However, Beth's hopes of a quiet life are dashed when Richard, dissatisfied with his meagre inheritance and desperate for promotion, decides to force her into a marriage for his military gain. And he will stop at nothing to get his way.Beth is coerced into a reconciliation with her noble cousins in order to marry well and escape her brutal brother. She is then thrown into the glittering social whirl of Georgian high society and struggles to conform. The effeminate but witty socialite Sir Anthony Peters offers to ease her passage into society and she is soon besieged by suitors eager to get their hands on her considerable dowry. Beth, however, wants love and passion for herself, and to break free from the artificial life she is growing to hate. She finds herself plunged into a world where nothing is as it seems and everyone hides behind a mask. Can she trust the people professing to care for her?The first in the series about the fascinating lives of beautiful Beth Cunningham, her family and friends during the tempestuous days leading up to the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, which attempted to overthrow the Hanoverian King George II and restore the Stuarts to the British throne. Join the rebellion of one woman and her fight for survival in... The Jacobite Chronicles.

    Newly married, she runs a successful alehouse with her beloved husband Richard. The wars that rage in Europe over the Spanish throne seem a world away. But everything changes on the night that Richard simply disappears. Finding the Queen's shilling at the bottom of Richard's tankard, Kit realizes that her husband has been taken for a soldier. Kit follows Richard's trail across the battlefields of Italy in the Duke of Marlborough's regiment. Living as a man, risking her life in battle, she forms a close bond with her wry and handsome commanding officer Captain Ross. When she is forced to flee the regiment following a duel, she evades capture by dressing once more as a woman. But the war is not over for Kit. Her beauty catches the eye of the scheming Duke of Ormonde, who recruits her to spy upon the French. In her finery she meets Captain Ross once again, who seems just as drawn to the woman as he was to the soldier. Torn between Captain Ross and her loyalty to her husband, and under the orders of the English Crown, Kit finds that her life is in more danger now than on the battlefield. Of all the dangers that she faced, the greatest was discovery...

    From early in his reign he was already a legendary figure - fascinating even to those who hated him. Tim Blanning's brilliant biography recreates a remarkable era, a world which would be swept away shortly after Frederick's death by the French Revolution. Equally at home on the battlefield or in the music room at Frederick's extraordinary miniature palace of Sanssouci, Blanning draws on a lifetime's obsession with the 18th century to create a work that is in many ways the summation of all that he has learned in his own rich and various career. Frederick's spectre has hung over Germany ever since: an inspiration, a threat, an impossible ideal - Blanning at last allows us to understand him in his own time.

     Who is Eden running from…? England, 1795 Kept woman Rachel Lovett is forced onto the streets when her benefactor loses all his money. Forced into stealing jewellery to survive, Rachel finds herself running from a thief taker – and must do all she can to keep her neck from the hangman’s noose. She is forced to join a brothel and soon finds herself introduced to the ruthless Paternoster Club… Cheltenham, 2013 Over two hundred years later a pair of skeletons are found in the grounds of a prestigious school, and local Private Investigator Eden Grey is called to the scene. It becomes clear that these are not recent murders – the bodies have lain there for centuries. Eden does all she can to unravel the historic mystery – but she has dangerous secrets of her own. As Eden’s past – and her true identity – starts to close in on her, and more strange cases land in her lap, Eden finds herself in a race against time to solve the mysteries. But who is Eden Grey? And what is she hiding from? Can she unravel the secrets of the past? PATERNOSTER is the first book in the Eden Grey Mystery Series, dual timeline conspiracy thrillers with a strong female lead. ‘Cheltenham will soon rival Oxford as a murder-mystery hot spot’ - Historical Novel Society ‘A vibrant voice from the dark heart of the past’ – Alison Bruce, author of the DC Goodhew novels ‘Fleet has found a tough, determined and likeable new heroine and if this is to be the start of a series, it’s well worth waiting for Eden Grey’s next case’ – Crime Review

    As wife of Louis XVI of France she was first feted and adored and then universally hated as tales of her dissipated lifestyle and extravagance pulled the already discredited monarchy into a maelstrom of revolution, disaster and tragedy.This illustrated first biography by historian and writer Melanie Clegg takes a fresh look at the story of this most fascinating and misunderstood of queens, exploring her personal tribulations as well as the series of disasters that brought her to the guillotine in October 1793.Melanie Clegg is the author of five historical novels and is also a regular contributor to Majesty magazine and her own women's history blog Madame Guillotine. Her second biography, a life of Marie de Guise, is due to be published by Pen and Sword Books in 2016.

