Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Exemplary work of history by Pulitzer and Bancroft winner Taylor (History/Univ. of Virginia; Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction, 2012, etc.), who continues his deep-searching studies of American society on either side of the Revolution. The world the slaves made was one of fear and loathing--on the part of the masters, that is, who indeed waited in a "cocoon of dread" for the day when their "internal enemy" would finally pounce. That day first came with a series of events that form the heart of the book: namely, the arrival of the War of 1812 in Virginia, a conflict that itself was a source of conflict, inasmuch as most Virginians were sooner inclined to fight New Englanders than Englanders. When the British arrived, though, they recruited male slaves to join their army and navy as free men, and they relied on them for their "intimate, nocturnal knowledge of the byways and waterways of Virginia." The keyword is "nocturnal," for the conflict between master and slave was so great, Taylor asserts, that they contested ownership of the night, when slaves would travel more or less freely to attend dances and other social events, sleeping it off during the day, even as the masters demanded ever more work from them precisely in order to tire them enough to keep them from going abroad at night. One of the great ironies of Jefferson's ideal of white liberty, notes Taylor, was that as it expanded the middle class and with it the number of Tidewater slaveholders, it also broadened support for slavery itself. One of the ironies of the war, which would eventually produce just the uprising of the internal enemy the Virginians dreaded, was that, so inept was the federal response, it advanced the cause of states' rights, which would lead to the broader Civil War two decades after Nat Turner's revolt. Full of implication, an expertly woven narrative that forces a new look at "the peculiar institution" in a particular time and place.]]]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Escape from slavery in the antebellum South evokes images of secretive flight on the Underground Railroad or bizarre efforts like that of Box Brown, who hid in a small shipping crate sent north. Taylor, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, teaches at the University of California, Davis. In this revealing and engrossing study, he illustrates that a great factor in the liberation of thousands of slaves was the policy and intervention of the British government and military. Taylor concentrates on the six decades between the American Revolution and the slave revolt of Nat Turner, and he focuses on the Chesapeake region of Virginia. The area is dotted with numerous rivers flowing to the bay, and here hundreds of slaves paddled out to British warships, especially during the War of 1812. British naval officers, through a combination of military practicality and, in some cases, antislavery sentiments, encouraged and facilitated their flight. This, of course, served to reinforce the slaveholders to view their slaves as internal enemies. This is a well-written and scrupulously researched examination of an important aspect of the struggle against American slavery.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal
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In this well-written and engaging history, Pulitzer and Bancroft Prize winner Taylor (history, Univ. of California, Davis) zeros in on slavery in Virginia, particularly during the War of 1812, in the process revealing both the glaring hypocrisy of the Founders' views on slavery and the lengths to which they went to ensure control of the enslaved population. In engaging prose, Taylor presents the dynamic, cogent argument that for Southerners, their chattel represented a dangerous "fifth column" that, given the opportunity, would carry their "networks and nocturnal expertise" to invaders "enhancing their capacity to wage war in the Chesapeake." During the War of 1812, an alarming number of the "internal enemy" flocked to British camps, allowing the British to conduct raids deep into the Southern countryside. Verdict This is an accessible narrative of great scholarship that, similar to Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles, takes a new and distinct look at a topic of persistent attention. Writing with an understanding of his subject that is stunning to behold, Taylor again shows why he is the dean of early American history. A great work for early American history buffs and anyone interested in the evolution of slavery in America.-Brian Odom, Birmingham, AL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.