The gripping story of two hundred freed Mississippi slaves who sailed to Liberia to build a new colony—where the colonists’ repression of the native tribes would beget a tragic cycle of violence When a wealthy Mississippi cotton planter named Isaac Ross died in 1836; his will decreed that his plantation; Prospect Hill; should be liquidated and the proceeds from the sale be used to pay for his slaves’ passage to the newly established colony of Liberia in western Africa. Ross’s heirs contested the will for more than a decade in the state courts and legislature—prompting a deadly revolt in which a group of slaves burned Ross’s mansion to the ground—but the will was ultimately upheld. The slaves then emigrated to their new home; where they battled the local tribes and built vast plantations with Greek Revival–style mansions in a region the Americo- Africans renamed "Mississippi in Africa." The seeds of resentment sown over a century of cultural conflict between the colonists and tribal peoples exploded in the late twentieth century; begetting a civil war that rages in Liberia to this day. Tracking down Prospect Hill’s living descendants; deciphering a history ruled by rumor; and delivering the complete chronicle in riveting prose; journalist Alan Huffman has rescued a lost chapter of American history whose aftermath is far from over.
#809825 in Books 2013-03-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.90 x .80 x 6.90l; 1.50 #File Name: 1591148065352 pages
Review
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Viktor Suvorov's Stunning Revelation on Why Hitler Invaded the Soviet Union on June 22; 1941By Edmund P. LeighViktor Suvorov's Stunning Revelation on Why Hitler Invaded Soviet Union June 22; 1941. It wasn't so much for living space; it was for German survival. The reason for Hitler's Operation Barbarossa Suvorov lays out is that Stalin was preparing to invade from the East and take all of Western Europe and bring happiness to all of Europe after liquidating 10 % of the leaders (Like Katyn Forest). If Stalin could take the primary oil supplies of the Germans located in Romania then the Soviets could make short work of the Axis countries. No oil; No effective means for defense...........it would be relatively easy.It would be a relatively easy conquest while the Germans focused on Great Britain. But Stalin showed his hand and blundered at the November 1940 Soviet (Molotov) German conference in Berlin. There Molotov believing the Soviet position was unassailable while Germany was locked in battle with Britain provided Hitler the insight what the Soviet Union really wanted and would get or Germany would not get 1 M tons of oil per year to sustain their fight against the U.K.. Stalin was so confident that Germany would not attack him in the East he extorted the Third Reich and Hitler planned his preemptive attack that he knew would come in the near future. Stalin played his cards badly and badly miscalculated when he wanted to take all of Finland. He supported the Germans during the Robbentrop Molotov pact by supplying the axis with a 1 M tons of oil. Germany did not have high reserves of oil and without the Soviet help it could not have beaten the British and French in May of 1940. Stalin did not expect this; he expected a war similar to WW 1 and the Western Front. Also reinforcing Suvorov's theory is Nikita Kruschev's memoirs where he states that Stalin was extremely upset that the Germans anniliated the French forces by invading thru the Ardennes in May of 1940 and drove the British from the continent in 8 weeks of battle. Stalin had hoped that the British and French would weaken the Nazi forces for a much longer period of time.Where Stalin tipped his hand on his true intentions was the Nov 1940 Molotov Berlin summit where Stalin's representative basically blackmailed Hitler and his entourage by making impossible demands especially on stating that Finland represented a grave threat to the Soviet Union and therefore this nation of 4 M had to be completely destroyed to ensure that the Soviet Union would be safe in its worker's paradise. And from this you could argue that little Finland saved the world from communist conquests and liquidation of its elite in order to bring about the worker's paradise of the whole world but that is another story to be covered elsewhere. Yes history is fascinating; it seems we owe Finland and yes even Germany some gratitude from saving us from a Marxist nightmare.This is a must read for all WW 2 historians and readers who want to know what really happened in the 1939-1945 time period. Highest Recommendation !4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Another Piece of the Puzzle Regarding Casus Belli of WWII in EuropeBy John S. ReidThis book addresses a topic generally overlooked by historians when addressing events leading up to WWII in Europe - i.e.; the actions of the Soviet Union prior to June 21; 1941; when Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Many books have been written about the following course of the German-USSR war; but this is perhaps the first book to provide a close look at events within the USSR prior to the war.The author; Viktor Suvorov (a Soviet Union army intelligence officer who defected to the west in 1978) asserts that the Soviet Union was planning to attack Germany (and perhaps the rest of western Europe) mere weeks prior to the June 21; 1941 attack by Germany on the Soviet Union. Suvorov relies on Soviet documents recently available (i.e.; since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989); as well as information privy to him as a GRU officer; in making his case. To this end; he does an excellent job. Suvorov admits that he is not a historian; but is rather one trained to look at details; ask questions; and then draw conclusions. Given the fact that the USSR; under Stalin; habitually did not create written records of critical political decisions; and that many Soviet Union records regarding events leading up to; and during; WWII are still classified; Suvorov has done an excellent job of proving his case by relying on circumstantial evidence; and critical and logical analysis of the available evidence.I was originally tempted to give this book only a 4-star rating (for the following reasons); but ultimately decided that a 5-star rating was justified due to the ground-breaking revelations provided by Suvorov (and not provided heretofore by any other author on the subject; at least to my knowledge).