Lyrics from “Adam Raised a Cain” by Bruce Springsteen © 1978, copyright renewed 2003 by Bruce Springsteen (ASCAP). All rights reserved. Reprinted by kind permission of Universal Music Publishing Group.
Some of the material contained herein originally appeared in “Abbe’s Ghost: Negotiating Slavery in Paris, 1783–4” by David Gellman in Experiencing Empire: Power, People, and Revolution in Early America, edited by Patrick Griffin. © 2017 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. Reprinted by permission of the University of Virginia Press.
Some of the material contained herein originally appeared in chapter 9 of A Fire Bell in the Past: The Missouri Crisis at 200, Vol. 1: Western Slavery, National Impasse, edited by Jeffrey L. Pasley and John Craig Hammond (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2021). Reprinted by permission of the University of Missouri Press.
Copyright © 2022 by Cornell University
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First published 2022 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gellman, David Nathaniel, author.
Title: Liberty’s chain : slavery, abolition, and the Jay family of New York / David N. Gellman.
Description: Ithaca, [New York] : Three Hills, an imprint of Cornell University Press, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021033243 (print) | LCCN 2021033244 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501715846 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781501715853 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501715853 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Jay family—History—18th century. | Jay family—History—19th century. | Slavery—New York (State)—History—18th century. | Slavery—New York (State)—History—19th century. | Antislavery movements—New York (State)—History—18th century. | Antislavery movements—New York (State)—History—19th century.
Classification: LCC E445.N56 G453 2022 (print) | LCC E445.N56 (ebook) | DDC 306.3/6209747—dc23
LC record available at https://
LC ebook record available at https://
Cover image: Detail from Raphaelle and Rembrandt Peale’s portrait of John Jay, oil on canvas, c. 1795. Maryland Center for History and Culture, 1857.2.4.