{"title":"Books by Christian M. McBurney","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"dark-voyage","title":"Dark Voyage","description":"At the start of the American War of Independence, Great Britain dominated overseas commerce and was the leading slave-trading nation in the world. In 1776, American privateers—privately owned ships granted commissions by the Continental Congress to attack and disrupt enemy trade—began to prey on British merchantmen.  Some privateers captured British slave ships with African captives on board just before they arrived at their Caribbean Island destinations.                One privateer was given an extraordinary task: to sail across the Atlantic to attack British slave trading posts and ships on the coast of West Africa. Based on a little-known contemporary primary source, The Journal of the Good Ship Marlborough, the story of this remarkable voyage is told here for the first time and will have a major impact on our understanding of the Atlantic slave trade and the American Revolution. The voyage of the Marlborough was the brainchild of John Brown, a prominent Rhode Island merchant—and an investor in two slave trading voyages himself. The motivation was not altruistic. The officers and crew of the Marlborough wanted to advance the cause of independence from Britain through harming Britain’s economy, but they also desired to enrich themselves by selling the plunder they captured—including enslaved Africans.                The work of the Marlborough and other American privateers was so disruptive that it led to an unintended consequence: virtually halting the British slave trade. British slave merchants, alarmed at losing money from their ships being captured, invested in many fewer slave voyages.  As a result tens of thousands of Africans were not forced onto slave ships, transported to the New World, and consigned to a lifetime of slavery or an early death.                In Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War on Britain’s African Slave Trade, veteran researcher and writer Christian McBurney recreates the harrowing voyage of the Marlborough, while placing it in the context of Atlantic World slavery. In Africa, Marlborough’s officers come across an array of African and European slave traders willing to assist them in attacking the British. This book is also the first study to detail the many captures American privateers made of British slave ships during the Revolutionary War.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504938492277,"sku":"9781594163821","price":28.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781594163821.jpg?v=1786953857"},{"product_id":"kidnapping-the-enemy","title":"Kidnapping the Enemy","description":"The Daring Raid to Kidnap a British General in Order to Gain Freedom for the Highest Ranking Continental Officer Captured During the American RevolutionOn the night of December 12, 1776, while on a reconnaissance mission in New Jersey, Lieutenant Colonel William Harcourt and Cornet Banastre Tarleton of the British dragoons learned from Loyalist informers that Major General Charles Lee, the second-in-command in the Continental army behind only George Washington, was staying at a tavern at nearby Basking Ridge. Gaining valuable information as they rode, by threatening captured American soldiers with death if Lee’s whereabouts was not revealed, Harcourt and Tarleton, surrounded the tavern, and after a short but violent struggle, captured him. The dragoons returned through a hostile country by a different route, arriving safely at their British post at New Brunswick with their quarry in hand. With Lee’s capture, the British were confident the rebellion would soon be over.Stung by Lee’s kidnapping, the Americans decided to respond with their own special operation, perhaps the most outstanding one of the war. On the dark night of July 10, 1777, Lieutenant Colonel William Barton led a handpicked party in whaleboats across Narragansett Bay—carefully avoiding British navy ships—to Newport, Rhode Island. Although the town was occupied by more than 3,000 enemy soldiers, after landing Barton led his men up a hidden path and stealthily hurried to a farmhouse where General Richard Prescott had taken to spending nights. Surrounding the house, they forced open the doors and seized the sleeping Prescott, as well as his aidede- camp and a sentry, and then quickly returned to their waiting boats. Despite British artillerymen firing rockets and cannon to alert the British vessels in the bay, the bold band of Americans reached the mainland safely. Not only had Barton kidnapped a British major general who could be exchanged for Lee, he had removed from action a man who had gained a reputation for his harsh treatment of American Patriots.In Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee and Richard Prescott, Christian M. McBurney relates the full story of each of these remarkable raids, the subsequent exchange of the two generals, and the impact of these kidnappings on the Revolutionary War. He then follows the subsequent careers of the major players, including Lee, Barton, Prescott, and Tarleton. The author completes his narrative with descriptions of other attempts to kidnap high-ranking military officers and government officials during the war, including ones organized by and against George Washington. The low success rate of these operations makes the raids that captured Lee and Prescott even more impressive.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504981713269,"sku":"9781594164385","price":22.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781594164385.jpg?v=1791213360"},{"product_id":"an-unfinished-war","title":"An Unfinished War","description":"In the crucible of the American Revolution, a remarkable group of men took up arms to fight for a country that asserted all men are created equal. The Black, American Indian (mostly Narragansett), and multiracial soldiers of the 1st Rhode Island’s “Black Regiment” shouldered muskets to help birth a nation whose founding promises of liberty and equality had yet to extend to them. Some of these men had previously served in integrated Rhode Island regiments, helping to successfully defend Fort Mercer at Red Bank in 1777 and surviving the brutal winter at Valley Forge. After the 1st Rhode Island was reestablished as a segregated unit in early 1778, the regiment made a memorable stand during the Battle of Rhode Island, helping to repel three assaults by British army troops. Devastated by disease following the Yorktown campaign, the regiment’s soldiers of color participated in the little-known Oswego Expedition during a severe snowstorm in the winter of 1783, the final campaign of the Revolution. After the war, the regiment’s surviving veterans hoped that their service would entitle them to the same rights as other citizens—but it was not to be. Today, the 1st Rhode Island is one of the most famous regiments of the Revolutionary War.   Deeply researched and compellingly told, An Unfinished War: A History of Rhode Island’s “Black Regiment” in the American Revolution by Christian McBurney follows the story of these soldiers from recruitment and first battles to their harrowing wartime experiences and postwar lives. Drawing on army muster rolls, pension records, contemporary diaries, and other archival documents, the author dismantles longstanding myths while uncovering new truths about the men who served, including the identification of more than 130 enslaved men who obtained their freedom by enlisting in the regiment. The author also describes how the regiment’s memory was used to promote civil rights throughout our nation’s history, including in the struggle to employ Black troops in the Union Army during the Civil War. With its clear and insightful narrative, An Unfinished War is a compelling American story that begins on the battlefields of the War for Independence and echoes powerfully into our own time.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57505001931125,"sku":"9781594164781","price":24.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-christian-m-mcburney.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}