Enjoy the Same Liberty: Black Americans and the Revolutionary Era

by Edward Countryman, Jacqueline M. Moore (Series Editor), Nina Mjagkij (Series Editor)

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 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.

Genres: History, American History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Edward Countryman was an American historian known for his study of the American Revolution.

Reviews

[Mills College Library]

973.30896 C85585 2012

[Michelle Ash · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had the hardest time getting through this book...I can't tell if it was that the way it was written or if I just could not focus every time I picked it up. In any event, I wanted to get more out of it than I did. (And I really would hate it if a book about such a neglected part of early American History wasn't read by some one smarter than I am because of my bad review...so if you're thinking of reading this, please, please, please don't change your mind because of reading what I've written about it)

[Kizzy Gourlay]

Not had a chance to read it yet. But I know Ed was influenced to write it because of the relationship he had with my wonderful Grandmother to whom he dedicated this book. He gave her the first copy he received and she received it just before her husband died in 2012. 35 days after he died she passed on too. At least she got to have her copy before she died. It is a shorter book than most of his "proper" books and from what I have read so far, is written in an easy to read style. Perhaps a good choice for those venturing into Social American History. Enjoy.