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Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge of Rebellion
From the Pulitzer-Prize–winning historian, an absorbing family saga of Virginia slavery and the earthshaking rebellion led by Nat Turner.
This powerful history of Virginia slavery is grounded in the daily life of a struggling plantation, Tower Hill, owned by generations of a local merchant family. A persistent debt that is both commercial and emotional drives the Blows—husbands and wives, fathers and sons—to turmoil and madness. The enslaved Blacks at Tower Hill live at the behest and often the violent whim of local whites. They claim as their own an evangelical Christianity that offers deliverance from suffering and a broad community of support and resistance. In 1831, Nat Turner’s rebellion arms that faith to attack slavery in the local counties. George Blow is instrumental to its suppression and to shaping the memory of an exceptional event led by a brilliant visionary who enthralled a few followers. But Alan Taylor shows the planned revolt to have included Black communities throughout the Tidewater and beyond. The shockwaves continued into secession and civil war.
This powerful history of Virginia slavery is grounded in the daily life of a struggling plantation, Tower Hill, owned by generations of a local merchant family. A persistent debt that is both commercial and emotional drives the Blows—husbands and wives, fathers and sons—to turmoil and madness. The enslaved Blacks at Tower Hill live at the behest and often the violent whim of local whites. They claim as their own an evangelical Christianity that offers deliverance from suffering and a broad community of support and resistance. In 1831, Nat Turner’s rebellion arms that faith to attack slavery in the local counties. George Blow is instrumental to its suppression and to shaping the memory of an exceptional event led by a brilliant visionary who enthralled a few followers. But Alan Taylor shows the planned revolt to have included Black communities throughout the Tidewater and beyond. The shockwaves continued into secession and civil war.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published September 8, 2026
About the author
Alan Taylor
221 books390 followersAlan Shaw Taylor is a historian specializing in early American history. He is the author of a number of books about colonial America, the American Revolution, and the Early American Republic. He has won a Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize for his work.
Taylor graduated from Colby College, in Waterville, Maine, in 1977 and earned his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1986. Currently a professor of history at the University of California, Davis, he will join the faculty of the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia in 2014.
Taylor graduated from Colby College, in Waterville, Maine, in 1977 and earned his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1986. Currently a professor of history at the University of California, Davis, he will join the faculty of the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia in 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 17, 2026
Alan Taylor offers a glimpse into slavery in early 19th century America through the Tower Hill plantation in Virginia. He draws on family archives left by the slaveholders, as well as deeply researched accounts of the enslaved people’s experience through their recorded actions.
Tower Hill follows the Blow family who posses an abundance of land and slaves but are burdened by debt. Taylor recounts the hardship of failed crops, bad weather and financial stress. George Blow coldly viewed his enslaved people like he viewed his land, as good investments. I was surprised by how much was recorded by Blow in particular as to the punishments he dealt out and his involvement in the suppression of Nat Turner’s Rebellion. Though we lack the personal accounts of the enslaved men and women in this book, the stories of their escapes, resistance and pushback, still offer a valuable perspective as to how they responded to their circumstances.
I am less educated on the details of Nat Turner’s Rebellion, a famous slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia. I know more about the mental aftermath of fear that it held over the slaveholders and southerners in general, so I appreciated Taylor’s coverage of the event and the impact it had beyond 1831.
Overall an educational read that I will not soon forget.
A big thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for allowing me access to the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
Tower Hill follows the Blow family who posses an abundance of land and slaves but are burdened by debt. Taylor recounts the hardship of failed crops, bad weather and financial stress. George Blow coldly viewed his enslaved people like he viewed his land, as good investments. I was surprised by how much was recorded by Blow in particular as to the punishments he dealt out and his involvement in the suppression of Nat Turner’s Rebellion. Though we lack the personal accounts of the enslaved men and women in this book, the stories of their escapes, resistance and pushback, still offer a valuable perspective as to how they responded to their circumstances.
I am less educated on the details of Nat Turner’s Rebellion, a famous slave revolt in Southampton County, Virginia. I know more about the mental aftermath of fear that it held over the slaveholders and southerners in general, so I appreciated Taylor’s coverage of the event and the impact it had beyond 1831.
Overall an educational read that I will not soon forget.
A big thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for allowing me access to the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
September 9, 2026
Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge of Rebellion
Really a beautiful and dizzying book that is hard to describe. It functions on psychological, philosophical, historical, and allegorical levels regarding what we are doing today.
So many rebellions —and so much poised on the edge.
1. Native people rebel. They burn the first house built at Tower Hill because it stands on land that was once theirs, before it was stolen. Later they rise as ghosts, real or imagined, reminding the planters that the past might one day send its messiah to bury their Babylon.
2. The plantation itself is rebel earth. Its sandy land lives under assault from the ungentle hands of Virginia’s gentleman-planter class. Dammed and damaged, it was never meant to support an empire or feed the capitalist beast. Often it refuses to comply with the planters’ entitled demands, no matter how they furrow and seed it through violence and intimidation. Crops fail, disease spreads, and men’s supposed mastery over the natural world remains perpetually in doubt.
3. Enslaved people rebel by leaving. The swamp beckons. What terrifies white people offers Black people an escape. Walking away into the darkness of the Great Dismal Swamp is an act of rebellion—against exploitation and against the terrible lie that enslaved people were happy, provided for, grateful, and embraced as members of a great plantation family. People do not leave a happy family to live in a swamp.
