A Madman's Will

Few legal cases in American history are as riveting as the controversy surrounding the will of Virginia Senator John Randolph (17731833), whichalmost inexplicablyfreed all 383 of his slaves in one of the largest and most publicised manumissions in American history. So famous is the case that Ta-Nehisi Coates has used it to condemn Randolphs cousin, Thomas Jefferson, for failing to free his own slaves. With this ground-breaking investigation, historian Gregory May now reveals a more surprising story, showing how madness and scandal shaped John Randolphs wildly shifting attitudes toward his slavesand how endemic prejudice in the North ultimately deprived the freedmen of the land Randolph had promised them. Sweeping from the legal spectacle of the contested will through the freedmens dramatic flight and horrific reception in Ohio, A Madmans Will is an extraordinary saga about the alluring promise of freedom and its tragic limitations.