A balanced, comprehensively researched account of a grim period.
A probing examination of the causes and aftermath of the sale of 272 people enslaved by Catholic priests in 1838.
Swarns, a New York Times contributor and NYU journalism professor, expands on a story she published in the Times in 2016, in which she explored the sale of people enslaved by the Jesuit order in Maryland to plantation owners in Louisiana. The proceeds—approximately $4.5 million in today's dollars—were used to fund Georgetown University (then College) as well as Holy Cross in Massachusetts and Loyola College in Baltimore. The author smoothly weaves together the stories of the priests who, beginning in the 18th century, supervised plantations in Maryland, collectively becoming “one of the largest enslavers in Maryland,” and the families they enslaved, whose stories were passed down to their descendants. She carefully analyzes the economic rationales for both owning and ultimately selling the enslaved people, contrasting the monetary data with the devastating personal impacts of the sales, relocation, and enslavement of the people involved. Her careful look at the Jesuit hierarchy reveals both villains—e.g., the Georgetown president who squandered money and paid little attention to the lives of those sold to raise funds for the college—and more sympathetic figures, such as the priest who fought to allow families to remain together on one of the Maryland plantations and to raise and sell their own crops. Swarns also traces the family lines of the Mahoney family, beginning in the 17th century with a matriarch who was unjustly enslaved after being assured she could live as an indentured servant, leading up to sisters Anna and Louisa, one of whom was sold to a Louisiana plantation in 1838 while the other remained in Maryland, and then on to their present-day descendants. Both lively and scrupulously documented, the book brings to light a previously unknown piece of the history of slavery in the U.S.
A balanced, comprehensively researched account of a grim period.Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780399590863
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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