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The First Emancipator: The Forgotten Story of Robert Carter, the Founding Father Who Freed His Slaves
Robert Carter III, the grandson of Tidewater legend Robert “King” Carter, was born into the highest circles of Virginia’s Colonial aristocracy. He was neighbor and kin to the Washingtons and Lees and a friend and peer to Thomas Jefferson and George Mason. But on September 5, 1791, Carter severed his ties with this glamorous elite at the stroke of a pen. In a document he called his Deed of Gift, Carter declared his intent to set free nearly five hundred slaves in the largest single act of liberation in the history of American slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation.
How did Carter succeed in the very action that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson claimed they fervently desired but were powerless to effect? And why has his name all but vanished from the annals of American history? In this haunting, brilliantly original work, Andrew Levy traces the confluence of circumstance, conviction, war, and passion that led to Carter’s extraordinary act.
At the dawn of the Revolutionary War, Carter was one of the wealthiest men in America, the owner of tens of thousands of acres of land, factories, ironworks–and hundreds of slaves. But incrementally, almost unconsciously, Carter grew to feel that what he possessed was not truly his. In an era of empty Anglican piety, Carter experienced a feverish religious visionthat impelled him to help build a church where blacks and whites were equals.
In an age of publicly sanctioned sadism against blacks, he defied convention and extended new protections and privileges to his slaves. As the war ended and his fortunes declined, Carter dedicated himself even more fiercely to liberty, clashing repeatedly with his neighbors, his friends, government officials, and, most poignantly, his own family.
But Carter was not the only humane master, nor the sole partisan of freedom, in that freedom-loving age. Why did this troubled, spiritually torn man dare to do what far more visionary slave owners only dreamed of? In answering this question, Andrew Levy teases out the very texture of Carter’s life and soul–the unspoken passions that divided him from others of his class, and the religious conversion that enabled him to see his black slaves in a new light.
Drawing on years of painstaking research, written with grace and fire, The First Emancipator is a portrait of an unsung hero who has finally won his place in American history. It is an astonishing, challenging, and ultimately inspiring book.
From the Hardcover edition.
How did Carter succeed in the very action that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson claimed they fervently desired but were powerless to effect? And why has his name all but vanished from the annals of American history? In this haunting, brilliantly original work, Andrew Levy traces the confluence of circumstance, conviction, war, and passion that led to Carter’s extraordinary act.
At the dawn of the Revolutionary War, Carter was one of the wealthiest men in America, the owner of tens of thousands of acres of land, factories, ironworks–and hundreds of slaves. But incrementally, almost unconsciously, Carter grew to feel that what he possessed was not truly his. In an era of empty Anglican piety, Carter experienced a feverish religious visionthat impelled him to help build a church where blacks and whites were equals.
In an age of publicly sanctioned sadism against blacks, he defied convention and extended new protections and privileges to his slaves. As the war ended and his fortunes declined, Carter dedicated himself even more fiercely to liberty, clashing repeatedly with his neighbors, his friends, government officials, and, most poignantly, his own family.
But Carter was not the only humane master, nor the sole partisan of freedom, in that freedom-loving age. Why did this troubled, spiritually torn man dare to do what far more visionary slave owners only dreamed of? In answering this question, Andrew Levy teases out the very texture of Carter’s life and soul–the unspoken passions that divided him from others of his class, and the religious conversion that enabled him to see his black slaves in a new light.
Drawing on years of painstaking research, written with grace and fire, The First Emancipator is a portrait of an unsung hero who has finally won his place in American history. It is an astonishing, challenging, and ultimately inspiring book.