4. Enslaved people rebel by rising up. They kill enslavers and their families, shaking the powers that rule over slavery’s hellish heaven.
5. The plantation’s memorials rebel against the world they were meant to preserve. Inside a box, Taylor finds William Nivison Blow’s utopian sketches of Tower Hill. Blow—the last member of the family whose life this book documents—depicts land brought to its “proper” purpose by the rational hands of the Blow patriarchs. Nature bestows her blessings, while enslaved people work contentedly, as though grateful to occupy their appointed places within the great design of this great family. The brutality sustaining the productive mills, presses, and smokehouses is nowhere to be seen.
However, through this book, the contents of the box of curated memories rebel. They do not tell the story they were commanded to tell. The letters betray the weakness of the powerful and the ingenuity and strength of those considered deserving of subordination.
This is a purposeful book, one that asks readers to help redress a wrong by hearing the anger and recognizing the strength of people who had to bury so much within themselves—and whose acts of resistance went uncelebrated for far too long.
I do not believe that we communicate with the dead. But as a teacher, when I have the chance to tell a student that I hear and acknowledge their deepest grievance—against the world, another person, or even me—and that I stand in awe of the courage with which they have faced it, I heal myself in the act of offering that medicine.
I believe we do right when we rebel against a past that still claims us all, in one way or another. We may no longer be able to offer medicine to the dead, but we can offer it to one another as we try to heal the inherited wounds and shame we still carry. Taylor, as always, does his part to make that possible.
Really a beautiful and dizzying book that is hard to describe. It functions on psychological, philosophical, historical, and allegorical levels regarding what we are doing today.
So many rebellions —and so much poised on the edge.
1. Native people rebel. They burn the first house built at Tower Hill because it stands on land that was once theirs, before it was stolen. Later they rise as ghosts, real or imagined, reminding the planters that the past might one day send its messiah to bury their Babylon.
2. The plantation itself is rebel earth. Its sandy land lives under assault from the ungentle hands of Virginia’s gentleman-planter class. Dammed and damaged, it was never meant to support an empire or feed the capitalist beast. Often it refuses to comply with the planters’ entitled demands, no matter how they furrow and seed it through violence and intimidation. Crops fail, disease spreads, and men’s supposed mastery over the natural world remains perpetually in doubt.
3. Enslaved people rebel by leaving. The swamp beckons. What terrifies white people offers Black people an escape. Walking away into the darkness of the Great Dismal Swamp is an act of rebellion—against exploitation and against the terrible lie that enslaved people were happy, provided for, grateful, and embraced as members of a great plantation family. People do not leave a happy family to live in a swamp.
4. Enslaved people rebel by rising up. They kill enslavers and their families, shaking the powers that rule over slavery’s hellish heaven.
5. The plantation’s memorials rebel against the world they were meant to preserve. Inside a box, Taylor finds William Nivison Blow’s utopian sketches of Tower Hill. Blow—the last member of the family whose life this book documents—depicts land brought to its “proper” purpose by the rational hands of the Blow patriarchs. Nature bestows her blessings, while enslaved people work contentedly, as though grateful to occupy their appointed places within the great design of this great family. The brutality sustaining the productive mills, presses, and smokehouses is nowhere to be seen.
However, through this book, the contents of the box of curated memories rebel. They do not tell the story they were commanded to tell. The letters betray the weakness of the powerful and the ingenuity and strength of those considered deserving of subordination.
This is a purposeful book, one that asks readers to help redress a wrong by hearing the anger and recognizing the strength of people who had to bury so much within themselves—and whose acts of resistance went uncelebrated for far too long.
I do not believe that we communicate with the dead. But as a teacher, when I have the chance to tell a student that I hear and acknowledge their deepest grievance—against the world, another person, or even me—and that I stand in awe of the courage with which they have faced it, I heal myself in the act of offering that medicine.
I believe we do right when we rebel against a past that still claims us all, in one way or another. We may no longer be able to offer medicine to the dead, but we can offer it to one another as we try to heal the inherited wounds and shame we still carry. Taylor, as always, does his part to make that possible.
September 19, 2026
Where I grew up in Kentucky we were very loyal to our home state. To the north were Yankees, to the south were the folks idiotically still fighting the Civil War, to the west there were kooks not even worth considering. The only people who got any respect from us were our state's progenitors to the east in Virginia. And the bluest of the Virginia bluebloods were the Tidewater planters, a step above the farmers of the Piedmont like Jefferson and Madison. The early settlers grabbed the best land with access to the navigable rivers and (so I thought) fertile soil. Tower Hill was one of the great plantations of the Tidewater.
Tower Hill was typical. It had a grand house, grew tobacco and other local staple crops, had over a thousand acres and over a hundred enslaved people and was owned by a leading local family, the Blows, who passed it down through several generations. It was largely self-sufficient. But it was never as prosperous as outward appearances suggested. The soil was never so good and was quickly exhausted. The Blows found ways to restore some fertility, but the generally poor quality of the soil made the inherent risks of farming from weather, pests, transportation risks and market crashes even more devastating. Still, they carried on, supplementing income from the plantation with income from outside businesses. After the Civil War with the end of slavery and the coming of the railroads, the old style of plantation farming became untenable. The Blows subsisted for a while by turning to agroforestry, but even that couldn't sustain the old property, which eventually passed out of family hands.
