Henry Wiencek's Books

Master of the Mountain

Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves

By: Henry Wiencek

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Master of the Mountain

Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves

By: Henry Wiencek

Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Master of the Mountain, Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book—based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers—opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money. So far, historians have offered only easy irony or paradox to explain this extraordinary Founding Father who was an emancipationist in his youth and then recoiled from his own inspiring rhetoric and equivocated about slavery; who enjoyed his renown as a revolutionary leader yet kept some of his own children as slaves. But Wiencek's Jefferson is a man of business and public affairs who makes a success of his debt-ridden plantation thanks to what he calls the "silent profits" gained from his slaves—and thanks to a skewed moral universe that he and thousands of others readily inhabited. We see Jefferson taking out a slave-equity line of credit with a Dutch bank to finance the building of Monticello and deftly creating smoke screens when visitors are dismayed by his apparent endorsement of a system they thought he'd vowed to overturn. It is not a pretty story. Slave boys are whipped to make them work in the nail factory at Monticello that pays Jefferson's grocery bills. Parents are divided from children—in his ledgers they are recast as money—while he composes theories that obscure the dynamics of what some of his friends call "a vile commerce." Many people of Jefferson's time saw a catastrophe coming and tried to stop it, but not Jefferson. The pursuit of happiness had been badly distorted, and an oligarchy was getting very rich. Is this the quintessential American story?

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354

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published Date

ISBN 10

1466827785

ISBN 13

9781466827783

An Imperfect God

George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America

By: Henry Wiencek

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An Imperfect God

George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America

By: Henry Wiencek

An Imperfect God is a major new biography of Washington, and the first to explore his engagement with American slavery When George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his slaves free; earlier he had said that holding slaves was his "only unavoidable subject of regret." In this groundbreaking work, Henry Wiencek explores the founding father's engagement with slavery at every stage of his life--as a Virginia planter, soldier, politician, president and statesman. Washington was born and raised among blacks and mixed-race people; he and his wife had blood ties to the slave community. Yet as a young man he bought and sold slaves without scruple, even raffled off children to collect debts (an incident ignored by earlier biographers). Then, on the Revolutionary battlefields where he commanded both black and white troops, Washington's attitudes began to change. He and the other framers enshrined slavery in the Constitution, but, Wiencek shows, even before he became president Washington had begun to see the system's evil. Wiencek's revelatory narrative, based on a meticulous examination of private papers, court records, and the voluminous Washington archives, documents for the first time the moral transformation culminating in Washington's determination to emancipate his slaves. He acted too late to keep the new republic from perpetuating slavery, but his repentance was genuine. And it was perhaps related to the possibility--as the oral history of Mount Vernon's slave descendants has long asserted--that a slave named West Ford was the son of George and a woman named Venus; Wiencek has new evidence that this could indeed have been true. George Washington's heroic stature as Father of Our Country is not diminished in this superb, nuanced portrait: now we see Washington in full as a man of his time and ahead of his time.

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505

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Macmillan + ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

1466856599

ISBN 13

9781466856592

The Hairstons

An American Family in Black and White

By: Henry Wiencek

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The Hairstons

An American Family in Black and White

By: Henry Wiencek

As the country enters a new era of conversations around race and the enduring impact of slavery, The Hairstons traces the rise and fall of the largest slaveholding family in the Old South as its descendants—both black and white—grapple with the twisted legacy of their past. Spanning two centuries of one family’s history, The Hairstons tells the extraordinary story of the Hairston clan, once the wealthiest family in the Old South and the largest slaveholder in America. With several thousand black and white members, the Hairstons of today share a complex and compelling history: divided in the time of slavery, they have come to embrace their past as one family. For seven years, journalist Henry Wiencek combed the far-reaching branches of the Hairston family tree to piece together a family history that involves the experiences of both plantation owners and their slaves. Crisscrossing the old plantation country of Virginia, North Carolina, and Mississippi, The Hairstons reconstructs the triumphant rise of the remarkable children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of the enslaved as they fought to take their rightful place in mainstream America. It also follows the white descendants through the decline and fall of the Old South, and uncovers the hidden history of slavery's curse—and how that curse followed slaveholders for generations. Expertly weaving stories of horror, tragedy, and heroism, The Hairstons addresses our nation’s attempt to untangle the twisted legacy of the past, and provides a transcendent account of the human power to overcome.

