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The compelling biography of a man whose opposition to slavery was matched only by the contradictions that defined his life.

Hinton Rowan Helper: Abolitionist and Racist by Hugh C. Bailey is a compelling scholarly biography of one of the most controversial and contradictory figures in nineteenth-century American history. Born in North Carolina and raised in the slaveholding South, Hinton Rowan Helper emerged as one of the era's most outspoken critics of slavery, arguing that the institution harmed the economic prospects of nonslaveholding white Southerners and hindered regional development. Yet despite his vigorous opposition to slavery, Helper also espoused deeply racist views, creating a paradox that has long challenged historians seeking to understand his place in American history.

Drawing on extensive research, Bailey examines Helper's career as an antislavery activist, political propagandist, reformer, and public intellectual while exploring the social, economic, and political forces that shaped his worldview. The biography traces Helper's influence on sectional tensions before the Civil War, his connections to the emerging Republican movement, and his later involvement in a variety of ambitious political and economic ventures.

More than a biography, this book offers a revealing study of the complexities of race, reform, and ideology in antebellum America. It remains an essential resource for understanding the contradictions that characterized both Helper and the broader society in which he lived.


 

There are 27 million slaves living in the world today—more than at any time in history. Three hundred thousand of them are impoverished children in Haiti, who "stay with" families as unpaid and uneducated domestic workers, subject to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. This practice, known locally as restavek ("staying with"), is so widespread that one in ten Haitian children is caught up in this form of slavery.

Jean-Robert Cadet was a restavek in Haiti from the late 1950s until the early 1970s. He told the harrowing story of his youth in Restavec: From Haitian Slave Child to Middle-Class American—a landmark book that exposed ongoing child slavery in Haiti. Now in My Stone of Hope, Cadet continues his story from his early attempts to adjust to freedom in American society to his current life mission of eliminating child slavery through advocacy and education. As he recounts his own struggles to surmount the psychological wounds of slavery, Cadet puts a human face on the suffering that hundreds of thousands of Haitians still endure daily. He also builds a convincing case that child slavery is not just one among many problems that Haiti faces as the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. Rather, he argues that the systematic abuse of so many of its children is Haiti's fundamental problem, because it creates damaged adults who seem incapable of governing the country justly or managing its economy productively.

For everyone concerned about the fate of Haiti, the welfare of children, and the freedom of people around the globe, My Stone of Hope sounds an irresistible call to action.