The Hanging of Thomas Jeremiah: A Free Black Man's Encounter with Liberty

About this book

The tragic untold story of how a nation struggling for its freedom denied it to one of its own: a free Black man "A searing portrayal of the central paradox of the American Revolutionthe centrality of slavery to the struggle for political liberty."Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Harvard University "An insightful reflection and commentary on the vexed relationships among liberty slavery and the British Empire in the era of the Declaration of Independence."Richard D. Brown The Journal of Law and History Review In 1775 Thomas Jeremiah was one of fewer than five hundred Free Negros in South Carolina and with an estimated worth of 1 000 (about $200 000 in todays dollars) possibly the richest person of African descent in British North America. A slaveowner himself Jeremiah was falsely accused by whiteswho resented his success as a Charleston harbor pilotof sowing insurrection among slaves at the behest of the British. Chief among the accusers was Henry Laurens Charlestons leading patriot a slaveowner and former slave trader who would later become the president of the Continental Congress. On the other side was Lord William Campbell royal governor of the colony who passionately believed that the accusation was unjust and tried to save Jeremiahs life but failed. Though a free man Jeremiah was tried in a slave court and sentenced to death. In August 1775 he was hanged and his body burned. J. William Harris tells Jeremiahs story in full for the first time illuminating the contradiction between a nation that would be born in a struggle for freedom and yet deny itoften violentlyto others.