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497

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Macmillan + ORM

Published Date

ISBN 10

1250276152

ISBN 13

9781250276155

Master of the Mountain

Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves

By: Henry Wiencek

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Master of the Mountain

Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves

By: Henry Wiencek

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354

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Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published Date

ISBN 10

1466827785

ISBN 13

9781466827783

The Hairstons

An American Family in Black and White

By: Henry Wiencek

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The Hairstons

An American Family in Black and White

By: Henry Wiencek

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497

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Macmillan + ORM

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ISBN 10

1250276152

ISBN 13

9781250276155

The Moodys of Galveston and Their Mansion

By: Henry Wiencek

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The Moodys of Galveston and Their Mansion

By: Henry Wiencek

In 1900, just a few months after the deadly hurricane of September, W. L. Moody Jr. and his family moved into the four-story mansion at the corner of Broadway and Twenty-sixth Street in Galveston. For the next eight decades, the Moody family occupied the 28,000-square-foot home: raising a family, creating memories, building business empires, and contributing their considerable wealth and influence for the betterment of their beloved city. In 1983, Hurricane Alicia damaged the mansion, and Mary Moody Northen, eldest child of W. L. Moody Jr., moved out so a major restoration could begin. When the mansion opened to the public as a museum, education center, and location for community gatherings in 1991, it had been restored to its original grandeur. The Mary Moody Northen Endowment then commissioned award-winning author Henry Wiencek to write a history of the Moodys of Galveston and their celebrated home. Robert L. Moody Sr., grandson of W. L. Moody Jr. and nephew of Mary Moody Northen, contributes a foreword, giving a brief introduction and personal tone to the book, which also features fifteen color photographs of the Moodys and their home. An epilogue by E. Douglas McLeod summarizes the family’s accomplishments and developments associated with the mansion since Northen’s death in 1986. The Moodys of Galveston and Their Mansion is a must-read for Galvestonians, for the thousands of visitors who tour the mansion each year, and for anyone interested in the captivating tale of this influential and generous family and their magnificent house.

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132

Publisher

Texas A&M University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1603441824

ISBN 13

9781603441827

An Imperfect God

George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America

By: Henry Wiencek

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An Imperfect God

George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America

By: Henry Wiencek

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505

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Macmillan + ORM

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ISBN 10

1466856599

ISBN 13

9781466856592

Oil Cities

The Making of North Louisiana’s Boomtowns, 1901-1930

By: Henry Alexander Wiencek

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Oil Cities

The Making of North Louisiana’s Boomtowns, 1901-1930

By: Henry Alexander Wiencek

How international oil companies navigated the local, segregated landscape of north Louisiana in the first decades of the twentieth century. In 1904, prospectors discovered oil in the rural parishes of North Louisiana just outside Shreveport. As rural cotton fields gave way to dense, industrial centers of energy extraction, migrants from across the US—and the world—rushed to take a share of the boom. The resulting boomtowns, most notoriously Oil City, quickly gained a reputation for violence, drinking, and rough living. Meanwhile, North Louisiana’s large Black population endured virulent white supremacy in the oil fields and the courtrooms to earn a piece of the boom, including one Black woman who stood to become the wealthiest oil heiress in America. In Oil Cities, Henry Wiencek uncovers what life was like amidst the tent cities, saloons, and oil derricks of North Louisiana’s oil boomtowns, tracing the local experiences of migrants, farmers, sex workers, and politicians as they navigated dizzying changes to their communities. This first historical monograph on the region’s dramatic oil boom reveals a contested history, in which the oil industry had to adapt its labor, tools, and investments to meet North Louisiana’s unique economic, social, political, and environmental dynamics.

