Table of Contents

Prologue: Founding
Part One: Slavery and Revolution
1. Disruptions
2. Rising Stars
3. Negotiations
4. Nation-Building
5. Mastering Paradox
6. Sharing the Flame
Part Two: Abolitionism
7. Joining Forces
8. A Conservative on the Inside
9. Breaking Ranks
10. The Condition of Free People of Color
11. Soul and Nation
Part Three: Emancipation
12. Uncompromised
13. Parting Shots
14. Civil Wars
15. Reconstructed
Epilogue: Reckoning

About the Author

David N. Gellman is Professor of History at DePauw University. He is the author of Emancipating New York, coauthor of American Odysseys, and coeditor of Jim Crow New York.

Reviews

Scrupulously documented and lucidly written, this is an eye-opening look at the complex legacy of slavery in America.
*Publishers Weekly*

Gellman is a crisp writer who directs both his central characters and his large supporting cast with clarity and economy without sacrificing intellectual heft or moral complexity.
*The Wall Street Journal*

Gellman's account kept this reviewer—admittedly not always an enthusiastic reader of studies about white founders—engrossed to the very last page.
*William & Mary Quarterly*

David N. Gellman Liberty's Chain is an elegantly written study of slavery across several generations of the Jay family of New York, which offers an important intervention into several literatures on race and slavery in U.S. history.
*Journal of the Early Republic*

This long and detailed study of the Jay family of New York focuses on their attitudes and actions regarding race and slavery. Gellman has done a masterful research job, seemingly reading every document written by or about a Jay; if you are interested in the Jays, it is must-read.
*Anglican and Episcopal History*