It's a different picture of plantation life in the old South than the one propagated by Lost Cause mythology. There was prestige in owning a big property with a grand house and a lot of enslaved people, but it wasn't ever so profitable and whatever profitability it had was in general decline over its lifetime. There was plenty of talk among the Blows of selling out and moving west, though they never did it.
And then, of course, there were the enslaved people. The Blows prided themselves on being kind to their people, but kindness only went so far. They provided somewhat better food and housing than was the norm, but only to get more work out of them. Disobedience was to be punished with whipping, but not so much as to make them unable to work. Killing of enslaved people was rare because they didn't like destroying their valuable property. So "kindness" was always transactional. Humans were commodities. Enslaved women were breeding machines making valuable products that could be sold south for good money. Maybe there was also some real kindness in the Blows so that the commodity talk was just done to fit in with what they perceived to be the prevailing views of their society, but I suspect that they mostly believed their own bullshit. There's also a lot of interesting discussion about runaways. Some went north but more of them stayed nearby, living in the woods and swamps beyond the reach of the runaway hunters. It was a hard life, but so was living in slavery.
In the South, even today, there is a continuing myth that some slaveowners weren't so bad, that they treated their people well so that even if the practice of enslavement was morally wrong, the people weren't so badly off. This book makes it clear that even the kindest of masters denied the essential humanity of the people they owned. They felt it was the only way to justify the practice of slavery. The whole thing was cruel, evil and rotten to the core on every level. It brings me close to tears when I think of how more than one of my ancestors participated in this reprehensible practice.
Tower Hill was typical. It had a grand house, grew tobacco and other local staple crops, had over a thousand acres and over a hundred enslaved people and was owned by a leading local family, the Blows, who passed it down through several generations. It was largely self-sufficient. But it was never as prosperous as outward appearances suggested. The soil was never so good and was quickly exhausted. The Blows found ways to restore some fertility, but the generally poor quality of the soil made the inherent risks of farming from weather, pests, transportation risks and market crashes even more devastating. Still, they carried on, supplementing income from the plantation with income from outside businesses. After the Civil War with the end of slavery and the coming of the railroads, the old style of plantation farming became untenable. The Blows subsisted for a while by turning to agroforestry, but even that couldn't sustain the old property, which eventually passed out of family hands.
It's a different picture of plantation life in the old South than the one propagated by Lost Cause mythology. There was prestige in owning a big property with a grand house and a lot of enslaved people, but it wasn't ever so profitable and whatever profitability it had was in general decline over its lifetime. There was plenty of talk among the Blows of selling out and moving west, though they never did it.
And then, of course, there were the enslaved people. The Blows prided themselves on being kind to their people, but kindness only went so far. They provided somewhat better food and housing than was the norm, but only to get more work out of them. Disobedience was to be punished with whipping, but not so much as to make them unable to work. Killing of enslaved people was rare because they didn't like destroying their valuable property. So "kindness" was always transactional. Humans were commodities. Enslaved women were breeding machines making valuable products that could be sold south for good money. Maybe there was also some real kindness in the Blows so that the commodity talk was just done to fit in with what they perceived to be the prevailing views of their society, but I suspect that they mostly believed their own bullshit. There's also a lot of interesting discussion about runaways. Some went north but more of them stayed nearby, living in the woods and swamps beyond the reach of the runaway hunters. It was a hard life, but so was living in slavery.
In the South, even today, there is a continuing myth that some slaveowners weren't so bad, that they treated their people well so that even if the practice of enslavement was morally wrong, the people weren't so badly off. This book makes it clear that even the kindest of masters denied the essential humanity of the people they owned. They felt it was the only way to justify the practice of slavery. The whole thing was cruel, evil and rotten to the core on every level. It brings me close to tears when I think of how more than one of my ancestors participated in this reprehensible practice.
September 13, 2026
Alan Taylor’s Tower Hill argues that the Nat Turner rebellion was not an isolated attack led by a religiously zealous, enslaved man and a few of his trusted confidantes, but was meant to be part of a larger, coordinated revolution throughout southeastern Virginia. However, Taylor hypothesizes that Turner miscounted the number of days in July, which led him to lead his attack a week earlier than planned. Taylor substantiates his argument by drawing on a vast and slightly expurgated archive of the Blows—a pathetic southern family who struggled to maintain a place in the Virginia slavocracy despite making poor financial decisions, trying to farm depleted plantations, while drowning in debt. The very gaps in the archive help Taylor build a compelling case, and along the way, readers get a richly detailed picture of the sordid life of plantation culture in ante-bellum Virginia.
Although I had a pretty good idea about slavery in American history, Taylor’s granularity taught me much that I didn’t know and filled gaps in my knowledge. For example, I learned that Richard Blow, the family patriarch, was representative of many early Americans, both in terms of his participation in the country’s fight to free itself from British rule and his relative lack of success as a plantation owner. It seems that Blow preferred racketeering to serving George Washington because patriotism costs money, while charging exorbitant prices for basic necessities turns a nice profit. Apparently, many men chose greed over war at this nation’s inception. Far from being genteel landowners who lived in ease off the labor of enslaved people, the Blows lived in fear of penury, dodging debts, and purchasing more land and more human beings to bolster themselves in a society fueled by greed and racism. Again, this was the case with most so-called southern gentlemen, at least in Virginia. I also learned, unsurprisingly, that White Virginians thought that they were the victims of the slavocracy rather than the Black people that they beat, sold, and murdered on any little whim.
