Dear Friends,
I am proud to share with you that this book, so long in the making, will be on the shelves in a month. It is the story of the improbable alliance – one white man, one Black man and one white woman – that drove one of the most successful movements in American history – abolition. Until it didn’t. I have been wanting to tell this story since I started writing about American social movements – Victory, Sisters in Law – thirty years ago.
I hope that you will want to order it, pre-order it, pester your local library or bookstore to order it, and that you will find it worth your attention.
So many of you are in a place where you might alert others that the book is coming and worthwhile. I would be so grateful for any coverage you might shine on this wonderful story. The cause was just, the effort Herculean, the characters, including the underappreciated Contessa, are noble and radically imperfect, and the social movement has so much to teach us, even almost two centuries later.
If there is anything I can do to capture your attention for this book, just ... whistle. It's out for review at a bunch of places, I just sent my essay on the lessons we can learn from abolition to the Atlantic for publication. Meanwhile,
David Blight thought it was pretty good:
“Linda Hirshman adroitly shows us that in the celebrated break up between Douglass and Garrison, a pivotal actor was Maria Weston Chapman. A brilliant but intrusive soul, Chapman stood watch over both men from a manager's desk in Boston. Beyond intrigue, though, this book provides a splendid lens into the nature of both the moral and political wings of abolitionism at their turbulent turning point. The ideologies of antislavery emerge here from vivid portraits of these three fascinating and rivalrous characters.” —David W. Blight, Yale University, and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
Trade Review Praise includes:
“Viewing the abolitionist movement from a unique angle, Hirshman shows how the breakdown of the alliance among [activists Frederick Douglass, William Llloyd Garrison, and Maria Weston Chapman] was fueled in part by Douglass’ rising fame, burgeoning dissent among the nation’s political parties, and, not least, Weston Chapman’s aspersions about Douglass’ work ethic and character. A well-researched history of the fraught path to emancipation.”— Kirkus
“By lucidly untangling the abolitionist movement’s complex web of alliances, Hirshman sheds light on the antebellum period and the dynamics of social movements in general. American history buffs will be engrossed.” —Publishers Weekly
Thanks for reading,
Linda