Customer Reviews

The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741: Slavery, Crime, and Colonial Law (Landmark Law Cases & American Society)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In the relative absence of recent works on the subject, this is a welcomed addition and worth reading. However, it is poorly written and will certainly be surpassed by future efforts. The historical narrative is disjointed and uneven, marked far too often by a sneering tone rather than an attempt to comprehend the people and times of which the author writes. Where he does make an attempt to explore their thought-processes and assumptions, one is very often left wondering what caused him to come to his conclusions, which are presented as if written in stone. One never escapes an awareness that the author is very much a child of a particular culture and era, one never is drawn by the book into the culture and era being portrayed. Further, his actual objective seems less to reveal the events and the era mentioned in the title than to score polemical points in our modern era by tenuously and adsurdly linking responses to modern terrorism to the slave trials. The book begins and ends with this. With the wealth of information available on these events, one can only hope that a more unbiased and perceptive historian one whose objective is historical rather than polemical, will take up the challenge of writing a definitive narrative in the near future.

For any teacher or Professor that is thinking of using this book as a basis for an essay. Do not use it. If it is the topic you want, then I encourage you to find another source. Although this book may be of interest to you, for any student reading this book it seemes like long, repeated facts. Especially if the students are not interrested in the topic. Prof. Hoffer presents a good argument, but it seems like a constant flashback of events. The time line is all over the place and it is very hard to read and follow along. If you still want to use it, I encourage you to assign chapters then discuss them for a brief period of time in the class room, this will give some students the ability to reflect upon the facts and ideas presented in the book.

As usual, Peter Hoffer provides his readers with a gracefully written look at a intriquing but little known moment in our nation's past. And, as is true of his other studies, his work on the NY Conspiracy is thought-provoking and placed intelligently in context so that both the small picture and the large picture can be appreciated. Though intended for professional historians and graduate students, lay readers and undergraduates can enjoy--and profit--from this work.