The Manor: Three Centuries At A Slave Plantation On Long Island

In 1984, the landscape historian Mac Griswold was rowing along a Long Island creek when she came upon Sylvester Manor, a stately mansion guarded by hulking boxwoods. When Griswold went inside, she encountered a house full of revelations, including a letter from Thomas Jefferson and--most remarkable and disturbing--what the aged owner, Andrew Fiske, casually called the "slave staircase." This staircase would reveal the extensive but little-known story of Northern slavery, and in 1997 Griswold returned with a team of archaeologists, uncovering a landscape filled with stories. Based on years of research--and voyages that took her as far as West Africa--Griswold has given us both the biography of a place that has witnessed war and reversals in fortune, and the riveting story of the family that has occupied it for three centuries. A fine-grained account and a sweeping drama, The Manor captures American history in all its richness and contradictions. 9781250050205 1250050200 480 History NOT_MATURE http://books.google.com/books/content?id=SHssnwEACAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=5&source=gbs_api en

• • Author: Mac Griswold
• • Publisher: Picador
• • Publication Date: Apr 01, 2014
• • Number of Pages: 480 pages
• • Language: English
• • Binding: Paperback
• • ISBN-10: 1250050200
• • ISBN-13: 9781250050205