The Untold Story of Shields Green : : The Life and Death of a Harper's Ferry Raider / / Louis A. Decaro Jr.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2020 English
• VerfasserIn: Decaro Jr., Louis A.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource :; 14 b/w illustrations

Explores the life of Shields Green, one of the black men who followed John Brown to Harper’s Ferry in 1859When John Brown decided to raid the federal armory in Harper’s Ferry as the starting point of his intended liberation effort in the South, some closest to him thought it was unnecessary and dangerous. Frederick Douglass, a pioneering abolitionist, refused Brown’s invitation to join him in Virginia, believing that the raid on the armory was a suicide mission. Yet in front of Douglass, “Emperor” Shields Green, a fugitive from South Carolina, accepted John Brown’s invitation. When the raid failed, Emperor was captured with the rest of Brown’s surviving men and hanged on December 16, 1859. “Emperor” Shields Green was a critical member of John Brown’s Harper’s Ferry raiders but has long been overlooked. Louis DeCaro, Jr., a veteran scholar of John Brown, presents the first effort to tell Emperor’s story based upon extensive research, restoring him to his rightful place in this fateful raid at the origin of the American Civil War. Starting from his birth in Charleston, South Carolina, Green’s life as an abolitionist freedom-fighter, whose passion for the liberation of his people outweighed self-preservation, is extensively detailed in this compact history. In The Untold Story of Shields Green, Emperor pushes back against racism and injustice and stands in his rightful place as an antislavery figure alongside Frederick Douglass and John Brown.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- 1 Emperor Mysterious: To Find the Man Who Lived -- 2 Emperor Enlisted -- 3 Emperor among the “Invisibles”: Maryland, 1859 -- 4 The Raid and the Black Witness -- 5 Alias Emperor -- 6 Emperor Seen: Image and Identity -- Epilogue: Legacy, Relic, Legend -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- About the Author