the explorers themselves to re-examine their odyssey in light of the cultural prejudices and goals of Lewis and Clark, offers profiles of Sacajawea and York, Clark's slave, and discusses the meaning and impact of the journey. Reprint. 17,500 first printing.

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The first ever collection of the writings and drawings of the early American naturalist William Bartram includes his essays and articles on his travels through the the American South, reports on the wildlife of the region, and studies of the native peoples of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.

Product Description: When four young men, slaves on Edward Gorsuch's Maryland farm, escaped to rural Pennsylvania in 1849, the owner swore he'd bring them back. Two years later, Gorsuch lay dead outside the farmhouse in Christiana where he'd tracked them down, as his federal posse retreated pell-mell before the armed might of local blacks--and the impact of the most notorious act of resistance against the federal Fugitive Slave Law was about to be felt across a divided nation...read more

Recounts the first serious threat to the American Constitution, discusses its origins in interregional tensions, and describes how President Washington handled the crisis (view table of contents)