    Slave ships haunt the seas, bearing human cargos to further the wealth of the rich and destroy the souls of the slave traffickers. Russell Lawrence is an avid skeptic. Captain of the slave ship Barbados, wealthy, and a respected leader, he views religion as a crutch for the weak. But when the debauchery of the slave trade begins to destroy his good morals, his battle becomes more than fighting pirates and mutineers. What if there really is a God?Impressed as a cabin boy, Jack Dunbar sees his forced service on the Barbados as a God-given opportunity to witness Christ to the crew. But his efforts to influence the hardened slavers seems to be doing little good. How is it possible to live as a Christian on the sin-ravaged seas? Can his light shine bright in Africa's dark interior?Back in Grosvenor Square, Elizabeth Grey battles opposition from society and her self-seeking fiancé. Her work with John Newton to end the slave trade is being harshly attacked. She faces life branded as a jilter and radical if she stands up for what she believes in. Will she ever glean the strength to call sin by its rightful name?A tale of adventure on the high seas, redemption, and faith. Sin abounds. Is grace enough to conquer doubt and triumph over evil?

    At 26, spinster Emily Wainwright has no reason to believe her sheltered life will ever change — until the charming Samuel Todd unexpectedly crosses her path.Samuel yearns to homestead and start a family in Oregon, but he first needs to find a wife. Blinded by Samuel’s good looks, and grasping at her final chance to have a husband and children, Emily accepts his marriage proposal. However, Samuel is not the man she thought he was, and her marriage becomes a cold, cruel prison, offering her no solace amidst the hardships of farm life. When Samuel dies and a second chance at love and happiness arrives in the form of farmhand Cole Walker, Emily must overcome her bitter past—or risk losing Cole and the life she has always dreamed of having.

    Her life is transformed when the composer Vivaldi unlocks her passion for music. The seasons turn, dark turns to light and miracles happen.Carnegie award-winning author, Kevin Crossley-Holland makes every word a masterstroke. This short novel is exquisitely illustrated by acclaimed artist, Jane Ray. Her work is inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons and the real girls and boys who lived and laughed and worked in the Venetian Orphanage.

    One drunken night in Cuba lands Captain Valeryn Barone in a life or death situation. To escape the gallows, Valeryn must agree to a bargain only a fool would make: Escort the tempting and tenacious niece of his captor across the Caribbean or lose his ship, his crew and his life! The caveat? The beautiful Spanish woman must remain untouched for the entire voyage.Determined to get what she wants... Catalina Montoya will stop at nothing to get what she wants-even when trouble is certain. Sent to live with her uncle after a scandalous affair, Catalina intends to concentrate on her dream to become a renowned naturalist. She never expected her uncle would send her with a notorious pirate to further her studies. Worse, she never expected to want the devilishly handsome pirate more than anything else.It's a battle of wills... Now Catalina only has 8 weeks to seduce Valeryn and collect her specimens before he returns her to her uncle. And Valeryn has 8 weeks to secure his redemption. Except neither would be that lucky. Not when ruthless enemies threaten to destroy them at every turn. Can Valeryn save those that foolishly depend on him? Can he resist Catalina's heart? Does a dead man walking even have a chance?

    The high skills of the surveyors, artists, and engravers who delineated the topography and fields of battle allow us to observe the unfolding of events that ultimately defined the United States.When warfare erupted between Britain and her colonists in 1775, maps provided graphic news about military matters. A number of the best examples are reproduced here, including some from the personal collections of King George III, the Duke of Northumberland, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Other maps from institutional and private collections are being published for the first time. In all, sixty significant and beautiful cartographic works from 1755 to 1783 illustrate this intriguing era.Most books about the Revolution begin with Lexington and Concord and progress to the British surrender at Yorktown, but in this rich collection the authors lay the groundwork for the war by also taking into account key events of the antecedent conflict. The seeds of revolution were planted during the French and Indian War (1755–1763), and it was then that a good number of the participants, both British and rebel, cut their teeth. George Washington took his first command during this war, alongside the future British commanding General Thomas Gage.At the Treaty of Paris, the French and Indian War ended, and King George III gained clear title to more territory than had ever been exchanged in any other war before or since. The British military employed its best-trained artists and engineers to map the richest prize in its Empire. They would need those maps for the fratricidal war that would begin twelve years later. Their maps and many others make up the contents of this fascinating and beautiful book.

