On August 18, 1775 a black man was hanged and burned to oblivion. For nearly 235 years, the man and his story have remained obscure. By looking at the world of this free African American harbor pilot, the narrative of American Revolution takes on a different dimension.

This book profiles the port of Charles Town, South Carolina, during the two-year period leading up to the Declaration of Independence. It focuses on the dramatic hanging and burning of Thomas Jeremiah, a free black harbor pilot and firefighter accused by the patriot party of plotting a slave insurrection during the tumultous spring and summer of 1775. To examine the world of this wealthy, slave-holding African American through his trial and execution, William R. Ryan uses a wide array of letters, naval records, personal and official correspondence, memoirs, and newspapers. He shows that the black majority of the South Carolina Low Country managed to assist the British in their invasion efforts, despite patriot attempts to frighten Afro-Carolinians into passivity and submission. Although Whigs attempted, through brutality and violence, to keep their slaves from participating in the conflict, Afro-Carolinians became actively involved in the struggle between colonists and the Crown as spies, messengers, navigators and marauders. The book demonstrates that an understanding of what was going on in this vital seaport during the mid-1770s has broader implications for the study of the Atlantic world, African American history, naval history, urban race relations, labor history, and the turbulent politics of America's move toward independence.

It is a well-worn cliche that Charlestonians consider their grand city to be at the center of the known universe. While the claim is exaggerated, this dissertation shows that an understanding of what was going on in this vital port city during the mid-1770s does have broader implications for the study of the Atlantic World, African-American history, the history of Revolutionary America, naval history, urban studies, race relations, labor history and the turbulent politics of America's move toward Independence.

The tragic untold story of how a nation struggling for its freedom denied it to one of its own: a free Black man "A searing portrayal of the central paradox of the American Revolution—the centrality of slavery to the struggle for political liberty."—Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Harvard University "An insightful reflection and commentary on the vexed relationships among liberty, slavery, and the British Empire in the era of the Declaration of Independence."—Richard D. Brown, The Journal of Law and History Review In 1775, Thomas Jeremiah was one of fewer than five hundred “Free Negros” in South Carolina and, with an estimated worth of £1,000 (about $200,000 in today’s dollars), possibly the richest person of African descent in British North America. A slaveowner himself, Jeremiah was falsely accused by whites—who resented his success as a Charleston harbor pilot—of sowing insurrection among slaves at the behest of the British. Chief among the accusers was Henry Laurens, Charleston’s leading patriot, a slaveowner and former slave trader, who would later become the president of the Continental Congress. On the other side was Lord William Campbell, royal governor of the colony, who passionately believed that the accusation was unjust and tried to save Jeremiah’s life but failed. Though a free man, Jeremiah was tried in a slave court and sentenced to death. In August 1775, he was hanged and his body burned. J. William Harris tells Jeremiah’s story in full for the first time, illuminating the contradiction between a nation that would be born in a struggle for freedom and yet deny it—often violently—to others.

In the New York Times best-selling book, What in the World Is Going On?, Dr. David Jeremiah answers the hard questions, including these: "How is prophecy playing out in modern Europe?" "Why does Israel matter?" "How are oil reserves and Islamic terrorism related?" "Does the United States play a role in prophecy?" "How should we live in the end times?" The Bible has plenty to say about end times. But until now, there has been no other book that—in straightforward prose that’s easy to understand —gathers ten scriptural prophecies, lays out a chronological checklist, and offers a guideline for sorting it all out. In What in the World Is Going On? Dr. David Jeremiah answers the hard questions, including these: "How is prophecy playing out in modern Europe?" "Why does Israel matter?" "How are oil reserves and Islamic terrorism related?" "Does the United States play a role in prophecy?" "How should we live in the end times?" Events unfolding in today’s world are certainly unsettling, but they need not be confusing or frightening. Now you can know the meaning behind what you see in the daily news—and understand what in the world is going on! “A clear, compelling primer on God’s heart for Israel and the dramatic Bible prophecies that will unfold in these last days. What I loved most is that David Jeremiah unashamedly examines and explains the biggest global trends of our day through the Third Lens of Scripture. And his description of Jesus’ unconditional love and compassion for Jews and Muslims is alone worth the read!” —Joel C. Rosenberg, New York Times best-selling author, The Last Jihad and Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your World

