Freeing Charles: The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War (New Black Studies Series) [Hardcover]

Scott Christianson (Author)

Book Description

Series: New Black Studies Series | Publication Date: January 22, 2010

Freeing Charles recounts the life and epic rescue of captured fugitive slave Charles Nalle of Culpeper, Virginia, who was forcibly liberated by Harriet Tubman and others in Troy, New York, on April 27, 1860. Scott Christianson follows Nalle from his enslavement by the Hansborough family in Virginia through his escape by the Underground Railroad and his experiences in the North on the eve of the Civil War. This engaging narrative represents the first in-depth historical study of this crucial incident, one of the fiercest anti-slavery riots after Harpers Ferry. Christianson also presents a richly detailed look at slavery culture in antebellum Virginia and probes the deepest political and psychological aspects of this epic tale. His account underscores fundamental questions about racial inequality, the rule of law, civil disobedience, and violent resistance to slavery in the antebellum North and South.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

On the eve of the civil war, in 1860 in Troy, New York, a group of blacks and whites, including Harriet Tubman, struggled to free Charles Nalle from slave hunters sent to return him to bondage in Virginia. Nalle, a man of mixed race, so fair-skinned he could have passed for white but didn’t, had escaped slavery because he feared that his heavily indebted master planned to sell him. His wife and children, emancipated on their master’s death, had already moved to nearby Washington, D.C. Nalle had hoped to eventually reunite with his family in Canada. Christianson sets Nalle’s rescue in the broader context of slave escapes, the Underground Railroad, the abolition movement, and questions of civil disobedience. The Nalle incident occurred a few months after John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry and tested convictions of the black and white citizens of Troy in challenging the Fugitive Slave Law. Christianson explores the complications of the law, and he captures the drama of Nalle’s escape and attempted recapture and the complexities of citizens willing to defy the law for a higher principle. --Vanessa Bush

Review

 "Christianson explores the complications of the law, and he captures the drama of Nalle’s escape and attempted recapture and the complexities of citizens willing to defy the law for a higher principle."--Booklist

 "A thoughtful biography."--The Journal of Southern History

"Christianson's beautifully written story of fugitive slave Charles Nalle's dramatic escape, recapture, and then rescue is one of the long forgotten yet incredibly important events in our nation's history. Christianson serves up history like a master storyteller: a great dose of drama, tragedy, triumph, love, illicit sex, and a cast of characters that will surprise and delight."--Kate Clifford Larson, author of Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero

"Extensively researched and finely analyzed, Freeing Charles tells the gripping story of a fugitive slave rescue that has largely escaped our attention until now."--Richard J. M. Blackett, author of Divided Hearts: Britain and the American Civil War

"In this magnificently conceived and subtly rendered book, Christianson not only brings to life the men and women of the Underground Railroad as they carry out one of the most dramatic rescues of a fugitive slave on record, he also guides us unflinchingly along the heartbreaking fault line of racial relations that warped life in America--in both the North and the South--in the age of slavery."--Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Bound for Canaan: The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press; 1st Edition edition (January 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252034392
• ISBN-13: 978-0252034398
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,426,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As captivating to read as it is scholarly and historical, June 12, 2010

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Freeing Charles: The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War (New Black Studies Series) (Paperback)

Freeing Charles: The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War is an extraordinary chronicle of escaped slave Charles Nalle of Culpeper, Virginia, who was freed through force by Harriet Tubman and others. Freeing Charles portrays how he escaped through the Underground Railroad shortly before the American Civil War, and his encounters in the North. The entire incident involved one of the most severe anti-slavery riots outside of Harpers Ferry. Freeing Charles is more than a dry historical rendition; author Scott Christianson also portrays the slavery culture in Virginia, and the political and psychological forces driving Charles' dramatic true story. A snapshot of the borderline between rule of law and violent opposition to the culture of slavery, Freeing Charles is as captivating to read as it is scholarly and historical. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Freeing Charles, August 3, 2010

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dee - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Freeing Charles: The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War (New Black Studies Series) (Paperback)

This book was just too 'text book' and the print very small, for me to enjoy reading. I couldn't get past the first 60-70 pages, so I donated the book.

5.0 out of 5 stars One book says it all., June 11, 2011

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K. Schermerhorn (Delhi, New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Freeing Charles: The Struggle to Free a Slave on the Eve of the Civil War (New Black Studies Series) (Paperback)

I loved this book. It not only tells a specific story about Charles, but it provides general background in a well done way that gives someone newer to Slaves escaping/their attempts that could be applied to many similar situations of the day. It's so well written, I could easily see someone producing a movie based on this book. Harriet Tubman also shows up in this story and it gives you a great glimpse of the essence of who she was and the devotion she had to her mission on the Underground Railroad.