    . . For generations Lady Diana de Vere’s family loyally served England’s crown. But after King Charles II’s untimely death, her father becomes an outcast for refusing to submit to James II’s tyranny. Charles, Duke of St. Albans—the late king’s bastard son by actress Nell Gwyn—escapes his newly crowned uncle’s matchmaking efforts by secretly pledging to wed Diana, then departing for the Continent to become a soldier.Before the battle-scarred war hero returns to claim his promised bride, political and religious turmoil brings about revolution and yet another coronation. As companion to Queen Mary Stuart, Diana has followed her de Vere forbears into royal service. Though she hopes Charles will abandon his military career after marriage, he resists joining the ranks of the courtiers he despises and mistrusts.In palace corridors and within their own household the young duke and duchess confront betrayals, scandals, and tragedies that threaten to divide them. And neither the privileges of birth nor proximity to the throne can ensure their security, their advancement—-or their happiness.

    When Calvin Tarkington arrives in Peking in the winter of 1795, he becomes the first American merchant to experience the sights and sounds of this exotic Imperial capital: blue-jacketed Chinese, masked against the sweeping Northern winds, crowd outdoor markets filled with the riches of Asia; proud Manchu bannermen patrol the wide boulevards and narrow alleys; and behind the vermillion walls of the Forbidden City, mandarins, nobles, eunuchs, and concubines serve their aging Emperor, Ch’ien-lung, the Son of Heaven.Yet Calvin cannot enjoy this moment: he has been brought to Peking to face trial on trumped-up murder charges after witnessing the assassination of an Imperial investigator in the port of Canton, the sole city open to the foreign devil tai-pans, a killing that is somehow linked to the growing, but illicit, opium trade.Calvin must prove his innocence by unmasking the real killers and their connection to the corruption, misrule, and hidden treachery threatening the very stability of the Dragon Throne. He can rely only on a Manchu general and an elderly French Jesuit astronomer for help as he confronts the powerful dark forces intent on delivering him into the hands of the Imperial executioners.The Boston Trader tells a compelling story of deception and desire, of love and betrayal, and of courage and conviction. It paints a memorable portrait of China at a turning point in its history, as the fate of the Celestial Empire hangs in the balance.

    The first English bio of the ambitious and incomparable printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813). Born to a printing family in the small town of Saluzzo, he left his comfortable life to travel to Rome in 1758 where he served as an apprentice of Cardinal Spinelli. There, under the sponsorship of Ruggieri, his close friend, mentor, and protector, he learned all aspects of the craft. Even then, his real genius, lay in type design and punchcutting, especially of the exotic foreign alphabets needed by the papal office to spread the faith. His life changed when at age 28 he was invited by the Duke of Parma to establish and direct the ducal press. He remained in Parma, overseeing a vast variety of printing, much of it glorious. And all of it making use of the typefaces he personally designed and engraved.

