Empire of Necessity

NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICE
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE RECOMMENDED BOOK
WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZE

From the acclaimed author of Fordlandia, the story of a remarkable slave rebellion that illuminates America's struggle with slavery and freedom during the Age of Revolution and beyond

One morning in 1805, off a remote island in the South Pacific, Captain Amasa Delano, a New England seal hunter, climbed aboard a distressed Spanish ship carrying scores of West Africans he thought were slaves. They weren't. In fact, they were performing an elaborate ruse, having risen up earlier and slaughtered most of the crew and officers. When Delano, an idealistic, anti-slavery republican, finally realized the deception-that the men and women he thought were humble slaves were actually running the ship-he rallied his crew to respond with explosive violence.

Drawing on research on four continents, The Empire of Necessity is the untold history of this extraordinary event and its bloody aftermath. Delano's blindness that day has already inspired one masterpiece-Herman Melville's Benito Cereno. Now historian Greg Grandin returns to these dramatic events to paint an indelible portrait of a world in the throes of revolution, providing a new transnational history of slavery in the Americas-and capturing the clash of peoples, economies, and faiths that was the New World in the early 1800s.

Contents

Introduction 1??

Part I: Fast Fish
? 1. Hawks Abroad 13
? 2. More Liberty 22
? 3. A Lion without a Crown 31
? 4. Body and Soul 38
? 5. A Conspiracy of Lifting and Throwing 49

Interlude: I Never Could Look at Death without a Shudder 54??

Part II: A Loose Fish
? 6. A Suitable Guide to Bliss 61
? 7. The Levelling System 72
? 8. South Sea Dreams 78??

Interlude: Black Will Always Have Something Melancholy in It 91??

Part III: The New Extreme
? 9. The Skin Trade 97
? 10. Falling Man 106
? 11. The Crossing 112
? 12. Diamonds on the Soles of Their Feet 117?

Interlude: Heaven's Sense 123??

Part IV: Further
? 13. Killing Seals 131
? 14. Isolatos 142
? 15. A Terrific Sovereignty 150
? 16. Slavery Has Grades 160??

Interlude: A Merry Repast 166??

Part V: If God Wills
? 17. Night of Power 171
? 18. The Story of the San Juan 182
? 19. Mohammed's Cursed Sect 186??

Interlude: Abominable, Contemptible Hayti 197??

Part VI: Who Aint a Slave?
? 20. Desperation 203
? 21. Deception 211
? 22. Retribution 219
? 23. Conviction 224??

Interlude: The Machinery of Civilization 234??

Part VII: General Average
? 24. Lima, or The Law of General Average 239
? 25. The Lucky One 249
? 26. Undistributed 254??

Epilogue: Herman Melville's America 265?
A Note on Sources and Other Matters 275?
Archives Consulted 293?
Notes 297?
Acknowledgments 343?
Illustrations Credits 347?
Index 349