The Town That Started the Civil War The True Story of the Community That Stood Up to Slavery--and Changed a Nation Forever

by BRANDT, NAT

• ISBN13: 9780440503965
• ISBN10: 0440503965
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1991-07-01
• Publisher: Delta

Summary

On a crisp autumn day in Ohio, 1858, two Kentucky slave hunters were closing in on a runaway slave named John Price. Federal law said they had the right to bring the man back across state lines. But to the people of Oberlin, Ohio, the law was wrong -- and they were willing to prove it with their sweat and blood.

Author Biography

Nat Brandt was born in New York City in 1929. He is a veteran journalist for CBS News and The New York Times, former managing editor of The American Heritage Dictionary, and former editor in chief of Publishers Weekly. Brandt is also an accomplished American history novelist whose work includes the book The Man Who Tried to Burn New York, which won the Douglas Southall Freeman History Award.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Cast of Characters	p. xvii
The Slave and the Student	p. 3
The Law	p. 13
"Nigger" Town	p. 25
The Man-Stealers	p. 50
Ambush	p. 61
To the Rescue	p. 68
The Rescue	p. 87
"From Snowy White to Sooty"	p. 112
Legal Maneuvers, Politics as Usual	p. 131
The Case Against the White Clerk	p. 143
The Case Against the Black Schoolteacher	p. 166
"A Common Humanity"	p. 183
"Wightman's Castle"	p. 191
The Rally and the Ruling	p. 203
"I Was in Prison, and Ye Came unto Me"	p. 216
Aftermath	p. 238
Epilogue	p. 261
Notes	p. 267
Bibliography	p. 297
Index	p. 307
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.