A MADMAN’S WILL: John Randolph, Four Hundred Slaves, and the Mirage of Freedom
Few cases in American history are as riveting as the controversy surrounding the will of Virginia congressman John Randolph (1773–1833). On May 4, 1846, the people enslaved at Randolph’s Roanoke Plantation were officially freed. Three hundred eighty-three newly emancipated people attempted to disembark on the Miami and Erie Canal in Mercer County, Ohio. This was one […]