    In July 1745 he and a tiny group of companions arrived in Scotland. They came unannounced and unsupported, and yet within less than five months Charles was able to lead an army to within marching distance of London and make King George II fear for this throne. Afterwards the Highland Army continued to out-fight the redcoats in every encounter, except its very last. These were not the achievements of a backward-looking cause, and this ground-breaking study is the first to explain exactly why. Almost to the very end the Jacobites had the literal and metaphorical ‘edge’ over their enemies, thanks to the terror-inspiring highland charge, and also, as this book as this book is the first to reveal, to the highly-advanced organisation of their forces in ‘divisions’ – miniature armies that allowed them to out-manoeuvre their enemies on the strategic plane. At the same time Prince Charles made a credible bid for the political and ideological high ground, an appeal based on religious toleration, and a monarchy working in cooperation with an empowered and accountable Parliament. The Prince therefore not only drew on traditional loyalties, but attracted the support of heavyweights of the new ‘Enlightenment’. It all made a telling contrast to the demeaning nature of the Hanoverian government in Britain, which was mired deep in corruption. The Hanoverian politicians in London and Scotland, who had honed their skills in petty advantage, were now all of a sudden called upon to act as strategists, and they failed completely. The prime minister lost the Carlisle to the Jacobites simply because he refused to pay the cost of a courier. These revelations, which show the Jacobite enterprise of 1745 as a potent and modernising force, turn the accepted interpretation of this episode on its head. As an impartial historian Christopher Duffy deals comprehensively with the reasons for ultimate triumph of the Hanoverian cause in 1746. Due credit is given to the Duke of Cumberland. He was an inspirational leader. He had the measure of the strength and weaknesses of the British Army, and he evolved the cautious and systematic kind of war that helped to bring him victory at Culloden on 16 April 1746. Conversely the Jacobites had been dogged even from the start of the Rising by their failure to reconcile two perspectives – that of Prince Charles, who was striving to reclaim the crown for the Stuarts in London, and the narrower visions of the more overtly Scottish party. It led to the contentious turn-around of the Jacobites at Derby, and finally and fatally to the dispersal and exhaustion of the Highland Army before Culloden. These assertions rest on the recent advances by other historians in ‘Jacobite studies’, and the author’s continuing researches in to unexploited primary sources. His documentary finds extend to the autobiography of Lieutenant-General Hawley, Lord George Murray’s explanations of key episodes of the Rising (and his detailed accompanying map of Culloden), the material collected by the restored Whig administration in Edinburgh towards an ‘official’ history of the Rising, the Reverend John Home’s detailed questioning of survivors, and much more. Lastly Duffy returns to his starting point, the enduring appeal of the ’45 to our instincts. He concludes that it comes from the elusive nature of the episode, recognised by tough-minded men of the time as something ‘epick’ and ‘miraculous’ – literally beyond rational explanation, and capable ever since of being re-fashioned according to our imaginings.

    From the thundering hooves of Mongol or Cossack cavalry across the steppes to the clanking of tanks on parade in Moscow or Beijing, elements of this system still cast a shadow on the region at the heart of Earth’s largest continent. By tracing the evolution of Central Asian warfare and diplomacy through a series of historical examples, ranging from the ancient Xiongnu people and medieval Mongol Empire to the fall of the Soviet Union, historian Christopher Mott argues that the original system of informal relationships, indirect rule, and rapid military movement did not entirely fade from the region with the eclipse of the nomadic powers during the Middle Ages. In fact, many states like China, Iran, and Russia had already been influenced by nomadic people, and in so doing adapted their own diplomatic and military policies accordingly. The Formless Empire: A Short History of Diplomacy and Warfare in Central Asia is an engaging study of the nature of non-Western imperialism and great-power strategy. In addition, the book demonstrates that regional histories can show us the variety of political possibilities in the past and how they were adapted to changing circumstances—a point made even more important by the rapid changes facing global security and new forms of empire building. “Christopher Mott’s extremely erudite and wide-ranging examination of the history of Central Asia shows us that we have been far too narrow-minded and Eurocentric in thinking about power and how the global system changes historically. Given the current interest in ‘caliphates’ we need to reflect on the history of the areas of the world that dance to a different historical drum than we do in the West.” —Andrew John Williams, author of France, Britain, and the United States in the Twentieth Century

    Until fate swept her aboard a pirate's ship and into its captain's embrace. Yet when he reveals a dark secret, her lover becomes her enemy.Ten years ago, Miles Zachary Fenton was framed for murder. For so long he has fought to clear his name and reclaim his dukedom. Now, when both appear to be just within reach, he is forced to abduct a meddling beauty, one who wreaks havoc with his emotions and complicates his plans.

    The story explores both the limitations and the possibilities of life in 18th century America, when any man or woman could be held as property, and ideals of equality were a distant dream. Rich with the details of life long ago, Callie’s journey of self-discovery reflects a timeless need for love and belonging.

    Any thought that he was destined to become one of the best known authors of his age would have been as fantastic as the last 37 years of his life. But in both cases the improbable came about. Becoming curate of Olney, a small village in the south of England, in 1764, Newton there laid his reputation as an evangelical writer, pre-eminently by his published letters and by the Olney Hymns (including ‘How Great the Name of Jesus Sounds, ‘Glorious things of Thee are spoken’ and ‘Amazing grace’). Before the end of his subsequent pastorate at St. Mary Woolnoth, London (1780-1807), his writings were prized around the world from America to Australia.Newton has a firm place in the classics of Christian literature. While his style is strong and clear, it is the spiritual attractiveness and importance of his main themes which secure the permanent value of his writings. Most of his books came, unpremeditated, out of a need to help his congregation or individual hearers, and it is in practical helpfulness towards Christian living that he excels. If he is loved rather than admired, it is for this reason. Conformity to Christ is the one subject upon which his themes finally focus (‘It will not be a burden to me at the hour of death that I have thought too highly of Jesus, expected too much from Him myself, or laboured too much in commending and setting Him forth to others’). Not surprisingly, Alexander Whyte could write, ‘For myself, I keep John Newton on my selectest shelf of spiritual books: by far the best kind of books in the whole world of books.’The text of this new four-volume edition of The Works of John Newton has been entirely reformatted, producing a clear and easily navigable set of documents for today’s reader.TES

