The Untold Story of Shields Green

Explores the life of Shields Green, one of the Black men who followed John Brown to Harpers Ferry in 1859 When John Brown decided to raid the federal armory in Harpers Ferry as the starting point of his intended liberation effort in the South, some closest to him thought it was unnecessary and dangerous. Frederick Douglass, a pioneering abolitionist, refused Browns invitation to join him in Virginia, believing that the raid on the armory was a suicide mission. Yet in front of Douglass, Emperor Shields Green, a fugitive from South Carolina, accepted John Browns invitation. When the raid failed, Emperor was captured with the rest of Browns surviving men and hanged on December 16, 1859. Emperor Shields Green was a critical member of John Browns Harpers Ferry raiders but has long been overlooked. Louis DeCaro, Jr., a veteran scholar of John Brown, presents the first effort to tell Emperors story based upon extensive research, restoring him to his rightful place in this fateful raid at the origin of the American Civil War. Starting from his birth in Charleston, South Carolina, Greens life as an abolitionist freedom-fighter, whose passion for the liberation of his people outweighed self-preservation, is extensively detailed in this compact history. In The Untold Story of Shields Green, Emperor pushes back against racism and injustice and stands in his rightful place as an antislavery figure alongside Frederick Douglass and John Brown.