While I appreciated learning more about American history, I found the book to be ineffectively structured and had difficulty following the narrative thread. It seemed to be only partially chronological and looped back on itself several times. For instance, after discussing George Blow’s time in college and his eagerness to take over his father’s plantation after graduating, the narrative would later return to George’s time in college. Some chapters had the names of people, while others had titles such as “Jolts” or “Outliers,” so I could never quite get a handle on the organizing principle. Additionally, it wasn’t until fairly late in the book that I figured out that the main argument was about the Nat Turner rebellion, even though the book description refers to it.
Graham Winton narrates the audiobook in a manner consistent with nonfiction. That is, he doesn’t dramatize it much, but he also reads with enough variety that the narrative is interesting. Overall, I have a mixed response to Tower Hill because if offers crucial insight into American history by focusing on the life of a single plantation family over several generations from before the American Revolution to well after the Civil War. It also brings out the voices and perspectives of the enslaved people when possible. At the same time, its organization made it difficult to follow, which was somewhat frustrating. Perhaps reading rather than listening is the way to go with this book
Thank you to NetGalley and RBMedia for an advance listener copy in exchange for this review.
Although I had a pretty good idea about slavery in American history, Taylor’s granularity taught me much that I didn’t know and filled gaps in my knowledge. For example, I learned that Richard Blow, the family patriarch, was representative of many early Americans, both in terms of his participation in the country’s fight to free itself from British rule and his relative lack of success as a plantation owner. It seems that Blow preferred racketeering to serving George Washington because patriotism costs money, while charging exorbitant prices for basic necessities turns a nice profit. Apparently, many men chose greed over war at this nation’s inception. Far from being genteel landowners who lived in ease off the labor of enslaved people, the Blows lived in fear of penury, dodging debts, and purchasing more land and more human beings to bolster themselves in a society fueled by greed and racism. Again, this was the case with most so-called southern gentlemen, at least in Virginia. I also learned, unsurprisingly, that White Virginians thought that they were the victims of the slavocracy rather than the Black people that they beat, sold, and murdered on any little whim.
While I appreciated learning more about American history, I found the book to be ineffectively structured and had difficulty following the narrative thread. It seemed to be only partially chronological and looped back on itself several times. For instance, after discussing George Blow’s time in college and his eagerness to take over his father’s plantation after graduating, the narrative would later return to George’s time in college. Some chapters had the names of people, while others had titles such as “Jolts” or “Outliers,” so I could never quite get a handle on the organizing principle. Additionally, it wasn’t until fairly late in the book that I figured out that the main argument was about the Nat Turner rebellion, even though the book description refers to it.
Graham Winton narrates the audiobook in a manner consistent with nonfiction. That is, he doesn’t dramatize it much, but he also reads with enough variety that the narrative is interesting. Overall, I have a mixed response to Tower Hill because if offers crucial insight into American history by focusing on the life of a single plantation family over several generations from before the American Revolution to well after the Civil War. It also brings out the voices and perspectives of the enslaved people when possible. At the same time, its organization made it difficult to follow, which was somewhat frustrating. Perhaps reading rather than listening is the way to go with this book
Thank you to NetGalley and RBMedia for an advance listener copy in exchange for this review.
September 21, 2026
Very fascinating history about Southern Planters and the insidious culture they perpetrated. So much for Margaret Mitchell’s version.
September 16, 2026
3.5 stars
September 23, 2026
🎧 ALC Review 🇺🇲
First, I like to look up the author of non-fiction books to understand why I should believe what they've written. Alan is a two time Pulitzer prize winner. A professor emeritus in history from UVA (Wahoo!) and a National Book Award finalist for non-fiction, he's been a historian for over 3 decades.
Let's talk about the narration. I so enjoyed Graham's narration! I don't see in my history that I've listened to his narration before. I enjoyed his pacing and intonation. If the speech patterns are off, sometimes non-fiction can be harder to consume, but this narration was great.
As a Virginian, I did feel like some of the locality pronunciations were a bit off; however, I don't know if they were pronounced the way they were back then as centuries can change accent/dialect and therefore change the way something is pronounced. So, I'm not tied to that as a negative in case this is more historically accurate - it was just a little odd.
The book! Loved this book so much! I, of course, knew about Nat Turner's Rebellion, but how did my history teachers/classes never teach me about the earlier rebellions - whether successful or not. The incredibly depressing thing is that so many of these could maybe, possibly have tipped the scales to stop slavery in its tracks earlier, but something would occur to cause the plot to become unsuccessful.
I am so glad I was able to learn about the people who were so brave as to face death straight on because they feared the consequences of slavery otherwise and they took the risk. I can't imagine having to make that kind of decision, but these were the forefathers of the ultimate breakdown of the slave system.
Some of the leaders of the revolts had some...interesting reasons for starting them. Utterly fascinating, really! But, for whatever reason, they *were* rallying people to fight, albeit unsuccessfully.
It was a terrible time and books like this that bring more to light are incredibly necessary so that history isn't swept under the rug and possibly we can learn from our mistakes and not let history repeat itself.
