New York Burning
Author | : Jill Lepore |
Publisher | : Vintage |
Total Pages | : 423 |
Release | : 2007-12-18 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780307427007 |
ISBN-13 | : 0307427005 |
Rating | : 4/5 (005 Downloads) |
Download or read book New York Burning written by Jill Lepore and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Anisfield-Wolf Award Winner In New York Burning, Bancroft Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore recounts these dramatic events of 1741, when ten fires blazed across Manhattan and panicked whites suspecting it to be the work a slave uprising went on a rampage. In the end, thirteen black men were burned at the stake, seventeen were hanged and more than one hundred black men and women were thrown into a dungeon beneath City Hall. Even back in the seventeenth century, the city was a rich mosaic of cultures, communities and colors, with slaves making up a full one-fifth of the population. Exploring the political and social climate of the times, Lepore dramatically shows how, in a city rife with state intrigue and terror, the threat of black rebellion united the white political pluralities in a frenzy of racial fear and violence.