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Page Count

259

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1477329196

ISBN 13

9781477329191

Oil Cities

The Making of North Louisiana’s Boomtowns, 1901-1930

By: Henry Alexander Wiencek

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Oil Cities

The Making of North Louisiana’s Boomtowns, 1901-1930

By: Henry Alexander Wiencek

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259

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University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1477329196

ISBN 13

9781477329191

The African Americans

Many Rivers to Cross

By: Henry Louis Gates (Jr.),Donald Yacovone

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The African Americans

Many Rivers to Cross

By: Henry Louis Gates (Jr.),Donald Yacovone

Chronicles five hundred years of African-American history from the origins of slavery on the African continent through Barack Obama's second presidential term, examining contributing political and cultural events.

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Page Count

321

Publisher

Smiley Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1401935141

ISBN 13

9781401935146

Pearl's Secret

A Black Man's Search for His White Family

By: Neil Henry

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Pearl's Secret

A Black Man's Search for His White Family

By: Neil Henry

Pearl's Secret is a remarkable autobiography and family story that combines elements of history, investigative reporting, and personal narrative in a riveting, true-to-life mystery. In it, Neil Henry—a black professor of journalism and former award-winning correspondent for the Washington Post—sets out to piece together the murky details of his family's past. His search for the white branch of his family becomes a deeply personal odyssey, one in which Henry deploys all of his journalistic skills to uncover the paper trail that leads to blood relations who have lived for more than a century on the opposite side of the color line. At the same time Henry gives a powerful and vivid account of his black family's rise to success over the twentieth century. Throughout the course of this gripping story the author reflects on the part that racism and racial ignorance have played in his daily life—from his boyhood in largely white Seattle to his current role as a parent and educator in California. The contemporary debate over the significance of Thomas Jefferson's longtime romantic relationship with his slave, Sally Hemings, and recent DNA evidence that points to his role as the father of black descendants, have revealed the importance and volatility of the issue of dual-race legacies in American society. As Henry uncovers the dramatic history of his great-great-grandfather—a white English immigrant who fought as a Confederate officer in the Civil War, found success during Reconstruction as a Louisiana plantation owner, and enjoyed a long love affair with Henry's great-great-grandmother, a freed black slave—he grapples with an unsettling ambivalence about what he is trying to do. His straightforward, honest voice conveys both the pain and the exhilaration that his revelations bring him about himself, his family, and our society. In the book's stunning climax, the author finally meets his white kin, hears their own remarkable story of survival in America, and discovers a great deal about both the sting of racial prejudice as it is woven into the fabric of the nation, and his own proud identity as a teacher, father, and black American.

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356

Publisher

Univ of California Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0520227301

ISBN 13

9780520227309

Black History

More Than Just a Month

By: Mike Henry

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Black History

More Than Just a Month

By: Mike Henry

Over the years, history has become the forgotten child of the academic household. Only recently has it been brought to our attention that our students don't know even basic American history. In June 2011, results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that U.S. students were less proficient in American history than any other subject. Teachers need to make learning American history fun and stop teaching to the test. Some of the most interesting people and events of the past are often bypassed in the classroom. This includes a large number of African-Americans who helped build this country. Black History: More than Just a Month pays tribute to these forgotten individuals and their accomplishments. There are many individuals who have changed our history and, even if they don't make it onto the state test, their accomplishments deserve attention. Some of the people included are war heroes, inventors, celebrities, and athletes. This book is great for history buffs and will be a good supplement to any history class. Book jacket.

