The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World

NEW YORK TIMES EDITOR'S CHOICESAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE RECOMMENDED BOOKWINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZEOne morning in 1805, off a remote island in the South Pacific, Captain Amasa Delano, a New England seal hunter, climbed aboard a distressed Spanish ship carrying scores of West Africans he thought were slaves. They weren't. In fact, they were performing an elaborate ruse, having risen up earlier and slaughtered most of the crew and officers. When Delano, an idealistic, anti-slavery republican, finally realized the deception-that the men and women he thought were humble slaves were actually running the ship-he rallied his crew to respond with explosive violence. Drawing on research on four continents, The Empire of Necessity is the untold history of this extraordinary event and its bloody aftermath.