From the Hardcover edition.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
33 people are currently reading
355 people want to read
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July 14, 2025
As with many individuals from the Early American Republic, Robert Carter III was acquainted with many of the Founders and War heroes whom would go on to shape the nation. Historian Andrew Levy proves Carter most certainly had a forgotten yet lasting impact on the noble soul of America, but he mistakenly forces him into the ranks of the Founding Era’s most illustrious contributors. Overlooking the “Founding Father” estimation, The First Emancipator is straightforward in revealing Carter as a wealthy yet enlightened introvert with a compassion for humans held in bondage, and a tendency towards reclusiveness—a talented man with a taste for the arts and reading, a knack for inventing, and a fascination with death and comfort.
From the opening chapters, Levy captures Carter’s thoughts and overall opinions with his hesitancy of disobedience to the Crown and mob rule prior to the outbreak of war, and his patriotic leanings after Lord Dunmore mistakenly provokes the boiling tensions of Virginians in closing courthouses and manumitting slaves. To counter this action, Carter gives his own slaves the option of swearing loyalty to himself and the “United provinces”, or being released to Dunmore, where he assured them smallpox and slaving in the West Indies awaited them.
Interestingly, Carter becomes a devout Christian just prior to and during the Revolutionary War, finding commonality with dissenting denominations whether ministered by Presbyterian, Methodist, or Baptist preachers, and goes as far as to establish and fund a church on his own land. Through Levy’s exceptional research we find Fithian, the family tutor, chronicling much of the happenings and personalities of the Carter family that aren’t pulled from the Patriarch Robert III’s own journals—noting his treatment and liberal musings on slavery—as well as his dealings with guests to Nomony Hall including a young “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, Jefferson, and George Mason to name but a few:
But Nomony was different all around. There was no doubt that the opinion of his peers, as recorded by Fithian, was correct: Robert Carter was an unusually “humane” slaveholder. The rate of population growth on his properties, a good raw measure of health among slaves, was roughly twice that found on the average Virginia plantation. They were listed by family, not plantation, in Carter’s censuses, when he bothered to compose censuses, and their names tended to be those that slaves chose for one another, not those that masters chose for their slaves: slave sons were often named after slave fathers, for instance. When his slaves asked to keep their families together, Carter routinely responded with sympathy…
The book slows down and the reader may become disinterested as Part II proceeds on to the post-war years, where it becomes all too clear that apart from Carter’s “generosity” to his slaves in defending them from abusive overseers and the like, he truly may be forgotten and unremarkable due to the fact that Levy has to focus on his religious experiences and struggles with debt in his later years—not the most exciting material to captivate an audience with. Ultimately, his magnum opus and rightful claim to fame can be found in his “Deed of Gift”, in which Levy appropriately dedicates a whole chapter to Carter’s emancipation of his slaves—whom at the starting point in 1792 were numbering in the four hundreds.
Carter’s liberty-minded and inspiring manumission rewards each slave to rename themselves upon their emancipation in the court, and even allows them to lease out farms and property on his own estate—all to the disgust and detriment of white tenants and neighbors. The Deed went on to grant freedom to countless of Carter’s slaves even after his death, and was so effective in its broad powers and language that his daughter Julia was still freeing descendants of Carter’s slaves as late as 1852. Unfortunately, there are no illustrations provided of the Carter family and dwellings.
From the opening chapters, Levy captures Carter’s thoughts and overall opinions with his hesitancy of disobedience to the Crown and mob rule prior to the outbreak of war, and his patriotic leanings after Lord Dunmore mistakenly provokes the boiling tensions of Virginians in closing courthouses and manumitting slaves. To counter this action, Carter gives his own slaves the option of swearing loyalty to himself and the “United provinces”, or being released to Dunmore, where he assured them smallpox and slaving in the West Indies awaited them.