I didn't know a lot about the Blow family. It was interesting to learn about the individuals within the family and how their different viewpoints in both slavery and how the family ran things impacted the plantation, Virginia, and, more broadly, other states.
This should absolutely be required reading for VA students and really for anyone who wants to learn more about the South pre-Civil War.
Being able to use the family's archive lets you peak into this time period in a way that's not possible with just looking at cultural waves from a generalization standpoint is so impactful.
If you like Civil War history, the US South, or people struggling to survive against their oppressors, you may like this book.
Triggers: Slavery, Racism, Torture, Murder
Thanks to Netgalley & RBmedia for this ARC. The opinions are my own, written voluntarily.
First, I like to look up the author of non-fiction books to understand why I should believe what they've written. Alan is a two time Pulitzer prize winner. A professor emeritus in history from UVA (Wahoo!) and a National Book Award finalist for non-fiction, he's been a historian for over 3 decades.
Let's talk about the narration. I so enjoyed Graham's narration! I don't see in my history that I've listened to his narration before. I enjoyed his pacing and intonation. If the speech patterns are off, sometimes non-fiction can be harder to consume, but this narration was great.
As a Virginian, I did feel like some of the locality pronunciations were a bit off; however, I don't know if they were pronounced the way they were back then as centuries can change accent/dialect and therefore change the way something is pronounced. So, I'm not tied to that as a negative in case this is more historically accurate - it was just a little odd.
The book! Loved this book so much! I, of course, knew about Nat Turner's Rebellion, but how did my history teachers/classes never teach me about the earlier rebellions - whether successful or not. The incredibly depressing thing is that so many of these could maybe, possibly have tipped the scales to stop slavery in its tracks earlier, but something would occur to cause the plot to become unsuccessful.
I am so glad I was able to learn about the people who were so brave as to face death straight on because they feared the consequences of slavery otherwise and they took the risk. I can't imagine having to make that kind of decision, but these were the forefathers of the ultimate breakdown of the slave system.
Some of the leaders of the revolts had some...interesting reasons for starting them. Utterly fascinating, really! But, for whatever reason, they *were* rallying people to fight, albeit unsuccessfully.
It was a terrible time and books like this that bring more to light are incredibly necessary so that history isn't swept under the rug and possibly we can learn from our mistakes and not let history repeat itself.
I didn't know a lot about the Blow family. It was interesting to learn about the individuals within the family and how their different viewpoints in both slavery and how the family ran things impacted the plantation, Virginia, and, more broadly, other states.
This should absolutely be required reading for VA students and really for anyone who wants to learn more about the South pre-Civil War.
Being able to use the family's archive lets you peak into this time period in a way that's not possible with just looking at cultural waves from a generalization standpoint is so impactful.
If you like Civil War history, the US South, or people struggling to survive against their oppressors, you may like this book.
Triggers: Slavery, Racism, Torture, Murder
Thanks to Netgalley & RBmedia for this ARC. The opinions are my own, written voluntarily.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Life Behind the Plantation Myth
I went into Tower Hill expecting Nat Turner’s rebellion to dominate the narrative, but Alan Taylor is really telling a much broader story. The book uses one plantation and one family to explore the tensions, contradictions, and everyday realities of antebellum Southern life. What interested me most was the way Taylor examined slavery alongside debt, social status, family expectations, and the Blow family’s constant effort to maintain appearances within Southern society.
What I appreciated most was the insight into daily plantation life. Taylor does an excellent job of showing enslaved people as individuals rather than simply as background figures in someone else’s story. I was especially interested in the limited forms of agency they exercised, including running away for periods of time, finding food, traveling, and resisting the control imposed upon them. Those actions did not make them free, but they demonstrated that enslaved people were not passive participants in the system. At the same time, the book also provides an unusual look at the economic instability of plantation ownership. The Blow family struggled with debt and maintaining their position in society, and Taylor shows how fragile the world they were trying to preserve actually was.
The book is not without its weaknesses. There are stretches where the narrative slows down or becomes repetitive, and the large number of people occasionally made the audiobook difficult to follow. I sometimes had to backtrack just to remember how everyone was connected. I was also surprised by how limited the Nat Turner material ultimately felt. The rebellion is repeatedly foreshadowed and clearly influences Taylor’s argument about resistance and instability, but I expected it to play a much larger role based on the book’s framing. In the end, the Blow family and the world surrounding Tower Hill are much more central than Turner himself.
Tower Hill ultimately worked for me because it complicated the familiar image of the Southern plantation. Beneath the appearance of wealth, order, and authority were debt, uncertainty, resistance, and people constantly negotiating how much control they actually possessed. I came away understanding much more about both the daily lives of enslaved people and the economic and social pressures surrounding plantation society. I would recommend this especially to readers interested in antebellum America, slavery, and social history, particularly those who want to understand plantation life beyond the simplified version that often appears in textbooks.
Thank you to NetGalley, author Alan Taylor, and RBmedia for ALC in exchange for an honest review.
#TowerHill #NetGalley
I went into Tower Hill expecting Nat Turner’s rebellion to dominate the narrative, but Alan Taylor is really telling a much broader story. The book uses one plantation and one family to explore the tensions, contradictions, and everyday realities of antebellum Southern life. What interested me most was the way Taylor examined slavery alongside debt, social status, family expectations, and the Blow family’s constant effort to maintain appearances within Southern society.