    Francis Barber, born in Jamaica, was brought to London by his owner in 1750 and became a servant in the household of the renowned Dr. Samuel Johnson. Although Barber left London for a time and served in the British navy during the Seven Years’ War, he later returned to Johnson’s employ. A fascinating reversal took place in the relationship between the two men as Johnson’s health declined and the older man came to rely more and more upon his now educated and devoted companion. Johnson died in 1784, leaving the bulk of his estate to Barber, a generous (and at the time scandalous) legacy, and a testament to the depth of their friendship.   There were thousands of black Britons in the eighteenth century, but few accounts of their lives exist. In uncovering Francis Barber’s story, this book not only provides insights into his life and Samuel Johnson’s but also offers a window on London when slaves had yet to win their freedom.

    Each chapter presents the foremost summations of academic thinking on key topics, along with stimulating and provocative interpretations and suggestions for future research directions. Placing core dimensions of the history of the French Revolution in their transnational and global contexts, the contributors demonstrate that revolutionary times demand close analysis of sometimes tiny groups of key political actors - whether the king and his ministers or the besieged leaders of the Jacobin republic - and attention to the deeply local politics of both rural and urban populations. Identities of class, gender and ethnicity are interrogated, but so too are conceptions and practices linked to citizenship, community, order, security, and freedom: each in their way just as central to revolutionary experiences, and equally amenable to critical analysis and reflection.This Handbook covers the structural and political contexts that build up to give new views on the classic question of the 'origins of revolution'; the different dimensions of personal and social experience that illuminate the political moment of 1789 itself; the goals and dilemmas of the period of constitutional monarchy; the processes of destabilisation and ongoing conflict that ended that experiment; the key issues surrounding the emergence and experience of 'terror'; and the short- and long-term legacies, for both good and ill, of the revolutionary trauma - for France, and for global politics.

    Drawing on sources in a variety oflanguages and on the evidence of archaeology, anthropology, and history, the volume outlines the transformations that the acquisition of the horse wrought on a diverse range of groups within these four continents. It explores key topics such as changes in subsistence, technology, and belief systems, the horse's role in facilitating the emergence of more hierarchical social formations, and the interplay between ecology, climate, and human action in adopting the horse, as well as considering how far equestrian lifestyles were ultimately unsustainable.

    The stories give a detailed account of the trials, or tribulations, of those who were escorted through the doors of the formidable Warrington Bridewell, but also reveal a little glimpse of what life was like in the town during a time of industrial development and population growth. Whether your interest is true crime or local history, there is hopefully something here to interest you.

    He was the last governor of Christiansborg, the fort that, in the eighteenth century, had been the center of Danish slave trading in West Africa. She was the descendant of Ga-speaking women who had married Danish merchants and traders. Their marriage would have been familiar to Gold Coast traders going back nearly 150 years. In Daughters of the Trade, Pernille Ipsen follows five generations of marriages between African women and Danish men, revealing how interracial marriage created a Euro-African hybrid culture specifically adapted to the Atlantic slave trade.Although interracial marriage was prohibited in European colonies throughout the Atlantic world, in Gold Coast slave-trading towns it became a recognized and respected custom. Cassare, or "keeping house," gave European men the support of African women and their kin, which was essential for their survival and success, while African families made alliances with European traders and secured the legitimacy of their offspring by making the unions official.For many years, Euro-African families lived in close proximity to the violence of the slave trade. Sheltered by their Danish names and connections, they grew wealthy and influential. But their powerful position on the Gold Coast did not extend to the broader Atlantic world, where the link between blackness and slavery grew stronger, and where Euro-African descent did not guarantee privilege. By the time Severine Brock married Edward Carstensen, their world had changed. Daughters of the Trade uncovers the vital role interracial marriage played in the coastal slave trade, the production of racial difference, and the increasing stratification of the early modern Atlantic world.

