Crusade Against Slavery: Edward Coles, Pioneer of Freedom

Back Cover

Crusade Against Sla ver y Leichtle and Carveth e “In its misty past, Illinois had honest governors. One such, Edward Coles, was also a pioneer in the antislavery movement who freed his own slaves and helped preserve Illinois as free soil. This book recaptures a key part of the drama of Illinois’s early history.” —rIchard m. frIed, author of The Man Everybody Knew: Bruce Barton and the Making of Modern America “Kurt Leichtle and Bruce Carveth have created an insightful biography of the nearly forgotten Edward Coles. In their lively narrative of this prominent uprooted Virginian and pioneer Illinois citizen/politician, they chronicle Coles’s noble ‘experiment’ in freeing his slaves, placing his humanitarianism in the larger context of antebellum American life. Their research is impressive and their contribution to the vast literature of emancipation efforts significant.” —h. roger gr ant, Kathryn and Calhoun Lemon Professor of History, Clemson University “For someone well known among the most important people of his day, Edward Coles somehow has slipped out of sight in our scholarly literature. This early and ardent opponent of slavery threw down a gauntlet for his fellow Virginians by emancipating his own slaves and moving them (at his expense) to the free state of Illinois. In this first modern full-length biography, Leichtle and Carveth offer a lively and readable account of Coles, his passions, and his times. Perhaps the light around Coles now will burn more brightly.” —john laurItz larSon, author of The Market Revolution in America: Liberty, Ambition, and the Eclipse of the Common Good southern illinois university press 1915 university press drive mail code 6806 carbondale, il 62901 www.siupress.com $34.95 usd isbn 0-8093-3042-3 isbn 978-0-8093-3042-3 ...