{"product_id":"freedoms-currency-slavery-capitalism-and-self-purchase-in-the-united-states-9781512826470","title":"Freedom's Currency: Slavery, Capitalism, and Self-Purchase in the United States","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe first comprehensive study of self-purchase in the United States from the American Revolution to the Civil War\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEnslaved people lived in a world in which everything had a price. Even freedom. \u003ci\u003eFreedom's Currency\u003c\/i\u003e follows enslaved people's efforts to buy themselves out of slavery across the United States from the American Revolution to the Civil War. In the first comprehensive study of self-purchase in the nation, Julia Wallace Bernier reveals how enslaved people raised money, fostered connections, and made use of slavery's systems of value and exchange to wrest control of their lives from those who owned them. She chronicles the stories of famous fugitives like Frederick Douglass, who, with the help of friends and supporters, purchased his freedom to protect himself against the continued legal claims of his enslavers and the possibility of recapture. She also shows how enslaved fathers like Lunsford Lane and mothers like Elizabeth Keckley tried to secure lives for their families outside of slavery. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eFreedom's Currency\u003c\/i\u003e argues that freedom played a central role in the social and economic lives of the enslaved and in the ways that these aspects of their lives overlapped. This intimate portrait of community illuminates the complexity of enslaved people's ideas about their place at the intersection of slavery and American capitalism and their attempts to value freedom above all. Given the stakes--liberation or remaining enslaved--it is an account of both triumph and devastating failure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Julia Wallace Bernier\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Pennsylvania Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/24\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.07lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.63d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781512826470","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43028543504521,"sku":"9781512826470","price":49.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_d904cdb3-c426-4c5e-a80e-4eb4a6d1ff25.jpg?v=1728364483","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/freedoms-currency-slavery-capitalism-and-self-purchase-in-the-united-states-9781512826470","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}