What I appreciated most was the insight into daily plantation life. Taylor does an excellent job of showing enslaved people as individuals rather than simply as background figures in someone else’s story. I was especially interested in the limited forms of agency they exercised, including running away for periods of time, finding food, traveling, and resisting the control imposed upon them. Those actions did not make them free, but they demonstrated that enslaved people were not passive participants in the system. At the same time, the book also provides an unusual look at the economic instability of plantation ownership. The Blow family struggled with debt and maintaining their position in society, and Taylor shows how fragile the world they were trying to preserve actually was.
The book is not without its weaknesses. There are stretches where the narrative slows down or becomes repetitive, and the large number of people occasionally made the audiobook difficult to follow. I sometimes had to backtrack just to remember how everyone was connected. I was also surprised by how limited the Nat Turner material ultimately felt. The rebellion is repeatedly foreshadowed and clearly influences Taylor’s argument about resistance and instability, but I expected it to play a much larger role based on the book’s framing. In the end, the Blow family and the world surrounding Tower Hill are much more central than Turner himself.
Tower Hill ultimately worked for me because it complicated the familiar image of the Southern plantation. Beneath the appearance of wealth, order, and authority were debt, uncertainty, resistance, and people constantly negotiating how much control they actually possessed. I came away understanding much more about both the daily lives of enslaved people and the economic and social pressures surrounding plantation society. I would recommend this especially to readers interested in antebellum America, slavery, and social history, particularly those who want to understand plantation life beyond the simplified version that often appears in textbooks.
Thank you to NetGalley, author Alan Taylor, and RBmedia for ALC in exchange for an honest review.
#TowerHill #NetGalley
September 17, 2026
Tower Hill
A Plantation on the Edge of Rebellion
by Alan Taylor
with Graham Winton (Narrator)
Rated: 4 Star Rating
I just finished listening to Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge of Rebellion by Alan Taylor, narrated by Graham Winton, and it completely changed how I think about Southern history. Instead of looking at things from a broad perspective, the author uses an old family archive to tell the story of the Blow family, a merchant and planter dynasty in Sussex County, Virginia.
The family patriarch, Richard Blow, built up their wealth during the Revolution, but he left behind ruined soil and massive debt. His son, George Blow, had to spend forty years trying to manage a failing plantation while the family slowly fell into isolation and despair.
What makes this audiobook so powerful is how it details the daily lives and struggles of the enslaved people at Tower Hill. You learn about figures like an enslaved man named Simon, whose story shows the constant friction and quiet acts of resistance against the Blows.
Taylor explains how the enslaved population used religion to build a supportive community and how many escaped to find safety in the nearby Great Dismal Swamp.
Everything builds up to Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion, which happened right in their neighborhood. Turner's rebels killed over fifty white people, and George Blow ended up leading a brutal retaliation that took twice as many Black lives. The wealthy planters tried to cover it up and claim Turner was just a "lone madman" because they didn't want anyone to know how widespread the network of rebellion actually was.
The narrator, Graham Winton, does a great job with the 9 and a half hour audiobook. He keeps his tone steady and respectful without getting overly dramatic, which makes the letters and historic facts feel incredibly real. It is a haunting history lesson that is well worth the listen.
I definitely recommend this audiobook for anyone who enjoys American Southern history, especially from the slavery and revolutionary era.
Thank you, NetGalley, RBmedia, Alan Taylor, author, and Graham Winton narrator, for this audiobook review consideration. All review opinions are my own.
#NetGalley
#RBmedia
#RecordedBooks
#AlanTaylor author
#GrahamWinton narrator
#TowerHill
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This is a review of the audiobook.
A Plantation on the Edge of Rebellion
by Alan Taylor
with Graham Winton (Narrator)
Rated: 4 Star Rating
I just finished listening to Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge of Rebellion by Alan Taylor, narrated by Graham Winton, and it completely changed how I think about Southern history. Instead of looking at things from a broad perspective, the author uses an old family archive to tell the story of the Blow family, a merchant and planter dynasty in Sussex County, Virginia.
The family patriarch, Richard Blow, built up their wealth during the Revolution, but he left behind ruined soil and massive debt. His son, George Blow, had to spend forty years trying to manage a failing plantation while the family slowly fell into isolation and despair.
What makes this audiobook so powerful is how it details the daily lives and struggles of the enslaved people at Tower Hill. You learn about figures like an enslaved man named Simon, whose story shows the constant friction and quiet acts of resistance against the Blows.
Taylor explains how the enslaved population used religion to build a supportive community and how many escaped to find safety in the nearby Great Dismal Swamp.
Everything builds up to Nat Turner’s 1831 rebellion, which happened right in their neighborhood. Turner's rebels killed over fifty white people, and George Blow ended up leading a brutal retaliation that took twice as many Black lives. The wealthy planters tried to cover it up and claim Turner was just a "lone madman" because they didn't want anyone to know how widespread the network of rebellion actually was.
The narrator, Graham Winton, does a great job with the 9 and a half hour audiobook. He keeps his tone steady and respectful without getting overly dramatic, which makes the letters and historic facts feel incredibly real. It is a haunting history lesson that is well worth the listen.
I definitely recommend this audiobook for anyone who enjoys American Southern history, especially from the slavery and revolutionary era.
Thank you, NetGalley, RBmedia, Alan Taylor, author, and Graham Winton narrator, for this audiobook review consideration. All review opinions are my own.
