A Madman's Will
John Randolph, Four Hundred Slaves, and the Mirage of Freedom
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- US$18.99
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The untold saga of John Randolph’s 383 slaves, freed in his much-contested will of 1821, finally comes to light.
Few legal cases in American history are as riveting as the controversy surrounding the will of Virginia Senator John Randolph (1773–1833), which—almost inexplicably—freed all 383 of his slaves in one of the largest and most publicized manumissions in American history. So famous is the case that Ta-Nehisi Coates has used it to condemn Randolph’s cousin, Thomas Jefferson, for failing to free his own slaves. With this groundbreaking investigation, historian Gregory May now reveals a more surprising story, showing how madness and scandal shaped John Randolph’s wildly shifting attitudes toward his slaves—and how endemic prejudice in the North ultimately deprived the freedmen of the land Randolph had promised them. Sweeping from the legal spectacle of the contested will through the freedmen’s dramatic flight and horrific reception in Ohio, A Madman’s Will is an extraordinary saga about the alluring promise of freedom and its tragic limitations.
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Lawyer-turned-historian May (Jefferson's Treasure) offers a fascinating account of Virginia senator John Randolph's posthumous efforts to free nearly 400 enslaved people and provide for their resettlement. A "relentless defender of states' rights," Randolph (1773–1833) was one of Virginia's largest slaveholders, and his "deathbed declaration" that his slaves must be freed took many by surprise. After Randolph's death, however, executors discovered two wills—an 1821 version that freed his slaves and an 1832 version that left his estate to his niece's infant son and made no mention of manumission. Much legal wrangling ensued, with some of Randolph's heirs seeking to have the 1821 will set aside by proving that Randolph was "mad" when he wrote it. (Randolph's executor, Judge William Leigh, wanted the 1832 will set aside for similar reasons.) Though the 1821 will was eventually upheld, the story has an unhappy ending—before the freedmen could settle on land purchased on their behalf in Mercer County, Ohio, they were expelled from the county by a white mob and their community was dispersed. May lucidly untangles the legal proceedings and draws vivid character sketches of Randolph and others, while building an irrefutable case that freedom is only the first step to equality. This is history at its finest. Illus.
