J. William Harris. The Hanging of Thomas Jeremiah: A Free Black Man's Encounter with Liberty. Yale University Press, 2009. Virginia DeJohn Anderson. The Martyr and the Traitor: Nathan Hale, Moses Dunbar, and the American Revolution. Oxford University Press, 2019. Emma LeDent, University of Colorado Boulder Within the historical analysis of the American Revolution, much is often left unexplored by historians. In Virginia DeJohn Anderson’s The Martyr and the Traitor: Nathan Hale, Moses Dunbar, and the American Revolution and J. William Harris’s The Hanging of Thomas Jeremiah: A Free Black Man's Encounter with Liberty, primary and individualistic documents are utilized to further arguments of the greater cultural history of the era of the American Revolution.…show more content… Regardless, Thomas Jeremiah was placed in jail. Despite incessant claims of his innocence, Jeremiah was ultimately found guilty. Recently appointed Governor William Campbell had reservations about this verdict and begged for mercy, but ultimately failed. Both Campbell and Laurens watched from the crowd as Thomas Jeremiah was hanged for crimes he claimed not to have committed. Harris concludes by explaining how speculations varied following the execution: some believed Jeremiah was guilty, whereas others believed the case was manufactured as an excuse to raise a substantial militia. Anderson, in The Martyr and the Traitor, delves into the stories of Moses Dunbar and Nathan Hale and their historical perceptions. Throughout the book, Anderson argues for a reevaluation of said perceptions. Anderson begins her work by setting the stage upon which Moses Dunbar and Nathan Hale’s lives would play out. She does so by examining their fathers and the impact they left on the two men and their respective