#NetGalley
#RBmedia
#RecordedBooks
#AlanTaylor author
#GrahamWinton narrator
#TowerHill
http://goodreads.com/patriciasreading...
http://www.patriciasreadingroom.blogs...
This is a review of the audiobook.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
There is one thing about slavery in America that I will never quite understand. Why torture and enslave your fellow man when nobody benefits? If you don't understand my question, then you absolutely must read Tower Hill by Alan Taylor. Basically, while it is obvious slavery was bad for the enslaved, it didn't help the enslavers all that much when all was said and done.
Taylor chronicles multiple generations of the Blows (yes, real name, yes, I have many childish comments but will refrain). They own a plantation in Virginia with slaves. They are not particularly cruel, but they are still slaveholders (so screw them). What Taylor digs into (pun which will be revealed shortly) is how being farmers is a horrible way to make a living and could easily lead to ruin from one bad harvest. This is all even worse in Virginia which is lots of swamps with periodic natural disasters and storms (can confirm as current Virginia resident).
The book uses the nearby Nat Turner rebellion as a sort of tipping point. I think that is overstating it and the focus of the book is more interesting. It is one thing to know slavery is bad. It is another thing to see the day-to-day minutiae and the interplay between enslavers and enslaved on a daily basis. Simply, you walk away from this book much more informed than when you started.
(This book was provided as a review copy by W.W. Norton & Company.)
Taylor chronicles multiple generations of the Blows (yes, real name, yes, I have many childish comments but will refrain). They own a plantation in Virginia with slaves. They are not particularly cruel, but they are still slaveholders (so screw them). What Taylor digs into (pun which will be revealed shortly) is how being farmers is a horrible way to make a living and could easily lead to ruin from one bad harvest. This is all even worse in Virginia which is lots of swamps with periodic natural disasters and storms (can confirm as current Virginia resident).
The book uses the nearby Nat Turner rebellion as a sort of tipping point. I think that is overstating it and the focus of the book is more interesting. It is one thing to know slavery is bad. It is another thing to see the day-to-day minutiae and the interplay between enslavers and enslaved on a daily basis. Simply, you walk away from this book much more informed than when you started.
(This book was provided as a review copy by W.W. Norton & Company.)
September 14, 2026
San Domingo, Nat Turner, and Other Spectres
Many thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Reading Alan Taylor’s Tower Hill alongside the global afterlives of the Haitian Revolution offers a searing perspective on the burgeoning slaveocracy of the early United States. By anchoring systemic structural realities within the history of a single Tidewater estate, the narrative explores the panopticon of the peculiar institution—a landscape defined by the planter class’s hyper-vigilant paranoia regarding the ever-present threat of insurrection and retribution.
Having grown up in Hampton Roads, reading this history felt profoundly localized and immediate, with Sussex County and Southampton County sitting just a hundred miles away. Taylor masterfully emphasizes the mundane, daily business of the enslavers, juxtaposing their routine operations against the agonizing, consistent threat of the enslaved repeating the revolutionary actions of San Domingo. The book deeply explores the Blow family thoroughly embedded in the machinery of the slaveocracy and preservation of fledgling power until well after the Civil War.
Ultimately, Tower Hill shatters the historical myth of the paternalistic plantation, exposing the profound fragility of elite control in an Atlantic world shaped by the memory of constant threats.
Many thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for providing an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Reading Alan Taylor’s Tower Hill alongside the global afterlives of the Haitian Revolution offers a searing perspective on the burgeoning slaveocracy of the early United States. By anchoring systemic structural realities within the history of a single Tidewater estate, the narrative explores the panopticon of the peculiar institution—a landscape defined by the planter class’s hyper-vigilant paranoia regarding the ever-present threat of insurrection and retribution.
Having grown up in Hampton Roads, reading this history felt profoundly localized and immediate, with Sussex County and Southampton County sitting just a hundred miles away. Taylor masterfully emphasizes the mundane, daily business of the enslavers, juxtaposing their routine operations against the agonizing, consistent threat of the enslaved repeating the revolutionary actions of San Domingo. The book deeply explores the Blow family thoroughly embedded in the machinery of the slaveocracy and preservation of fledgling power until well after the Civil War.
Ultimately, Tower Hill shatters the historical myth of the paternalistic plantation, exposing the profound fragility of elite control in an Atlantic world shaped by the memory of constant threats.
September 10, 2026
I am a huge reader of Antebellum and Civil War history. The relationships and issues that lead to the conflict we call the Civil War are fascinating. Tower Hill falls into that category. This is an extremely well researched look into the life of a particular plantation Tower Hill, in the tidewater of Virginia.
Alan Taylor was able to uncover some amazing family archieves as they relate to Tower Hill, and he weaves together a story about the unrest that was simmering just below the consciousness of the Blows family, owners of Tower Hill.
The premise is that Nat Turner and his rebellion was not a single incident, but part of a long line of organized discontent among the slave population of the tidewater and North Carolina.
It is not an easy read (or listen) but an important part of US history that needs to be told.
Graham Winton did a great job in telling the story for the audio book.
Thanks to NetGalley and RB media (Recorded Books) for this audio ARC. All opinions are my own.
Alan Taylor was able to uncover some amazing family archieves as they relate to Tower Hill, and he weaves together a story about the unrest that was simmering just below the consciousness of the Blows family, owners of Tower Hill.
