All for Liberty
The Charleston Workhouse Slave Rebellion of 1849

The story of Nicholas Kelly, an enslaved man who gave his life for liberty leading the Charleston workhouse slave rebellion.

Jeff Strickland (Author)

9781108492591, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 December 2021

256 pages
22.3 x 14.6 x 2.3 cm, 0.512 kg

'Strickland's accessible prose, narrative style, and comprehensive contextualization mix well with his fascinating and enlightening analyses of the workhouse and urban enslavement.' William D. Jones, Journal of Southern History

Jeff Strickland tells the powerful story of Nicholas Kelly, the enslaved craftsman who led the Charleston Workhouse Slave Rebellion, the largest slave revolt in the history of the antebellum American South. With two accomplices, some sledgehammers, and pickaxes, Nicholas risked his life and helped thirty-six fellow enslaved people escape the workhouse where they had been sent by their enslavers to be tortured. While Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, and Denmark Vesey remain the most recognizable rebels, the pivotal role of Nicholas Kelly is often forgotten. All for Liberty centers his rebellion as a decisive moment leading up to the secession of South Carolina from the United States in 1861. This compelling micro-history navigates between Nicholas's story and the Age of Atlantic Revolutions, while also considering the parallels between race and incarceration in the nineteenth century and in modern America. Never before has the story of Nicholas Kelly been so eloquently told.

Introduction
1. Slave insurrections in the age of revolutions
2. The slave workhouse
3. Urban slavery
4. The legal implications of slave resistance
5. Rebellion at the workhouse
6. Investigating the rebellion
7. The crisis of fear in South Carolina
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions [HBTV], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]