    Where they saw Ashkenazic Jewry as insular and backward, a result of Christian persecution, they depicted the Sephardim as worldly, morally and intellectually superior, and beautiful, products of the tolerant Muslim environment in which they lived. In this elegantly written book, John Efron looks in depth at the special allure Sephardic aesthetics held for German Jewry.Efron examines how German Jews idealized the sound of Sephardic Hebrew and the Sephardim's physical and moral beauty, and shows how the allure of the Sephardic found expression in neo-Moorish synagogue architecture, historical novels, and romanticized depictions of Sephardic history. He argues that the shapers of German-Jewish culture imagined medieval Iberian Jewry as an exemplary Jewish community, bound by tradition yet fully at home in the dominant culture of Muslim Spain. Efron argues that the myth of Sephardic superiority was actually an expression of withering self-critique by German Jews who, by seeking to transform Ashkenazic culture and win the acceptance of German society, hoped to enter their own golden age.Stimulating and provocative, this book demonstrates how the goal of this aesthetic self-refashioning was not assimilation but rather the creation of a new form of German-Jewish identity inspired by Sephardic beauty.

    American actress Jennifer Leighton has been packing the John Street Theater with her witty comedies, but she longs to escape the provincial circuit for the glamour of the London stage. When the playwright General John Burgoyne visits the city, fresh from a recent success in the capitol, she seizes the opportunity to court his patronage. But her plan is foiled by British intelligence officer Severin Devere. Severin’s mission is to keep the pleasure-loving general focused on the war effort…and away from pretty young actresses. But the tables are turned when Severin himself can’t resist Jennifer Leighton…Months later, Jenny has abandoned her dreams of stage glory and begun writing seditious plays for the Rebels under the pen name “Cornelia,” ridiculing “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne and his army—and undermining the crown’s campaign to take Albany. By the time Severin meets up with Jenny once again, she is on a British hanging list, and Severin is ordered to find her—and deliver her to certain death. Soon, the two are launched on a desperate journey through the wilderness, toward a future shaped by the revolution—and their passion for each other…

    William III is on the throne and England is on the verge of war.Princess Anne is soon to become Queen, and her advisors vie for influence over the future monarch. Who can Anne turn to when even her most trusted friends seem bent on pursuing power?Contending with deceit and blackmail, Anne must decide where her allegiances lie, and whether to sacrifice her closest relationship for the sake of the country.Helen Edmundson's gripping play explores the little-known story of a monarch caught between friendship and duty. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 2015, in a production directed by Natalie Abrahami.

    How can there be anything new to say? This book seeks to distinguish fact from fiction, not only to produce a new biography but also to explore the concepts of biography and dissemination by using Handel's life and lives as a case study. By examining the images of Handel to be found in biographies and music histories - the genius, the religious profound, the master of musical styles, the distiller into music of English sentiment, the glorifier of the Hanoverians, the hymner of the middle class, the independent, the prodigious, the generous, the sexless, the successful, the wealthy, the bankrupt, the pious, the crude, the heroic, the devious, the battler of ill-fortune, the moral exemplar - and by adding new factual information, David Hunter shows how events are manipulated into stories and tropes. One such trope has been employed to portray numerous persons as Handel's enemies regardless of whether Handel considered them as such. Picking apart the writing of Handel's biographers and other reporters, Hunter exposes the narrative underpinnings - the lies, confusions, presumptions, and conclusions, whether direct and inferred or assumed - to show how Handel's 'lives' in biographies and histories have moulded our understanding of the musician, the man and the icon. DAVID HUNTER is Music Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin.

    His writings have inspired millions of Americans, and even now, more than 200 years after his death, his wit and humor still brighten lives all across the world. But what was this great man's view on faith? Was he really a Deist as so many historians have proposed? Was he a humanist like so many of his French friends? Is there any possibility that he could have been a Christian?In this unique volume, Bill Fortenberry has collected everything that Franklin wrote about his faith. From Franklin's admission that he became a Deist at the age of fifteen, to his letter to Ezra Stiles 69 years later, Fortenberry catalogues exactly how Franklin's religious views progressed throughout his life and gives us a glimpse of a side of Franklin that few Americans have ever seen.

