Espionage and enslavement in the Revolution : the true story of Robert Townsend and Elizabeth

Author

Claire Bellerjeau

Call Number

• 973.3 B442 (CEN)

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Publication Information

Guilford, Connecticut : Lyons Press, [2021]

Physical Description

viii, 216 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm

Summary

"In January 1785, a young African American slave named Elizabeth was put on board the Lucretia in New York Harbor, bound for Charleston, where she would be sold to her fifth master in just 22 years. Leaving behind a small child she had little hope of ever seeing again, Elizabeth was faced with the stark reality of being sold south to a life quite different from any she had known before. She had no idea that Robert Townsend, a son of the family she was enslaved by, would locate her, safeguard her child, and return her to New York - nor how her story would help turn one of America's first spies into a fierce abolitionist. Robert Townsend is best known as one of George Washington's most trusted spies, but few know the story of his development into a fierce abolitionist. As Robert and Elizabeth's story unfolds, prominent figures from history cross their path, including Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, Benedict Arnold, John André and John Adams; as well as participants in the Boston Massacre, the Sons of Liberty, the Battle of Long Island, Franklin's Paris negotiations, and the Benedict Arnold treason plot"--

Contents

• Foreword by Vanessa Williams
• Introduction
• The times that try men's souls. Merchants and masters ; Congressman and commissary ; Oyster bay occupied ; "No probability of your getting her again" ; Spies and traitors
• In the course of human events. "A child with her then master" ; "Ensnared into bondage" ; "A townsman with a cudgel" ; "Derangement and separation" ; "Principled against selling slaves" ; Obtain the wench from him"
• For ourselves and our posterity. "Elizabeth, a black woman" ; Uncle Robert and "free Elizabeth"
• Epilogue : "the journey's end."