The World of Thomas Jeremiah

The author's greatest success is finally putting to bed the idea that South Carolina's patriot leaders were able to conduct their revolution almost entirely as they wished. Here we see them desperately trying to manage the demands of artisans and sea captains at the same time as they struggled with the inherent contradictions that arose when a group of slaveholders joined a movement whose purpose was to seek liberty from an oppressor. --Labor [S]uperbly researched and argued. --The South Carolina Historical Magazine Ryan has created a work that gets to the heart of revolutionary movements. His study reveals the divisions and social stresses in the southern colonies, delves into the psychology of slaveholders in pre-revolutionary Charleston, highlights the dilemmas of the free and enslaved laborers in the Low Country of South Carolina, and determines the motivations of those who participated in the Revolution. As such, it will be of interest to sociologists, political scientists, cultural studies scholars, and historians alike. --Journal of Interdisciplinary History There have been a number of books published about colonial and revolutionary South Carolina. However, not since Richard Walsh's Charleston's Sons of Liberty (1959) has a scholar so effectively dealt with the city's underclasses and their relationship with the colony's ruling elite. Ryan not only enters the world of Thomas Jeremiah effectively, but he convinces the reader that Jeremiah and his world had a tremendous impact on the wealthiest elite in colonial America. --Walter B. Edgar, University of South Carolina This is an important, interesting, informative, well researched, and well-conceived book. It is concrete, using sources which bring the early years of the American Revolution in and near Charleston to life. It has several important strengths. It leaves the usual New England focus behind. It emphasizes the racial, class, and regional dimensions of the American Revolution in the Southeast, emphasizing the strength of Afro-Americans within the context of demography and their maritime skills, especially as pilots in treacherous and ever changing channels and harbor entrances. --Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, Rutgers University Recommended. --CHOICE The great strengths of this book lie in the provocative issues raised but left unresolved and in the reminder that 'the revolutionary era offered...new opportunities to challenge both the institution of chattel bondage and the allied structures of white supremacy.' --Journal of American History A natural for classroom use. --Reviews in American History