    Firmin was a Haitian writer, journalist, and politician. He was best known for his 1885 book “De l'égalité des races humaines” (“On the Equality of Human Races“). This book was written to refute the famous racist 1855 book by the Frenchman Count de Gobineau, “Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines” (“Essay on the Inequality of Human Races“). Gobineau’s book claimed that the Aryan race was superior, while blacks and other races were inferior. Gobineau’s ideas would influence the 20th century Nazi movement in Germany.The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) transformed the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue into the independent nation of Haiti. Before the Revolution French planters in Saint-Domingue made huge profits by exploiting enslaved labourers on sugar and coffee plantations.The Haitian Revolution, which brought an end to slavery in Saint-Domingue/Haiti, began with a slave revolt in the summer of 1791 on Haiti’s northern plain. The first leader of the rebellion was an enslaved man named Boukman Dutty (or Bookman), who had come to Saint-Domingue from Jamaica. Boukman was killed in battle in the fall of 1791, a few months after the revolt began.The 1791 slave revolt began during a time of upheaval in Saint-Domingue that began with the 1789 French Revolution. After the French Revolution began, conflict broke out in the colony between various factions of whites and free people of colour. The people of colour, who had previously helped to maintain control over the colony’s enslaved majority, now demanded equal rights with whites. This led to fighting, including a 1790 revolt by free people of colour led by a merchant of colour named Vincent Ogé and Jean-Baptiste Chavannes.After Boukman’s death the leadership of the rebel forces was taken over by two other men, Georges Biassou and Jean-Francois. Under their leadership the rebels allied themselves with Spain and Britain against the French Republic. Later on another man, Toussaint Louverture, emerged as the most powerful black military commander in Saint-Domingue. Louverture defected to the French Republicans and helped them to defeat the pro-Spanish black armies and the British. Louverture then made himself governor of the colony, but was deposed in 1802 by an invasion force sent by Napoleon Bonaparte, and led by Napoleon’s brother-in-law Leclerc.Leclerc had Louverture deported to France, where the former governor died in prison. But the colony’s black population, including Louverture’s former lieutenants Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Henri Christophe, fought againt Leclerc and his successor Rochambeau. Eventually the French army was defeated, and Haiti declared its independence under with Dessalines as its first leader.

    Ever since he was turned, John Grissom, bacteriologist, has worked to find a cure for the disease. A powerful peer of the realm approaches him about research into the immunological properties of vampire blood, but Grissom discovers a far more gruesome scheme at play. He, his newly acquired assistant Henrietta, and the Prussian Van Helsing, a veteran vampire hunter in the employ of the Foreign Service, must seek out the elusive vampire lord before he succeeds in dramatically influencing the outcome of the war.

    In 1735, she had the opportunity to sign on for a five year term as an indentured servant to a British official residing on the American frontier in the Colony of Pennsylvania. Her ill, destitute, widowed father, realizing this was her chance to escape their harsh life where they worked their fingers to the bone and never had enough to eat, encouraged her to go. Knowing that distance and cost would prevent her from ever seeing her beloved "Papa" and friends again, Molly reluctantly put her mark on the agreement. On her trip to the new world, everything she saw and experienced was new to her. The book follows the joys and heartaches of Molly through her life as an indentured servant, as a young married woman raising a family, and the family's migration into the Virginia Colony. There, Molly's daughter Twirley leaves the family for an urban life in Philadelphia, and son Edward marries, has children and becomes a Revolutionary War hero. Intertwined into this family saga are some of the political and historical events that had an effect on the American people. A basically true story, the book is based on material in the Elizabeth Murphey Walker and Isaiah Walker Journal housed in the Alabama State Archives, in Edward Murphey's personal file housed in the United States National Archives, in two rare books written by Dr. Bobby Gilmer Moss, in official records found in Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama, in the archives of the National Park Service, and on family folklore.

    Gibbeting involved placing the executed body of a malefactor in an iron cage and suspending it from a tall post. A body might remain in the gibbet for many decades, while it gradually fell to pieces. Hanging in chains was a very different sort of post-mortem punishment from anatomical dissection, although the two were equal alternatives in the eyes of the law. Where dissection obliterated and de-individualised the body, hanging in chains made it monumental and rooted it in the landscape, adding to personal notoriety. Focusing particularly on the period 1752-1832, this book provides a summary of the historical evidence, the factual history of gibbetting which explores the locations of gibbets, the material technologies involved in hanging in chains, and the actual process from erection to eventual collapse. It also considers the meanings, effects and legacy of this gruesome practice.