Vigilance
The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad
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Narrated by:
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Cary Hite
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By:
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Andrew K. Diemer
About this listen
The remarkable and inspiring story of William Still, an unknown abolitionist who dedicated his life to managing a critical section of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia—the free state directly north of the Mason-Dixon line—helping hundreds of people escape from slavery
Born free in 1821 to two parents who had been enslaved, William Still was drawn to anti-slavery work from a young age. Hired as a clerk at the Anti-Slavery office in Philadelphia after teaching himself to read and write, he began directly assisting enslaved people who were crossing over from the South into freedom. Andrew Diemer captures the full range and accomplishments of Still’s life, from his resistance to Fugitive Slave Laws and his relationship with John Brown before the war, to his long career fighting for citizenship rights and desegregation until the early 20th century.
Despite Still’s disappearance from history books, during his lifetime he was known as “the Father of the Underground Railroad.” Working alongside Harriet Tubman and others at the center of the struggle for Black freedom, Still helped to lay the groundwork for long-lasting activism in the Black community, insisting that the success of their efforts lay not in the work of a few charismatic leaders, but in the cultivation of extensive grassroots networks.
Through meticulous research and engaging writing, Vigilance establishes William Still in his rightful place in American history as a major figure of the abolitionist movement.
©2022 Andrew K. Diemer (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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The Black History of the White House presents the untold history, racial politics, and shifting significance of the White House as experienced by African Americans, from the generations of enslaved people who helped to build it or were forced to work there to its first black first family, the Obamas.
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From Quarries to the Oval Office - Unforgettable
- By Susie on 07-14-16
By: Clarence Lusane
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Separate
- The Story of Plessy V. Ferguson, and America's Journey from Slavery to Segregation
- By: Steve Luxenberg
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court case synonymous with "separate but equal", created remarkably little stir when the justices announced their near-unanimous decision on May 18, 1896. Yet it is one of the most compelling and dramatic stories of the 19th century, whose outcome embraced and protected segregation, and whose reverberations are still felt into the 21st. Separate spans a striking range of characters and landscapes, bound together by the defining issue of their time and ours - race and equality.
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Black and White in shades of grey
- By JKC on 03-15-19
By: Steve Luxenberg
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The Zealot and the Emancipator
- John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Master storyteller and best-selling historian H. W. Brands narrates the epic struggle over slavery as embodied by John Brown and Abraham Lincoln - two men moved to radically different acts to confront our nation’s gravest sin. The Zealot and the Emancipator is acclaimed historian H. W. Brands' thrilling account of how two American giants shaped the war for freedom.
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I Never Knew That!
- By William G. Stuart on 10-19-20
By: H. W. Brands
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The War Before the War
- Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
- By: Andrew Delbanco
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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For decades after its founding, America was really two nations—one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the "united" states was actually a lie. Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on the principle of human equality was in fact a prison-house in which millions of Americans had no rights.
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Great promise greater disappointment
- By Amazon Customer on 12-09-18
By: Andrew Delbanco
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Why They Marched
- Untold Stories of the Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote
- By: Susan Ware
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born. But Susan Ware uncovered a much broader and more diverse story waiting to be told. Why They Marched is a tribute to the many women who worked tirelessly in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and insisting on their right to full citizenship.
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a needed history lesson
- By Jerseycookie on 05-14-22
By: Susan Ware
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Freedom's Dominion
- A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power
- By: Jefferson Cowie
- Narrated by: André Chapoy
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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American freedom is typically associated with the fight of the oppressed for a better world. But for centuries, whenever the federal government intervened on behalf of nonwhite people, many white Americans fought back in the name of freedom—their freedom to dominate others. In Freedom’s Dominion, historian Jefferson Cowie traces this complex saga by focusing on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace.
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Very easily read and I learned a lot
- By Kev All on 02-05-23
By: Jefferson Cowie
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The Failed Promise
- Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
- By: Robert S. Levine
- Narrated by: Ryan Vincent Anderson
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert S. Levine foregrounds the viewpoints of Black Americans on Reconstruction in his absorbing account of the struggle between the great orator Frederick Douglass and President Andrew Johnson.
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A timely review of the threat to the nation of a President who is unlistening to the “better angels of our nature.”
- By Karl R. Walko on 02-28-24
By: Robert S. Levine
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100 Amazing Facts About the Negro
- By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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With élan and erudition - and with winning enthusiasm - Henry Louis Gates Jr. gives us a corrective yet loving homage to Rogers' work. Relying on the latest scholarship, Gates leads us on a romp through African, diasporic, and African American history in question-and-answer format. Among the 100 questions: Who were Africa's first ambassadors to Europe? Who was the first black president in North America? Did Lincoln really free the slaves? Who was history's wealthiest person? What percentage of white Americans have recent African ancestry?
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great book
- By Anthony Costello on 06-14-18
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Abe
- Abraham Lincoln in His Times
- By: David S. Reynolds
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 33 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Abraham Lincoln did not come out of nowhere. But if he was shaped by his times, he also managed at his life's fateful hour to shape them to an extent few could have foreseen. Ultimately, this is the great drama that astonishes us still, and that Abe brings to fresh and vivid life. The measure of that life will always be part of our American education.
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A Cultural History is not a biography
- By Marc M. Sager on 11-09-20
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Prejudential
- Black America and the Presidents
- By: Margaret Kimberley
- Narrated by: Margaret Kimberley
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Prejudential is a concise, authoritative exploration of America’s relationship with race and Black Americans through the lens of the presidents who have been elected to represent all of its people.
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Some things never change
- By jeffrey W on 12-30-22
What listeners say about Vigilance
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kathleen Dalton
- 11-07-23
Important history of a brave man
I have read histories of the Underground Railroad and recently enjoyed The Agitators about Harriet Tubman, Mrs. Seward, and others involved in aiding fugitives seeking freedom from slavery. William Still worked with Tubman and others in Philadelphia and spent much of his adult life helping the Black community. What a lively and well-researched and told biography this is. I enjoyed it and learned a lot.
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- Mary B.
- 07-09-23
The heroes who freed the US from slavery
Well-told story of the incredibly courageous men and women who escaped from slavery and of all those who broke the "law" to help them to freedom. America needs more and more of this history. I grew up in the 1950s and 60s, and we never learned about the Great Migration in school - although we learned about the Irish, Germans, Italians, Chinese immigrants. We never learned about the black soldiers who ensured the Union won the Civil War - though Ulysses Grant praised their role in victory.
Narrator Cay Hite is excellent - articulate, good voice, and he doesn't end every sentence with 'upward inflection'! Well done.
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