A review by abeanbg
The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World by Greg Grandin

4.0

Very interesting without ever really catching fire for me. The book examines the explosion of slavery at the dawn of the 1800's, even as the American and French Revolutions were spreading the ideas of humanism and the Enlightenment around the globe. Some really fascinating anecdotes, and the central incident about the slave revolt on the Tryal (which inspired Mellville's Beneto Cereno) is captivating.