Washoe County Library System

Henry Townsend, a former slave, has a fondness for Paradise Lost and an unusual mentor--William Robbins, perhaps the most powerful white man in antebellum Virginia's Manchester County. Under Robbins's tutelage, Henry becomes proprietor of his own plantation as well as his own slaves. Henry tragically fails to understand the fundamental flaws in his thinking that he can be a better slave master than a white man.

"Two half sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising half-caste children who will be sent abroad to be educated in England before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the Empire. Her sister, Esi, will be imprisoned beneath...

From the publisher. The 1853 edition of Uncle Tom's Cabin -- known as the "Splendid Edition" -- includes 117 detailed, evocative illustrations by Hammatt Billings. An introduction by Bancroft-winning historian David S. Reynolds provides a general introduction discussing the history of the Splendid Edition and the role Stowe's novel played in fomenting the Civil War, a role reinforced by the story that when Abraham Lincoln met Stowe at the start of...