After its early introduction into the English colonies in North America, slavery in the United States lasted as a legal institution until the passage... of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.  But increasingly during the contested politics of the early republic, abolitionists cried out that the Constitution itself was a slaveowners’ document, produced to protect and further their rights. A Slaveholders’ Union furthers this unsettling claim by demonstrating once and for all that slavery was indeed an essential part of the foundation of the nascent republic.In this powerful book, George William Van Cleve demonstrates that the Constitution was pro-slavery in its politics, its economics, and its law. He convincingly shows that the Constitutional provisions protecting slavery were much more than mere “political” compromises—they were integral to the principles of the new nation. By the late 1780s, a majority of Americans wanted to create a strong federal republic that would be capable of expanding into a continental empire. In order for America to become an empire on such a scale, Van Cleve argues, the Southern states had to be willing partners in the endeavor, and the cost of their allegiance was the deliberate long-term protection of slavery by America’s leaders through the nation’s early expansion. Reconsidering the role played by the gradual abolition of slavery in the North, Van Cleve also shows that abolition there was much less progressive in its origins—and had much less influence on slavery’s expansion—than previously thought.Deftly interweaving historical and political analyses, A Slaveholders’ Union will likely become the definitive explanation of slavery’s persistence and growth—and of its influence on American constitutional development—from the Revolutionary War through the Missouri Compromise of 1821.

Paul Jennings was born into slavery on the plantation of James and Dolley Madison in Virginia, later becoming part of the Madison household staff at the... White House. Once finally emancipated by Senator Daniel Webster later in life, he would give an aged and impoverished Dolley Madison, his former owner, money from his own pocket, write the first White House memoir, and see his sons fight with the Union Army in the Civil War. He died a free man in northwest Washington at 75. Based on correspondence, legal documents, and journal entries rarely seen before, this amazing portrait of the times reveals the mores and attitudes toward slavery of the nineteenth century, and sheds new light on famous characters such as James Madison, who believed the white and black populations could not coexist as equals; French General Lafayette who was appalled by this idea; Dolley Madison, who ruthlessly sold Paul after her husband's death; and many other since forgotten slaves, abolitionists, and civil right activists.

Slave narratives, some of the most powerful records of our past, are extremely rare, with only fifty-five post–Civil War narratives surviving. A mere... handful are first-person accounts by slaves who ran away and freed themselves. Now two newly uncovered narratives, and the biographies of the men who wrote them, join that exclusive group with the publication of A Slave No More, a major new addition to the canon of American history. Handed down through family and friends, these narratives tell gripping stories of escape: Through a combination of intelligence, daring, and sheer luck, the men reached the protection of the occupying Union troops. David W. Blight magnifies the drama and significance by prefacing the narratives with each man’s life history. Using a wealth of genealogical information, Blight has reconstructed their childhoods as sons of white slaveholders, their service as cooks and camp hands during the Civil War, and their climb to black working-class stability in the north, where they reunited their families. In the stories of Turnage and Washington, we find history at its most intimate, portals that offer a rich new answer to the question of how four million people moved from slavery to freedom. In A Slave No More, the untold stories of two ordinary men take their place at the heart of the American experience.

The dramatic development of European oak chronologies over the last ten years parallels and supplements the bristlecone-pine chronology in the United... States. Dendrochronologists can now provide a wood sample - a time capsule of biological material - for any calender date over the last seven millennia from two continents. For archaeologists, resigned to the imprecision of radiocarbon dating, the implications are profound. For the first time it is possible to establish precise dates for prehistoric events. Similarly, we have an independent and scientifically objective way of testing historical accounts, such as the traditional Egyptian chronology. Equally fundamental are the insights provided by the related disciplines of dendroecology and dendroclimatology. The Bronze Age eruption of Santorini and the AD 540 `event' are explored as fascinating case studies. Drawing on a further decade of research by himself and others, Mike Baille not only brings the pre-1980 story up to date, but demonstrates the wide and exciting applications of this comparatively new science.

It is 1947, and the long-retired Sherlock Holmes, now 93, lives in a remote Sussex farmhouse with his housekeeper and her young son. He tends to his... bees, writes in his journal, and grapples with the diminishing powers of his mind. But in the twilight of his life, as people continue to look to him for answers, Holmes revisits a case that may provide him with answers of his own to questions he didn’t even know he was asking–about life, about love, and about the limits of the mind’s ability to know. A novel of exceptional grace and literary sensitivity, A Slight Trick of the Mind is a brilliant imagining of our greatest fictional detective and a stunning inquiry into the mysteries of human connection.

