Redemption from Tyranny
For many common people, the American Revolution offered an opportunity to radically reimagine the wealth and power structures in the nascent United States. Yet in the eyes of working-class activists, the U.S. Constitution favored the interests of a corrupt elite and betrayed the lofty principles of the Declaration of Independence. The discontent of these ordinary revolutionaries sparked a series of protest movements throughout the country during the 1780s and 1790s.
Redemption from Tyranny explores the life of a leader among these revolutionaries. A farmer, evangelical, and political activist, Herman Husband (1724-1795) played a crucial role in some of the most important anti-establishment movements in eighteenth-century America--the Great Awakening, the North Carolina Regulation, the American Revolution, and the Whiskey Rebellion. Husband became a famous radical, advocating for the reduction of economic inequality among white men.
Drawing on a wealth of newly unearthed resources, Stewart uses the life of Husband to explore the varied reasons behind the rise of economic populism and its impact on society during the long American Revolution. Husband offers a valuable lens through which we can view how "labouring, industrious people" shaped--and were shaped by--the American Revolution.
- Woody Holton, University of South Carolina, author of Abigail AdamsThe world has waited long enough for a scholarly biography of Herman Husband, and Stewart fills the void wonderfully with this insightful and clearly written narrative. With his new archival discoveries, he is able to depict Husband as considerably more complex than the heroic figure of legend.
- John L. Brooke, Ohio State University, author of Columbia Rising: Civil Life on the Upper Hudson from the Revolution to the Age of JacksonRedemption from Tyranny will fill an enormous lacuna in the literature on eighteenth-century American politics and revolution. Herman Husband was a key actor from the rising of the North Carolina Regulators to the opening of the Revolution, and then the Whiskey Rebellion: Stewart has put this story together, explaining Husband and his world in clear, easy prose.
- Journal of the American RevolutionJust by relating Herman Husband’s life, Stewart leads his readers through an insightful discussion of colonial class struggle, economic development, religious individualism, political activism, revolutionary fervor, early national fiscal policy, and millennialism. Redemption from Tyranny thus provides an engaging and readable account of a little-known figure whose story sheds light on numerous historiographical concerns and ties together many strands of American Revolutionary experience.
- Journal of the Early RepublicAn easily accessible, elegantly written, and enjoyable book, making a forceful case for Husband and the causes he championed as central to the "enduring legacy" of the American Revolution. With this book, Stewart has joined an important list of historians shedding light on inequality and efforts to resist it that should be on the reading list of anyone interested in revolutionary America or the history of American populism.
Bruce E. Stewart is Associate Professor of History at Appalachian State University and the editor of Blood in the Hills: A History of Violence in Appalachia.
