John Mercer Langston and the Fight for Black Freedom, 1829-65
A biography of the pioneering Black leader
Paper – $37
978-0-252-06591-0
Publication Date
Paperback: 01/01/1996
About the Book
John Mercer Langston (1829–1897) was an orator, abolitionist, lawyer, intellectual, diplomat, and politician. Born free on a Virginia plantation, Langston graduated from Oberlin College in 1849. He soon gained admission to the Ohio bar--the first Black person to do so--and by the age of twenty-five became one of the first Black Americans to hold elective office. Langston promoted Black civil rights, helped shape the nascent Republican Party, aided in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue and John Brown's raid, and recruited Black soldiers for the Union cause during the Civil War. In 1864, he became the first president of the National Equal Rights League.William and Aimee Lee Cheek’s first-ever biography of Langston explores the sets the early years of his eventful life against the backdrop of American social and political history. Embedded firmly in a study of northern black community life and activism, the narrative illuminates how Langston and his cohorts set the terms of the fight for freedom and citizenship.
About the Author
William Cheek is a professor emeritus of history at San Diego State University and author of Black Resistance before the Civil War. Aimee Lee Cheek is an independent historian, writer, and consultant in San Diego.Reviews
“Provides the mirror in which to reflect Langston's brilliant, turbulent career, as well as the nation's ongoing struggle against racism. Life-and-times biography could be put to no better use.”--David W. Blight, Journal of American History“One of the most thorough studies ever done of a nineteenth-century Black American. [It] will be the standard.”--J. M. Matthews, Choice
“Breaks new and important ground in the field of African American history. . . . [It] is both a social history of the period and the remarkable story of Langston's formative life and career as a free Black Ohioan in pre-Civil War America.”--David C. Dennard, Journal of Southern History
“A sensitive biography of a Black leader and a full-scale history of the society in which he matured and began his career."--John B. Boles, American Historical Review
“The Cheeks have masterfully performed their chief task--the transformation of autobiography into social history.”--Wilson J. Moses, Reviews in American History
Blurbs
“A marvel of scholarship and artistry. The general reader will be fascinated to discover the vitality of the free Black community that Langston moved and moved in.”--Joyce Appleby, author of Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries and the Scientific Imagination
Awards
Outstanding Book given by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States.Related Titles