This volume on the changing status of the artist in the early modern period draws on case studies to explore and question the notion that the later 15th... and 16th centuries witnessed the emergence of the modern idea of the artist.

"O for a muse of napalm..."Years in the making, As Long As It's Big is a stunning and unique poetic achievement. By turns rollicking, funny, and deeply... moving, this dramatic poem tells a tragic story -- the collapse of a marriage after the suicide of a child -- within the topsy-turvy venue of a divorce court ruled by an alternately cynical and sentimental judge. John Bricuth cleanly balances sensitive portrayals of painful lives with hilarity, chaos, and occasionally ribald caricatures. Hugely entertaining and immensely readable, Bricuth's verse narrative will absorb anyone seeking to unravel the truths of modern family life.

Although coverage chronologically spans from prehistory to the present, the emphasis is on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is written in a... readable, flowing manner and is deeply rooted in native traditions and lore. The title is a reference to a message sent by President Andrew Jackson to the Choctaws and Chickasaws indicating that, as a friend, he planned to move the people to the Trans-Mississippi West to "land of their own, which they shall possess as long as grass grows or water runs."

Starting in the 1800s and continuing into the 20th century, First Nations children were forcibly taken to government-sponsored residential schools to... erase their traditional languages and cultures. This moving book tells of one such child, author Larry Loyie, and his last summer with his Cree tribe. It is a time of learning and adventure. He cares for an abandoned baby owl, watches his grandmother make winter moccasins, and sees her kill a huge grizzly with one shot. The sensitive text and Heather Holmlund's expressive illustrations beautifully capture the joy and drama of a First Nations family's last summer together.

From the accomplished memoirist and former Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario comes a first novel of incredible heart and spirit for every Canadian.The... novel follows one girl, Martha, from the Cat Lake First Nation in Northern Ontario who is "stolen" from her family at the age of six and flown far away to residential school. She doesn't speak English but is punished for speaking her native language; most terrifying and bewildering, she is also "fed" to the school's attendant priest with an attraction to little girls.Ten long years later, Martha finds her way home again, barely able to speak her native tongue. The memories of abuse at the residential school are so strong that she tries to drown her feelings in drink, and when she gives birth to her beloved son, Spider, he is taken away by Children's Aid to Toronto. In time, she has a baby girl, Raven, whom she decides to leave in the care of her mother while she braves the bewildering strangeness of the big city to find her son and bring him home.From the Hardcover edition.

A collection of four one kilobyte games for the Atari Video Computer System, one for each season, about the experience of observing things. Neither... action nor strategy, each game requires a different kind of sedate observation and methodical input. Accompanying the game are two essays about the commonalities between videogames and poetry, as well as 1024 machined haiku, poetry generated by computer, 8 bits worth for each season.

Like all verse, ASL poetry opens the mind to the richness of language, inspiring an appreciation of expressiveness, nuance, and cultural significance.... ASL Poetry: Selected Works of Clayton Valli, gives teachers an exciting way to awaken students to the splendor of ASL. New on DVD! Read Valli's personal account of becoming an ASL poet-"Valli's Story," an excerpt from Valli's unfinished manuscript accompanied by a video clip of the ASL phrase that opened Valli's eyes to the creative use of ASL. Organized to allow easier access to each poem! The video material is presented with a new interface perfect for studying individual poems.
Native signers of all ages performing Valli's works; Clips of Valli in a Video Letter, explaining terms that apply to ASL poetry like stanza, meter, initialized handshapes, and numerical handshapes; Poetic features, highlighting parts of poems and demonstrating what makes them uniquely poetic. Use ASL Poetry in ways you never thought of before-for practice, inspiration, insight, sheer joy in language beautifully expressed, and hours of viewing pleasure! Clayton Valli (1951-2003) was one of his generation's foremost innovators of ASL poetics. A professor of Linguistics and Interpreting at Gallaudet University, Valli's seminal research uncovered the principles of ASL poetry - principles common to all forms of poetry. This DVD stands as a tribute to Valli's pride in his signed language and his love of its creative possibilities.