{"product_id":"the-ballad-of-the-fugitive-william-parker","title":"The Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Best Book to Read this Fall According to \u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFor fans of \u003ci\u003eMaster Slave Husband Wife\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDjango Unchained \u003c\/i\u003ecomes the extraordinary forgotten story of an event known in its day as \"the first shots of the Civil War,\" from the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eDr. Mütter's Marvels\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe year, 1851. The place, a Quaker farming community turned Underground Railroad stronghold, where a Maryland enslaver had journeyed in pursuit of four men who'd fled his plantation years before. In a few hours, he'd be dead...and twenty-seven men from the village of Christiana would be rounded up and put on trial. Not for his murder, but for \u003ci\u003etreason\u003c\/i\u003e--for waging war against the United States, at a time when it was a crime against the government to obstruct an enslaver looking to reclaim his \"property.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is story of what happened in Christiana that September morning--and in the ensuing \"trial of the century,\" which saw the president himself advise the prosecution on strategy and a sitting congressman serve as lead attorney for the defense. But \u003ci\u003eThe Ballad of the Fugitive William Parker\u003c\/i\u003e is also a much larger tale, one spanning decades, following a whole startlingly diverse community of abolitionists in their fight to convince their fellow Americans of the subversive idea that now found itself on trial: that the nation ought to live up the ideals it was founded on, and respect all men as equals.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's a story that whisks readers from the quiet farmlands of Lancaster County--where a self-emancipated man named William Parker, whom legend had it bullets could not kill, rallied his neighbors to ride out each night to battle the slavecatchers who stalked their countryside--to Philadelphia's genteel Society Hill, where socialite Harriet Forten Purvis had the ear of the mayor (and a cellar filled with fugitives). It's stylish, propulsive, intimately human tale of bravery, ingenuity, and hope--and of ordinary people with little in common who came together to stand against injustice...and won.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":54245335269744,"sku":"9781668035931","price":31.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0954\/1304\/3568\/files\/imageloader_e949a8d9-3359-430d-ac1a-4eb9045b5fda.jpg?v=1788061622","url":"https:\/\/aveson.store\/products\/the-ballad-of-the-fugitive-william-parker","provider":"Aveson","version":"1.0","type":"link"}