The premise is that Nat Turner and his rebellion was not a single incident, but part of a long line of organized discontent among the slave population of the tidewater and North Carolina.
It is not an easy read (or listen) but an important part of US history that needs to be told.
Graham Winton did a great job in telling the story for the audio book.
Thanks to NetGalley and RB media (Recorded Books) for this audio ARC. All opinions are my own.
September 28, 2026
As a teacher, I could see this being a great book to use excerpts from to supplement or anchor a history unit for high school students. The book on the whole would be too granular for that age, but well-chosen excerpts could be quite powerful.
From a non-teacher perspective, this book was interesting though felt more "nonfiction-y" than other more narrative style nonfiction books; the result was that I sometimes struggled to stay focused. I alternated between audiobook and book, ultimately finding the audiobook more conducive for ingesting the info. It's probably my short attention span, but I found it to be less gripping than other nonfiction books I've read, such as Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 by Mitchell Zuckoff. I also think the sheer density and volume of information given in this book just was difficult for my goldfish brain (Fall and Rise feels more chunked).
I think this book would be well-received by history and nonfiction lovers, and would certainly recommend the audiobook with its solid narration quality if you want to multitask while listening.
From a non-teacher perspective, this book was interesting though felt more "nonfiction-y" than other more narrative style nonfiction books; the result was that I sometimes struggled to stay focused. I alternated between audiobook and book, ultimately finding the audiobook more conducive for ingesting the info. It's probably my short attention span, but I found it to be less gripping than other nonfiction books I've read, such as Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 by Mitchell Zuckoff. I also think the sheer density and volume of information given in this book just was difficult for my goldfish brain (Fall and Rise feels more chunked).
I think this book would be well-received by history and nonfiction lovers, and would certainly recommend the audiobook with its solid narration quality if you want to multitask while listening.
October 4, 2026
This is an interesting book that tries to understand American slavery by looking at the course of one plantation. The Blow family had land in southern Virginia, right near by where Nat Turner would have his rebellion. This traces over the course of two generations who tried to make a go of if there, but the land was bad, meaning that it was often just a hard run to just stand still. What kept the family fortunes going was reliance upon unpaid slave labor all those years. They thought of themselves as good masters, though they would also sell off slaves as needed to help their own economic situations. They also lived by the Great Dismal Swamp, which in the early years was a haven for runaways, though it was eventually tamed.
September 3, 2026
Drawing on a unique family archive, this book explores life on a debt-ridden 19th-century Virginia slave plantation. This account details the internal strife of the Blow family and the resilience of the enslaved people. It also reframes Nat Turner's revolt, showing its broader roots and lasting impact.
This well-researched book is interesting and illuminating. I started by reading the ebook, then switched to the audiobook, and found the audiobook more compelling and enjoyable. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in 19th century US history.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
This well-researched book is interesting and illuminating. I started by reading the ebook, then switched to the audiobook, and found the audiobook more compelling and enjoyable. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in 19th century US history.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
September 22, 2026
This is far more a biography of the slave-owning Blow family than history of the Nat Turner rebellion. The Blow family archives apparently contain info on the Turner Rebellion not found in other sources. As for the book: it's poorly organized, with irritating editorializing. I hated all the white people, except the wife who went insane, and was rooting for the slave rebellion, doomed or no. Which I feel weird about, since they murdered a ton of innocent children. Fucking slavery.
September 27, 2026
The book both begins and ends with a quote from William Blow Jr. saying that "If you can't find traditions, make them. It takes only two to make a conspiracy and no more are necessary for the fabrication of tradition." While Taylor warns that we should be skeptical of "slaveholder's self-serving stories" and reports on all the ways the Blow family cleaned up their history to make themselves look better, the novel still gives the vast majority of its voice to the false narrative.
September 30, 2026
I approach any book with “plantation” in the title/subtitle with trepidation. I don’t read revision “historical” novels. This is a nonfiction accounting of Nat Turner Rebellion. But the majority of the book, which is based on the archives of a Virginia family plantation, is about the workings of the plantation from the White chroniclers. Little of Black voices. Well written and researched - just not the angle that I was looking for.
September 30, 2026
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I thought the author did a wonderful job of recreating the life of enslaved people and of the plantation owners. It was eye opening to read about the trials and chains the owners had in keeping plantations around. The financial and emotional burdens were like a curse on these families. Of course, the enslaved suffered dearly, but I never considered the owners perspective and how little they enjoyed life, at least in this particular study.
September 16, 2026
this is about a slave owner years ago and how the owner past his plantation down through the years . Tells about the relationships he has with slaves , how it worked with the system they had set up and much more * never learned in school of course! I would highly suggest the read. Hang in there as it is a slow start.
September 21, 2026
there is far more minutia about the business of a family run plantation than the rebellion... dry af but interesting, like mortgages on slaves, dynamic goods pricing or slave-owner sons acting out "honor" as brats in college. however, there is more here about slaves living out "FU and F this slavery BS", rebelliously-micro, than I've read anywhere else
September 18, 2026
Filled with facts..may have come across better if I had read and not listened. Follows one family owning Virginia plantation. Really interesting details on Nat Turner Rebellion.
September 18, 2026
Boring
October 10, 2026
Interesting but I feel like it didn’t really hit its stride until the epilogue
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