When President George Washington ordered an army of about 13,000 men to march west in 1794 to crush a tax rebellion among frontier farmers, he established a range of precedents that continue to define federal authority over localities today. The "Whiskey Rebellion" marked the first large-scale resistance to a law of the U.S. government under the Constitution and represented the first exercise of the internal police powers of the president. It was a classic confrontation between champions of liberty and defenders of order, and was long considered the most significant event in the first quarter-century of the new nation. Thomas P. Slaughter recaptures the historical drama and significance of this violent episode in which frontier West and cosmopolitan East battled over the meaning of the American Revolution. The story of the Whiskey Rebellion has previously been told from the top down, the bottom up, and from the frontier perspective. But never before has a historian recounted these events within the broader political, social, and intellectual contexts of the time, incorporating all these themes into one accessible narrative that reaches back as far as the 1750's for relevant contexts and forward into the nineteenth century and even the Civil War to explore the consequences of the rebellion. This book is the first to assess the rebellion's interregional tensions, international diplomacy, and much more. The book not only offers the broadest and most comprehensive account of the Whiskey Rebellion ever written, but also challenges conventional understandings of the Revolutionary era. It is a work of social, political, and intellectual history that makes a significant contribution to the the "new narrative history." About the Author: Thomas P. Slaughter is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University.

The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution

History

Slaughter, Thomas P.

Americas

Oxford University Press

When four young men, slaves on Edward Gorsuch's Maryland farm, escaped to rural Pennsylvania in 1849, the owner swore he'd bring them back. Two years later, Gorsuch lay dead outside the farmhouse in Christiana where he'd tracked them down, as his federal posse retreated pell-mell before the armed might of local blacks--and the impact of the most notorious act of resistance against the federal Fugitive Slave Law was about to be felt across a divided nation. Bloody Dawn vividly tells this dramatic story of escape, manhunt, riot, and the ensuing trial, detailing its importance in heightening the tensions that led to the Civil War. Thomas Slaughter's engaging narrative captures the full complexity of events and personalities: The four men fled after they were detected stealing grain for resale off the farm; Gorsuch, far from a brutal taskmaster, had pledged to release all his slaves when they reached the age of twenty-eight, but he relentlessly pursued the escapees out of a sense of wounded honor; and the African-American community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania that provided them refuge was already effectively organized for self-defense by a commanding former slave named William Parker. Slaughter paints a rich portrait of the ongoing struggles between local blacks and white kidnapping gangs, the climactic riot as neighbors responded to trumpet calls from the besieged runaway slaves, the escape to Canada of the central figures (aided by Frederick Douglass), and the government's urgent response (including the largest mass indictment for treason in our history)--leading to the trial for his life of a local white bystander accused of leading the rioting blacks. Slaughter not only draws out the great importance given to the riot in both the North and the South, but he uses legal records reaching back over half a century to uncover the thoughts of average people on race, slavery, and violence. The Whiskey Rebellion, Slaughter's previous work of history, received widespread acclaim as "a vivid account" (The New York Times) and "an unusual combination of meticulous scholarship and engaging narrative" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). It was a selection of the History Book Club, and won both the National Historical Society Book Prize and the American Revolution Round Table Award. In Bloody Dawn, he once again weaves together the incisive insights of a professional historian with a gripping account of a dramatic moment in American history.

Bloody Dawn: The Christiana Riot and Racial Violence in the Antebellum North

When four young men, slaves on Edward Gorsuch's Maryland farm, escaped to rural Pennsylvania in 1849, the owner swore he'd bring them back. Two years later, Gorsuch lay dead outside the farmhouse in Christiana where he'd tracked them down, as his federal posse retreated pell-mell before the armed might of local blacks--and the impact of the most notorious act of resistance against the federal Fugitive Slave Law was about to be felt across a divided nation. Bloody Dawn vividly tells this dramatic story of escape, manhunt, riot, and the ensuing trial, detailing its importance in heightening the tensions that led to the Civil War. Thomas Slaughter's engaging narrative captures the full complexity of events and personalities: The four men fled after they were detected stealing grain for resale off the farm; Gorsuch, far from a brutal taskmaster, had pledged to release all his slaves when they reached the age of twenty-eight, but he relentlessly pursued the escapees out of a sense of wounded honor; and the African-American community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania that provided them refuge was already effectively organized for self-defense by a commanding former slave named William Parker. Slaughter paints a rich portrait of the ongoing struggles between local blacks and white kidnapping gangs, the climactic riot as neighbors responded to trumpet calls from the besieged runaway slaves, the escape to Canada of the central figures (aided by Frederick Douglass), and the government's urgent response (including the largest mass indictment for treason in our history)--leading to the trial for his life of a local white bystander accused of leading the rioting blacks. Slaughter not only draws out the great importance given to the riot in both the North and the South, but he uses legal records reaching back over half a century to uncover the thoughts of average people on race, slavery, and violence. The Whiskey Rebellion, Slaughter's previous work of history, received widespread acclaim as "a vivid account" (The New York Times) and "an unusual combination of meticulous scholarship and engaging narrative" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). It was a selection of the History Book Club, and won both the National Historical Society Book Prize and the American Revolution Round Table Award. In Bloody Dawn, he once again weaves together the incisive insights of a professional historian with a gripping account of a dramatic moment in American history.

When President George Washington ordered an army of 13,000 men to march west in 1794 to crush a tax rebellion among frontier farmers, he established a range of precedents that continues to define federal authority over localities today. The "Whiskey Rebellion" marked the first large-scale resistance to a law of the U.S. government under the Constitution. This classic confrontation between champions of liberty and defenders of order was long considered the most significant event in the first quarter-century of the new nation. Thomas P. Slaughter recaptures the historical drama and significance of this violent episode in which frontier West and cosmopolitan East battled over the meaning of the American Revolution. The book not only offers the broadest and most comprehensive account of the Whiskey Rebellion ever written, taking into account the political, social and intellectual contexts of the time, but also challenges conventional understandings of the Revolutionary era.

The Jesuit Relations and Common Sense: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America

Greer, Allan

Bedford/St.Martin's

America A Concise History 2e Volume 1 and Reading the American Past 2e Volume 1: and Common Sense

Johnson, Michael P.

America A Concise History 2e Volume 1 and Reading the American Past 2e Volume 1: and Common Sense and Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

The Common Sense and Sovereignty & the Goodness of God: by Mary Rowlandson with Related Documents

Salisbury, Neal

Rowlandson, Mary

The Common Sense and 1912 Election & the Power of Progressivism and William Lloyd: Garrison and Cesar Chavez and A Pocket Guide to Writing in History 4e

Cain, William E.

Flehinger, Brett

Etulain, Richard W.

Garrison, William Lloyd

Rampolla, Mary Lynn.

America A Concise History 3e V1 & Sovereignty and the Goodness of God & Jesuit Relations & Cherokee Removal 2e & Common Sense

Dumenil, Lynn

Henretta, James A.

Perdue, Theda

GREEN, MICHAEL

Brody, David

Greer, Alan

Paine, Thomas)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Slaughter, Thomas P.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Slaughter, Thomas P.