A vibrant look at the American Revolution's first months, from the author of the bestseller The Admirals. When we reflect on our nation's history, the American Revolution can feel almost like a foregone conclusion. In reality, the first weeks and months of 1775 were very tenuous, and a fractured and ragtag group of colonial militias had to coalesce rapidly to have even the slimmest chance of toppling the mighty British Army. American Spring follows a fledgling nation from Paul Revere's little-known ride of December 1774 and the first shots fired on Lexington Green through the catastrophic Battle of Bunker Hill, culminating with a Virginian named George Washington taking command of colonial forces on July 3, 1775. Focusing on the colorful heroes John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Benjamin Franklin, and Patrick Henry, and the ordinary Americans caught up in the revolution, Walter R. Borneman uses newly available sources and research to tell the story of how a decade of discontent erupted into an armed rebellion that forged our nation.

In this updated edition of his classic book, New York Times bestselling author Dr. David Jeremiah offers biblically based, practical instruction for living a confident life in a world filled with chaos and crisis. Confidence can be hard to come by these days as millions of people experience immeasurable, unanticipated challenges. People are losing their jobs, their houses, and their life savings at an unprecedented rate. Violence, natural disasters, and moral depravity seem to be skyrocketing. In the midst of all this chaos, we need to know . . . what on earth should we do now? Bible teacher Dr. David Jeremiah brings a message of hope and confidence from the priceless counsel of the Word of God. If we rely on God's Word to advise us, calm us, and fill us with hope and trust in the One who understands what is happening, we can weather any storm. Dr. Jeremiah answers our most urgent questions, including: How can we weather this storm with a calm heart? What does it truly mean to “wait on the Lord”? What is Jesus saying to our chaotic world today? How on earth did we get into this mess? Can we take a broken world and rebuild it into something fruitful? Living with Confidence in a Chaotic World shows us all that with the power and love of Almighty God, we can live with confidence in this age of turmoil.

This book seeks to place before beginning students and general readers a representative discussion of material contained in the biblical book of Jeremiah. It is written for those who may never look into a Jeremiah commentary or read a scholarly workon one who arguably stands as the greatest of ancient Israel's prophets. These twenty essays can be read with profit by beginning students, adults in Bible-study classes, and people anywhere who simply want an introduction to Jeremiah and the book bearing his name. Hopefully this will generate interest, not only in Jeremiah, but in all the Hebrew prophets, who are without parallel in the ancient world, and who define the office of prophet up to the present day.

In The Enslaved and Their Enslavers, Edward Pearson offers a sweeping history of slavery in South Carolina, from British settlement in 1670 to the dawn of the Civil War. For enslaved peoples, the shape of their daily lives depended primarily on the particular environment in which they lived and worked, and Pearson examines three distinctive settings in the province: the extensive rice and indigo plantations of the coastal plain; the streets, workshops, and wharves of Charleston; and the farms and estates of the upcountry. In doing so, he provides a fine-grained analysis of how enslaved laborers interacted with their enslavers in the workplace and other locations where they encountered one another as plantation agriculture came to dominate the colony. The Enslaved and Their Enslavers sets this portrait of early South Carolina against broader political events, economic developments, and social trends that also shaped the development of slavery in the region. For example, the outbreak of the American Revolution and the subsequent war against the British in the 1770s and early 1780s as well as the French and Haitian revolutions all had a profound impact on the institution's development, both in terms of what enslaved people drew from these events and how their enslavers responded to them. Throughout South Carolina's long history, enslaved people never accepted their enslavement passively and regularly demonstrated their fundamental opposition to the institution by engaging in acts of resistance, which ranged from vandalism to arson to escape, and, on rare occasions, organizing collectively against their oppression. Their attempts to subvert the institution in which they were held captive not only resulted in slaveowners tightening formal and informal mechanisms of control but also generated new forms of thinking about race and slavery among whites that eventually mutated into pro-slavery ideology and the myth of southern exceptionalism.

For anyone curious about prophecy and the signs of the end times, this book links the pieces of the prophecy puzzle in plain, simple language. There are 1,000 prophecies in the Bible so it’s natural to wonder, have any prophecies been fulfilled? Do they really explain the future? Can we really know what will happen at the end of time? In succinct and clear answers to most frequently asked questions, Dr. Jeremiah decodes and clarifies prophecy for the average person. He explains in simple lay terms what could otherwise be mysterious and even frightening, allowing readers to gain a balanced and assuring perspective of the significance of prophetic events to their personal lives as believers in Christ. He also helps readers understand how prophecy is directly related to world events today.