The Internal Enemy
Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832
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Narrated by:
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Bronson Pinchot
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By:
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Alan Taylor
About this listen
National Book Award Finalist
This searing story of slavery and freedom in the Chesapeake by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian reveals the pivot in the nation’s path between the founding and civil war. Frederick Douglass recalled that slaves living along Chesapeake Bay longingly viewed sailing ships as "freedom’s swift-winged angels". In 1813 those angels appeared in the bay as British warships coming to punish the Americans for declaring war on the empire. Over many nights, hundreds of slaves paddled out to the warships seeking protection for their families from the ravages of slavery. The runaways pressured the British admirals into becoming liberators. As guides, pilots, sailors, and marines, the former slaves used their intimate knowledge of the countryside to transform the war. They enabled the British to escalate their onshore attacks and to capture and burn Washington, D.C. Tidewater masters had long dreaded their slaves as "an internal enemy." By mobilizing that enemy, the war ignited the deepest fears of Chesapeake slaveholders. It also alienated Virginians from a national government that had neglected their defense. Instead they turned south, their interests aligning more and more with their section. In 1820 Thomas Jefferson observed of sectionalism: "Like a firebell in the night [it] awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once the knell of the union." The notes of alarm in Jefferson's comment speak of the fear aroused by the recent crisis over slavery in his home state. His vision of a cataclysm to come proved prescient. Jefferson's startling observation registered a turn in the nation’s course, a pivot from the national purpose of the founding toward the threat of disunion. Drawn from new sources, Alan Taylor's riveting narrative re-creates the events that inspired black Virginians, haunted slaveholders, and set the nation on a new and dangerous course.
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- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. It's a stirring narrative, and one the founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched and elegantly written account of America’s founding, the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil war—one that shaped the nation, and the British Empire, in ways we have only begun to understand.
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very biased.
- By Andy T on 07-20-17
By: Holger Hoock
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Lion of Liberty
- Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Known to generations of Americans for his stirring call to arms, “Give me liberty or give me death,” Patrick Henry is all but forgotten today as the first of the Founding Fathers to call for independence, the first to call for revolution, and the first to call for a bill of rights. If Washington was the “Sword of the Revolution” and Jefferson, “the Pen,” Patrick Henry more than earned his epithet as “the Trumpet” of the Revolution for rousing Americans to arms in the Revolutionary War.
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A Decent Book on an Amazing Character
- By David I. Williams on 05-13-13
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Don't Know Much About the Civil War
- Everything You Need to Know About America's Greatest Conflict but Never Learned
- By: Kenneth C. Davis
- Narrated by: Dick Estell
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions of Americans, bored by dull textbooks, are in the dark about the most significant event in our history. Now New York Times bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes to the rescue, deftly sorting out the players, the politics, and the key events—Emancipation and Reconstruction, Shiloh and Gettysburg, Generals Grant and Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe—and much more.
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Good Civil War book
- By Steven on 08-04-12
By: Kenneth C. Davis
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Mr. Jefferson's Hammer
- William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy
- By: Robert M. Owens
- Narrated by: Doug McDonald
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Often remembered as the president who died shortly after taking office, William Henry Harrison remains misunderstood by most Americans. Before becoming the ninth president of the United States in 1841, Harrison was instrumental in shaping the early years of westward expansion. Robert M. Owens now explores that era through the lens of Harrison’s career, providing a new synthesis of his role in the political development of Indiana Territory and in shaping Indian policy in the Old Northwest.
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Title = Truth in Advertising
- By William Jenks on 06-18-19
By: Robert M. Owens
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Harriet Tubman
- The Road to Freedom
- By: Catherine Clinton
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Celebrated for her courageous exploits as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman has entered history as one of 19th-century America's most enduring and important figures. But just who was this remarkable woman?
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Returning this book
- By KMS on 07-11-18
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George Washington
- The Wonder of the Age
- By: John Rhodehamel
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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As editor of the award-winning Library of America collection of George Washington's writings and a curator of the great man's original papers, John Rhodehamel has established himself as an authority of our nation's preeminent founding father. Rhodehamel examines George Washington as a public figure, arguing that the man - who first achieved fame in his early twenties - is inextricably bound to his mythic status.
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Not what I expected for an unabridged book
- By David Osborne Jr. on 04-13-17
By: John Rhodehamel
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Revolution Song
- A Story of American Freedom
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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From the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today. With America's founding principles being debated today as never before, Russell Shorto looks back to the era in which those principles were forged. Drawing on new sources, he weaves the lives of six people into a seamless narrative that casts fresh light on the range of experience in colonial America on the cusp of revolution.