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Page Count

192

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1475802617

ISBN 13

9781475802610

Oilfield Chemistry and its Environmental Impact

By: Henry A. Craddock

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Oilfield Chemistry and its Environmental Impact

By: Henry A. Craddock

Consolidates the many different chemistries being employed to provide environmentally acceptable products through the upstream oil and gas industry This book discusses the development and application of green chemistry in the oil and gas exploration and production industry over the last 25 years — bringing together the various chemistries that are utilised for creating suitable environmental products. Written by a highly respected consultant to the oil and gas industry — it introduces readers to the principles and development of green chemistry in general, and the regulatory framework specific to the oil and gas sector in the North Sea area and elsewhere in the world. It also explores economic drivers pertaining to the application of green chemistry in the sector. Topics covered in Oilfield Chemistry and its Environmental Impact include polymer chemistry, surfactants and amphiphiles, phosphorus chemistry, inorganic salts, low molecular weight organics, silicon chemistry and green solvents. It also looks at sustainability in an extractive industry, examining the approaches used and the other methodologies that could be applied in the development of better chemistries, along with discussions about where the application of green chemistry is leading in this industry sector. Provides the reader with a ready source of reference when considering what chemistries are appropriate for application to oilfield problems and looking for green chemistry solutions Brings together the pertinent regulations which workers in the field will find useful, alongside the chemistries which meet the regulatory requirements Written by a well-known specialist with a combined knowledge of chemistry, manufacturing procedures and environmental issues Oilfield Chemistry and its Environmental Impact is an excellent book for oil and gas industry professionals as well as scientists, academic researchers, students and policy makers.

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Page Count

774

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons

Published Date

ISBN 10

1119244277

ISBN 13

9781119244271

100 Amazing Facts About the Negro

By: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

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100 Amazing Facts About the Negro

By: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The first edition of Joel Augustus Rogers’s now legendary 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with Complete Proof, published in 1934, was billed as “A Negro ‘Believe It or Not.’” Rogers’s little book was priceless because he was delivering enlightenment and pride, steeped in historical research, to a people too long starved on the lie that they were worth nothing. For African Americans of the Jim Crow era, Rogers’s was their first black history teacher. But Rogers was not always shy about embellishing the “facts” and minimizing ambiguity; neither was he above shock journalism now and then. With élan and erudition—and with winning enthusiasm—Henry Louis Gates, Jr. gives us a corrective yet loving homage to Roger’s work. Relying on the latest scholarship, Gates leads us on a romp through African, diasporic, and African-American history in question-and-answer format. Among the one hundred questions: Who were Africa’s first ambassadors to Europe? Who was the first black president in North America? Did Lincoln really free the slaves? Who was history’s wealthiest person? What percentage of white Americans have recent African ancestry? Why did free black people living in the South before the end of the Civil War stay there? Who was the first black head of state in modern Western history? Where was the first Underground Railroad? Who was the first black American woman to be a self-made millionaire? Which black man made many of our favorite household products better? Here is a surprising, inspiring, sometimes boldly mischievous—all the while highly instructive and entertaining—compendium of historical curiosities intended to illuminate the sheer complexity and diversity of being “Negro” in the world. (With full-color illustrations throughout.)

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Page Count

497

Publisher

Pantheon

Published Date

ISBN 10

0307908712

ISBN 13

9780307908711

The Moodys of Galveston and Their Mansion

By: Henry Wiencek

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The Moodys of Galveston and Their Mansion

By: Henry Wiencek

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

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Page Count

132

Publisher

Texas A&M University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1603441824

ISBN 13

9781603441827

Book's by Henry Wiencek

Master of the Mountain

Master of the Mountain

An Imperfect God

An Imperfect God

The Hairstons

The Hairstons

Master of the Mountain

Master of the Mountain

The Hairstons

The Hairstons

The Moodys of Galveston and Their Mansion

The Moodys of Galveston and Their Mansion

An Imperfect God

An Imperfect God

Oil Cities

Oil Cities

Oil Cities

Oil Cities

The African Americans

The African Americans

Pearl's Secret

Pearl's Secret

Black History

Black History

Oilfield Chemistry and its Environmental Impact

Oilfield Chemistry and its Environmental Impact

100 Amazing Facts About the Negro

100 Amazing Facts About the Negro

The Moodys of Galveston and Their Mansion

The Moodys of Galveston and Their Mansion

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