Current Series Catalogue

A More Perfect Union:
Dark Bargain

The “Nation” was composed of competing cultures and social values before the Constitution was written. Bringing these opposing interests together in the Constitution was one of the greatest feats the Founding Fathers accomplished in establishing the United States. It incorporated the opinions of the Framers and all of the interests they represented, including provisions for slavery. This series examines the competing interests of slavery and race relations from the framing of the Constitution through the 19th century.

T. H. Breen and Stephen Innes, Myne Owne Ground: Race and Freedom on Virginia’s Eastern Shore 1640-1676
This history focuses on the changing social forces in Virginia that allowed black families to escape bondage but pushed their descendants into slavery.

Lawrence Goldstone, Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits and the Struggle for the Constitution
Goldstone chronicles the forging of the Constitution through the prism of the crucial compromises made by men consumed with the needs of the slave economy.

Julie Winch, A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten
This critical biography, the first serious work on his life and legacy, not only restores him to his rightful place in American history, but also presents readers with an invigorating and challenging new portrait of pre- and post-Revolutionary race relations and identities.

Roger W. Wilkins, Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism
Roger Wilkins asks, "Can I embrace founders who may have 'owned' some of my ancestors?" Wilkins's ringing affirmation of his dual loyalties offers an extraordinarily thoughtful and illuminating meditation on American history, in which he weaves family traditions and personal experience to form a deeply moving testament that is part history and part autobiography.

Charles Chestnutt, The Marrow of Tradition
Based upon the Wilmington, NC, race riot of 1898 and written in 1901, this historical novel makes a plea for racial justice.

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This series was developed with funds from the Delaware Humanities Forum, a state agency of the National Endowment for the Humanities.