An Imperfect God is a major new biography of Washington, and the first to explore his engagement with American slavery When George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his slaves free; earlier he had said that holding slaves was his "only unavoidable subject of regret." In this groundbreaking work, Henry Wiencek explores the founding father's engagement with slavery at every stage of his life-as a Virginia planter, soldier,...

"The animating idea of The 1619 Project is that our national narrative is more accurately told if we begin not on July 4, 1776, but in late August of 1619, when a ship arrived in Jamestown bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival inaugurated a barbaric and unprecedented system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more...

Reassesses the role of the California gold rush in the events leading up to the Civil War, analyzing the squabbling over bringing California into the union as a slave state, the political maneuverings and battles, and the economic factors involved.

Documents the ways in which George Washington's words, image, and mythology shaped America's fledgling republic throughout the first fifty years after the Revolutionary War, offering insight into the pivotal role played by slavery issues.

"From a Pulitzer Prize winner, a powerful history that reveals how the twin strands of liberty and slavery were joined in the nation's founding"--