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An inspiring book
- By Frank on 08-27-18
By: Russell Shorto
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Ethan Allen
- His Life and Times
- By: Willard Sterne Randall
- Narrated by: Mark Whitten
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The long-awaited biography of the frontier Founding Father whose heroic actions and neglected writings inspired an entire generation, from Paine to Madison. On May 10, 1775, in the storm-tossed hours after midnight, Ethan Allen, the Revolutionary firebrand, was poised for attack. With only two boatloads of his scraggly band of Vermont volunteers having made it across the wind-whipped waters of Lake Champlain, he was waiting for the rest of his Green Mountain boys to arrive....
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There were parts that were really good.
- By Michael on 11-11-13
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The Making of America: Volume 1
- Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln
- By: Teri Kanefield
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Unlike other biographies, the Making of America series goes beyond individual narratives linking influential figures to create an overarching story of America's growth that will deepen understanding of the country we live in today. This bundle featuring Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, and Andrew Jackson tells the story of American constitutional history from the founding of the nation through the end of the Civil War.
By: Teri Kanefield
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The Scratch of a Pen
- 1763 and the Transformation of North America
- By: Colin G. Calloway
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In February, 1763, Britain, Spain, and France signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the French and Indian War. In this one document, more American territory changed hands than in any treaty before or since. As the great historian Francis Parkman wrote, "half a continent...changed hands at the scratch of a pen."
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Poor account - there are better
- By Brian on 07-18-06
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Book Like Administration: Well-Meaning But Flawed
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What listeners say about The Internal Enemy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- M. May
- 03-25-14
Excellent Examination of Slavery in Virginia
Would you listen to The Internal Enemy again? Why?
Alan Taylor's study of slavery in Virginia during the years of the War of 1812 offers new insights for historians, and a fascinating story for those interested in slavery or the antebellum South.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Erin Riggs
- 06-25-19
Interesting history, reader terrible
The history is very interesting and a side of US history overlooked in the past. The reader is so slowe and flat and boring I had to listen at 2x the speed.
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- Gary LA
- 02-01-15
A prize-winner
I have read/listen to many books about this era, but the author's thorough analysis of slavery in Virginia clearly described how Virginians became trapped into supporting slavery. Most historians skim past discussion of the U.S. Presidents from Virginia slave owning. All thought they treated their slaves liked them, but all had slaves who ran away. A marvelous book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 06-25-22
Performance marred by mispronunciation of names
An otherwise strong performance suffers, at least for those of us who know the Chesapeake and the Tidewater, from Mr. Pinchot’s mispronunciation of names with which he evidently was not familiar, e.g., Bladensburg, Nomini and Taney.
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- Leslie W. Stewart III
- 11-15-18
A must read.
Informative and loaded with great historical stories that allows you to see, in your mind, what other books were only hinting at. If you're into Black genealogy this is a must read. It clearly explains the shuffling of families from one plantation to the next then state to state then country to country.
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- Cate F.
- 05-15-14
Vivid & Fascinating
Certainly worthy of its Pulitzer Prize, at least to someone who has lived in Richmond for the past 35+ years. The period of 1792 to 1832 reveals some of the Founders in a dreary light. The determination of enslaved people to escape Tidewater Virginia is inspiring and certainly not what I was taught about the War of 1812.
I only gave Bronson Pinchot 4 stars, despite his beautiful reading voice, due to the number of incorrectly pronounced names and places. A few of the more frequent mispronunciations: ca-BELL instead of CAB-ull, HEN-ri-co instead of hen-RYE-co, Wythe should rhyme with Smith, and many others. But this is my constant gripe about many readers. Given all the time that goes into these readings, I do not understand why the editors do not do a bit of research on local pronunciations. Then again, if you have not spent time in Virginia, it probably won't bother you.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Carl Singerman
- 02-07-15
Good but not great
The story was interesting. The presentation was somewhat slow-paced and plodding. It did help pass the time.The history was interesting.
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2 people found this helpful
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- D. Fyler
- 08-23-15
Excellent and heartbreaking
This is a tour de force . The narrative elucidates the function of the slave system in the early republic and spotlights the integral part that slavery played in the economy and politics of the Early US as well as its importance in the emergence of the new " American " psyche. The detailed research into the slaves that escaped US to join the British and the essential part that they played in the many British victories as well as the iconic burning of the US Capital was the most interesting aspect of this work. Finally the dehumanizing prejudice that these Black Americans felt not only at the hands of their " masters" but in a few of the lands that the diaspora fled to was heartbreaking. The indomitable spirit of the runaways is a testament to humanities enduring desire for respect and freedom.
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- Robert from Santa Cruz
- 05-11-15
Best history book I've read in years
What did you love best about The Internal Enemy?
