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Becoming Lunsford Lane: The Lives of an American Aeneas

byCraig Thompson Friend

Craig Thompson Friend reconstructs the many lives of Lunsford Lane, who moved from enslavement in North Carolina to freedom, entrepreneurship, abolitionist activism, and national celebrity. Drawing on Lane's own narratives alongside extensive archival evidence, Friend examines how Lane fashioned a public identity while confronting laws and customs designed to restrict Black freedom. The biography follows his efforts to liberate his family, support himself through business, and navigate abolitionist networks, revealing both the possibilities and severe limits that shaped Black self-making in nineteenth-century America.

Publisher

University of North Carolina Press

Publication date

2025-05-27

Format

Hardcover

Pages

432

ISBN

9781469685342