Synopses & Reviews
From the acclaimed author of Fordlandia, the story of a remarkable slave rebellion that illuminates Americas 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 seal hunter, climbed aboard a distressed Spanish slaver. He spent all day on the ship, distributing food and water, yet failed to see that the slaves, having seized control and slaughtered most of the crew, were no longer humble servants but in charge. When Delano finally realized the deception, he responded with explosive violence.
Drawing on research on four continents, Empire of Necessity is the untold history of this extraordinary event and its bloody aftermath. With the same gripping storytelling praised in Fordlandia, historian Greg Grandin tracks the West African slaves through the horrors of the Middle Passage and their forced march from the Argentine pampas to the cold, high Andes, providing a new transnational history of slavery in the Americas. He also follows Delano, an idealistic, antislavery New Englander, as he kills the slaves and hunts seals to extinction—his slide from benevolence to barbarism an expression of the human exploitation and environmental destruction that marked the early years of American expansion.
Delanos blindness that day has already inspired one masterpiece—Herman Melvilles Benito Cereno. Now Grandin returns to the event to paint an indelible portrait of a new nation that believes itself to be a beacon of freedom, law, and reason but is driven instead by darker and more violent ambitions.
Review
Finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prize
New York Times Editor's Choice
San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book
"Engrossing, well researched and beautifully written . . . A rigorously sourced work of scholarship with a suspenseful narrative structure that boomerangs back and forth through time. Grandin has delivered a page-turner. You read it as if it were a thriller novel by Scott Turow or Lee Child."
—Chicago Tribune
"The Empire of Necessity is scholarship at its best. Greg Grandin's deft penetration into the marrow of the slave industry is compelling, brilliant and necessary."
—Toni Morrison
"Engaging, richly informed . . . Mr. Grandin ranges so freely through history that his book has a zigzagging course, like a schooner tacking constantly with the wind. But the voyage he takes us on is hardly directionless. . . . he describes his unsettling panorama in a restrained manner, avoiding exaggeration and allowing facts—many of them horrific—to tell the story. In doing so, he has produced a quietly powerful account that Melville himself would have admired."
—Wall Street Journal
"A great and moving story."
—Washington Post
"Elegant . . . a wonder of power, precision and sheer reading pleasure . . . Grandin takes readers on a tour of the hell of the slave trade, a tour so revelatory and compelling, we readers, unlike Captain Delano, can't fail to see the truth before our eyes."
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"
"Powerful . . . a remarkable feat of research . . . a significant contribution to the largely impossible yet imperative effort to retrieve some trace of the countless lives that slavery consumed."
—Andrew Delbanco, the New York Times Book Review
"An exciting and illuminating narrative . . . Grandin's pen is exquisite, the descriptions are lively and sensuous. But he is also deeply reflective. The book has import that extends beyond the interest of the story."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"Remarkable . . . superbly argued and richly detailed . . . Grandin's skill is that he can find metaphors that subtly reflect the vital dichotomies that pervade the American psyche."
—The Guardian (UK)
"I can't say enough good things about The Empire of Necessity. It's one of the best books I've read in a decade. It should be essential reading not just for those interested in the African slave trade, but for anyone hoping to understand the commercial enterprise that built North and South America."
—Victor Lavalle, Bookforum
"A remarkable story, one that unravels the American encounter with slavery in ways uncommonly subtle and deeply provocative."
—The American Scholar
"Fascinating . . . a gripping, lavishly researched account of high seas drama . . . compulsively readable."
—The Christian Science Monitor
"Grandin writes with the skills of a fine novelist … I am thrilled and amazed by this inventive, audacious, passionate volume."
—H. Bruce Franklin, Los Angeles Review of Books
"Fascinating and engaging."
—Seattle Times
"In this multifaceted masterpiece, Greg Grandin excavates the relentlessly fascinating history of a slave revolt to mine the enduring dilemmas of politics and identity in a New World where the Age of Freedom was also the Age of Slavery. This is that rare book in which the drama of the action and the drama of ideas are equally measured, a work of history and of literary reflection that is as urgent as it is timely."
—Philip Gourevitch, co-author of the The Ballad of Abu Ghraib
"Greg Grandin has done it again. Starting with a single dramatic encounter in the South Pacific he has shown us an entire world: of multiple continents, terrible bondage and the dream of freedom. This is also a story of how one episode changed the lives of a sea captain and a great writer from the other end of the earth. An extraordinary tale, beautifully told."
—Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopolds Ghost
"Rooted in an event known primarily through the genius of Herman Melville's transcendent Benito Cereno, The Empire of Necessity is a stunning work of research done all over the rims of two oceans, as well as beautiful, withering storytelling.・@This is a harrowing story of Muslim Africans trekking across South America, and ultimately a unique window on to the nature of the slave trade, the maritime worlds of the early nineteenth century, the lives lived in-between slavery and freedom all over the Americas, and even the ocean-inspired imagination of Melville. Grandin is a master of grand history with new insights."
—David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass: A Life (forthcoming)
"Greg Grandin is one of the best of a new generation of historians who have rediscovered the art of writing for both serious scholars and general readers. This may be his best book yet. The Empire of Necessity is a work of astonishing power, eloquence and suspense—a genuine tour de force."
—Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
Synopsis
From the acclaimed author of Fordlandia, the story of a remarkable slave rebellion that illuminates Americas struggle with slavery and freedom during the Age of Revolution and beyondOne 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 werent. Having earlier seized control of the vessel and slaughtered most of the crew, they were staging an elaborate ruse, acting as if they were humble servants. When Delano, an idealistic, anti-slavery republican, finally realized the deception, he responded with explosive violence.
Drawing on research on four continents, The Empire of Necessity explores the multiple forces that culminated in this extraordinary event—an event that already inspired Herman Melvilles masterpiece Benito Cereno. Now historian Greg Grandin, with the gripping storytelling that was praised in Fordlandia, uses the dramatic happenings of that day to map a new transnational history of slavery in the Americas, capturing the clash of peoples, economies, and faiths that was the New World in the early 1800s.
Synopsis
NEW YORK TIMES E
DITOR'S CHOICESAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE RECOMMENDED BOOK
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 werent. 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. Delanos blindness that day has already inspired one masterpiece—Herman Melvilles 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.
About the Author
Greg Grandin is the author of Fordlandia, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, as well as Empires Workshop and The Blood of Guatemala. A professor of history at New York University and a recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the New York Public Librarys Cullman Center, Grandin has served on the UN Truth Commission investigating the Guatemalan Civil War and has written for the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, New Statesman, and The New York Times.
Table of Contents
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: Heavens 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. Mohammeds 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 Melvilles America 265
A Note on Sources and Other Matters 275
Archives Consulted 293
Notes 297
Acknowledgments 343
Illustrations Credits 347
Index 349