It's an incredible story: How the Brits got slaves to flee their plantations and fight with them against their former owners during the War of 1812. And that's only the highlight of the book. The author does a fantastic job of getting us to understand the reality of slavery in Virginia during this period. The author got the Pulitzer Prize for the book -- and he deserved it. Not only was his research superlative, he's a great story-teller.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
His recounting of the actual sacking of Washington during the war was incredible. Because of how awful the system of slavery was, I found myself almost rooting for the Brits and their ex-slave allies.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Jefferson
- 03-14-16
A Mostly Absorbing, Moving, and Harrowing History
The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia 1772-1832 (2013) by Alan Taylor focuses on "the social complexities of slavery" during the War of 1812 in Virginia, setting its historical narrative in a larger context ranging throughout the USA and British empire and from just before the American Revolution to Nat Turner's 1831 uprising. Taylor quotes many letters, diaries, and "war related or war generated documents" to bring to life the personalities involved: slaves, slave owners, officers, politicians, merchants, etc. One of the strong points of the book is how Taylor captures the different views of the British and Americans regarding slavery and America and the British Empire and so on. And his depiction of the lives, plights, hopes, hearts, and deeds of slaves is uplifting, harrowing, and moving.
Without being familiar with the field, I suspect that most histories of the war of 1812 do not pay so much attention to slaves running away to freedom with the British or remaining in slavery with the Americans, becoming in the minds of white Virginians savages bent on vengeful pillage, arson, rapine, and murder, whether as bogeymen British colonial marines or internal enemy vipers in the paternal plantation bosom. Despite being American, I found myself rooting for the British to win the war and cause and or force an end to slavery back then, even at the cost of dissolving the union.
Although I wish Taylor had done a little more with the battle for New Orleans and with Nat Turner's so-called rebellion, he is not writing a WAR history of the War of 1812, but a cultural history focusing on slaves and owners. Sometimes Taylor repeats information from one section in another (e.g., saying more than once that Jonathan was a derogatory British name for Americans, that white Virginians feared the fire bell as signaling slave insurrection, and that lone slaves often ran away and returned to rescue family members), but mostly he tells a compelling history. Here are some highlights.
--When challenged with the fact of American slavery, owners blamed the British for having imposed slavery on the colonies to start with, defended slavery as a paternal system looking out for the best interests of the black "children," imagined their slaves as sub-human brutes incapable of appreciating freedom or feeling love, and decided that slavery could not be abolished without destroying the economy and culture of the south. (American heroes like Washington, Jefferson--my namesake--Madison, and Jackson are not cast in glowing lights.)
--The American Revolution increased equality and liberty for white Americans while capitalizing the slave system into greater inhumanity.
--Republicans used the issue of British impressing American sailors to declare war in 1812 partly to prove the merits of their government.
--At night when their masters slept, slaves could almost feel free, dancing, hunting, wandering, "stealing," and visiting spouses on other farms.
--By traveling about at night, slaves gained an intimate knowledge of their forests and swamps etc., and became more attached to the land than their white masters (another reason why they dreaded being sold far away and were conflicted about escaping to freedom with the British).
--While the British were encouraging slaves to escape from slavery in America to freedom on their warships, the Americans were encouraging British sailors to escape from service on their ships to freedom in America, and the War of 1812 was largely a war of persuasion.
--Propaganda, spin, and the rewriting of history were richly present before, during, and after the War of 1812, employing dodgy witnesses, sensationalizing incidents, demonizing enemies, and glorifying stalemates.
Taylor is particularly effective in covering the following things:
--why some slaves ran away and some did not.
--why escaped slaves took the family names of their former masters.
--how 40% of the slaves who escaped were mulatto children of overseers or owners, while only 44% of slave couples lived together on the same farm.
--how slave owners blamed the "perversity" of slaves running away on their inability to appreciate their "good" plantation life and on British deceit or force.
--how former masters visited British warships to try to persuade their escaped slaves to return.
--how the British colonists of Nova Scotia did not welcome the ex-slave refugees sent to settle with them.
--how the fortunes of the Tucker/Randolph/Carter slave-holding elite Virginia family rose and fell.
And Taylor turns a neat phrase:
--Jefferson et al "converted the scientific reasoning of the enlightenment from a philosophical call for equality into a biological mandate for inequality."
--"Used to dominating others, slave holders rarely took disappointment well."
--"In fact, nothing could better ignite squabbling among Americans than a scramble for $1,204,960 cast into their midst."
Reading about the appalling slave system (including incidents like a mother drowning her three children to spare them lives of slavery), it is easy to forget what Taylor reminds us of at one point: "It is too easy for modern readers to blame slavery on the 'bad people' of another time and region. Slavery reveals how anyone, now as well as then, can come to accept, perpetuate, and justify an exploitative system that seems essential and immutable. After all, we live with our own monsters."
Bronson Pinchot reads the audiobook fine, but at times he might use his fantasy action novel manner, as when he says, "He gave up the union as" and pauses a bit too long before finishing with a bit too much dread import, "utterly lost." Illustrations, maps, appendices, notes, and, of course, the bibliography, are missing from the audiobook, so readers wanting to study this subject should probably read the physical book.
Finally, anyone interested in American history in general or the slave era and the War of 1812 in particular should appreciate this book.
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