(1) While Suvorov asserts (very effectively) that the USSR was planning an attack on Germany in the second half of 1941; he does not provide much information to show that Germany was aware of Stalin's plans to attack Germany; thus justifying the German first-strike attack on the Soviet Union. Perhaps that is beyond the scope of Surorov's book; but it would be still be interesting to know what Germany knew regarding Soviet intentions in early 1941; and would perhaps provide some closure on the issue (i.e.; German motivations for attacking USSR in 1941). Unfortunately; the Soviet Union was able to capture most of the German war records from Berlin in 1945; so perhaps there are some German documents that address this issue; but which are still being held in secrecy by Russia.(2) The provision of some maps to accompany the text would have been very helpful. As it was; I had to keep moving between the text and an atlas during many parts of the book.(3) Oftentimes the text gets bogged-down by details (e.g.; Red Army unit compositions; number of weapons; etc.) which could perhaps have been relegated to footnotes; thus making for an easier read of the main text.In order to obtain a comprehensive view of events leading up to WWII in Europe one needs to read several different accounts; and then synthesize the accounts in order to draw one's own conclusions. To this end; this book is perhaps best read along with "1939 - The War that Had Many Fathers" (Gerd Schultze-Rhonhof; 2011); which provides a German perspective of events leading up to WWII in Europe. Lord knows that there are many accounts available from the British and American perspective (and we all know how those accounts go - i.e.; the Brits and Yanks saved the world from Hitler). What the British and American versions tend to leave out is that by "saving the world from Hitler" the Brits and Yanks allowed the Soviet Union to dominate eastern Europe in 1945. To be frank; western Europe should be grateful to Hitler for attacking the Soviet Union in 1941; thus destroying the bulk of Stalin's invasion force which could have easily overrun all of western Europe in late 1941 and early 1942. Stalin grabbed as much of eastern Europe as he could at the end of WWII; and was only prevented from going further west in 1945 by the presence of mostly American troops in western Europe at that time; and the backbone of Harry Truman.4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful! An eye opener with tons of historical evidence.By DimitriosBefore reading this book I had many reservations; thinking that it was not possible for a writer to gather so much historical evidence about USSR's intention to strike Nazi Germany as to fill so many pages that the "Chief Culprit" has. I was wrong! Every single page of this amazing book is a revelation; a well-grounded argument about how Stalin planned to conquer Europe well before the Nazis came to power. Mr Suvorov was an intelligence officer in the old Soviet Army before going over to the West in 1978 - and he was really good in his work. He writes in a matter of fact style; he knows very well what fighter aircraft or armor or artillery can do; and how an army is prepared for offensive operations. His deep professional knowledge of the Red Army personalities; dogmas and organization; is evident and really terrific. Starting from things that everyone knows; like the Ribentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939 and concluding with the military preparations that Stalin ordered between 1939 and 1941; he presents a panorama of a very different World War II than the one we have in mind. Of course; this book is based on Suvorov's previous bestseller "Icebreaker"; but since in the meantime David Glantz published his own answer to Suvorov's theory with the book "Stumbling Colossus"; the "Chief Culprit" was enriched with a heavy dose of information and statistical data in order to support the author's thesis and refute Glantz's arguments.The Red Army of the '30s wasn't weak at all; but it was rather a powerful offensive force capable of striking deep in the enemy territory and smashing even the most sophisticated fortifications - like the Finnish "Mannerheim Line". Mr Suvorov proves beyond doubt that the Soviet tanks; planes and guns were far superior to the German ones even before 1941; that Stalin was fixed with the idea of striking against Germany when she would be weakened by the war in the West; and the Red Army made extensive preparations for this kind of offensive action. In the pages of his book; Mr Suvorov demolishes the myth of the "genius" Marshal Tukhachevsky; the myth of the awful Red Army performance in the Winter War of 1939; and the myth of the supposedly "decapitated" Red Army due to the Great Purge of 1936-38. Stalin not only was NOT AT ALL afraid of Hitler; but he did everything he could in order to erase the barrier of neutral countries that existed between the USSR and Germany; clearly in order to open the way for an attack against Germany and the heart of Europe. The chapters which analyse in detail the massive rail transfer of the multitude of armies of the First and Second Strategic Echelons from Central Asia and the Far East to the Soviet-German border from February to July 1941; were for me the most fascinating part of the book. The same applies for the operational alignment of the Soviet armies; how they were deployed literally ON the border with massive quantities of fuel and ammunition still on thousands railway cars; and how they presented ideal targets for encirclement in case the enemy stroke first. If Hitler had not crossed first the line on June 22nd; 1941 and waited for just two more weeks; he would have been attacked in July by a Soviet juggernaut of unimagined power. The fact that Hitler decided to attack first (because while talking to Molotov in November 1940 he got convinced that he simply didn't have any other realistic choice if he was to save the Romanian oil from Stalin's tanks that were poised to strike from Bessarabia); took the Soviets by complete surprise - not because they didn't anticipate such a bold move; but simply because the Wehrmacht didn't get properly prepared for a campaign in the East before striking!This book is highly recommended! While reading it you'll probably find yourself time and again wargaming an alternative historical course of events in your mind; had Stalin been the attacker and not the defender in 1941. Bit by bit; page by page; you'll realize that the pieces of a giant strategic puzzle fit into place; and your whole perception of World War II will dramatically change once and for all.
