Kirjahaku

The Chesapeake Bay is the nation's largest estuary, stretching 185 miles from the Susquehanna River to the Virginia capes, touching more than 8,000 miles of shoreline. This country of mists and tranquil waters harbours a rare abundance of wildlife, as well as the last commercial sailing fleet in the United States-the famous skipjacks, or oyster-dredging boats. The bay and its rivers are home to isolated villages that preserve early colonial dialects; to historic plantations, such as Mount Vernon; and to considerable cities, including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Richmond. Beautifully photographed and written, Chesapeake Country tells the story of the bay in all its aspects: its waterscape and wildlife; its delicate ecology; its rich history as the seedbed of American liberty as well as American slavery; and its uncertain present, as the population of watermen who live by crabbing and oystering dwindles, and that of prosperous newcomers seeking a respite from city life grows. This new edition also discusses the future of the bay in the era of climate change and brings us up to date on the places and personalities that make the Chesapeake so unique. For those who live on the bay, Chesapeake Country is a celebration. For those who do not, it is an invitation to explore. And for everyone, it is a journey of discovery.

On October 16, 1859, John Brown and his band of eighteen raiders descended on Harpers Ferry. In an ill-fated attempt to incite a slave insurrection, they seized the federal arsenal, took hostages, and retreated to a fire engine house where they barricaded themselves until a contingent of US Marines battered their way in on October 18. The raiders were routed, and several were captured. Soon after, they were tried, convicted, and hanged. Among Brown's fighters were five African American men--John Copeland, Shields Green, Dangerfield Newby, Lewis Leary, and Osborne Perry Anderson--whose lives and deaths have long been overshadowed by their martyred leader and who, even today, are little remembered. Only Anderson survived, later publishing the lone insider account of the event that, most historians agree, was a catalyst to the catastrophic American Civil War that followed. Five for Freedom is the story of these five brave men, the circumstances in which they were born and raised, how they came together at this fateful time and place, and the legacies they left behind. It is an American story that continues to resonate.