Interestingly, Carter becomes a devout Christian just prior to and during the Revolutionary War, finding commonality with dissenting denominations whether ministered by Presbyterian, Methodist, or Baptist preachers, and goes as far as to establish and fund a church on his own land. Through Levy’s exceptional research we find Fithian, the family tutor, chronicling much of the happenings and personalities of the Carter family that aren’t pulled from the Patriarch Robert III’s own journals—noting his treatment and liberal musings on slavery—as well as his dealings with guests to Nomony Hall including a young “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, Jefferson, and George Mason to name but a few:
But Nomony was different all around. There was no doubt that the opinion of his peers, as recorded by Fithian, was correct: Robert Carter was an unusually “humane” slaveholder. The rate of population growth on his properties, a good raw measure of health among slaves, was roughly twice that found on the average Virginia plantation. They were listed by family, not plantation, in Carter’s censuses, when he bothered to compose censuses, and their names tended to be those that slaves chose for one another, not those that masters chose for their slaves: slave sons were often named after slave fathers, for instance. When his slaves asked to keep their families together, Carter routinely responded with sympathy…
The book slows down and the reader may become disinterested as Part II proceeds on to the post-war years, where it becomes all too clear that apart from Carter’s “generosity” to his slaves in defending them from abusive overseers and the like, he truly may be forgotten and unremarkable due to the fact that Levy has to focus on his religious experiences and struggles with debt in his later years—not the most exciting material to captivate an audience with. Ultimately, his magnum opus and rightful claim to fame can be found in his “Deed of Gift”, in which Levy appropriately dedicates a whole chapter to Carter’s emancipation of his slaves—whom at the starting point in 1792 were numbering in the four hundreds.
Carter’s liberty-minded and inspiring manumission rewards each slave to rename themselves upon their emancipation in the court, and even allows them to lease out farms and property on his own estate—all to the disgust and detriment of white tenants and neighbors. The Deed went on to grant freedom to countless of Carter’s slaves even after his death, and was so effective in its broad powers and language that his daughter Julia was still freeing descendants of Carter’s slaves as late as 1852. Unfortunately, there are no illustrations provided of the Carter family and dwellings.
May 10, 2019
Fascinating story never covered in my history classes at college (I'm a history major).
February 23, 2008
Laborious reading, though not altogether unprofitable or uninteresting. (But, if there is legal action that can be levied for the use of run-on sentences, I'd consider filing suit against Levy.)
The first four chapters are primarily about Carter's spiritual evolution and the political climate in Virginia around the time of the Revolution. But the best parts, by far, were the last two chapters in which Levy told how Carters' slaves were freed, and then discusses the reasons why Robert Carter is virtually unknown in American history, despite the fact that his Deed of Gift was the "largest single act of liberation in the history of American slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation." The last chapter ties together tidbits from the earlier ones about why other Virginia gentlemen, though they morally objected to slavery, did not free their slaves. Levy goes on to explore the reasons that Americans of that day (and today) are comfortable with the Deed of Gift falling into obscurity.
I will let Levy's words from the introduction describe what I found most fascinating about the book: We are taught... that the founders wanted to free their slaves, but could not, because they faced insurmountable obstacles.... Most important, we are taught that the young nation was too fragile to support large emancipations: the founders knew, and historians have reiterated this point for two centuries, that compromise on slavery was the price of a republic... There has always been good evidence to support these claims.... But one need only hear the basic facts of the Deed of Gift to wonder if the whole story has yet emerged.... The fact that [Carter] freed more slaves than Washington and Jefferson owned together ought to have made some mark on the historical record.... No other Virginian of the Revolutionary era, including those who founded a great nation and spoke eloquently of the immorality of slavery, managed to reconcile freedom in theory and freedom in practice with such transparent simplicity."
Make the last two chapters into an essay, and this would easily be 4.5 stars
The first four chapters are primarily about Carter's spiritual evolution and the political climate in Virginia around the time of the Revolution. But the best parts, by far, were the last two chapters in which Levy told how Carters' slaves were freed, and then discusses the reasons why Robert Carter is virtually unknown in American history, despite the fact that his Deed of Gift was the "largest single act of liberation in the history of American slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation." The last chapter ties together tidbits from the earlier ones about why other Virginia gentlemen, though they morally objected to slavery, did not free their slaves. Levy goes on to explore the reasons that Americans of that day (and today) are comfortable with the Deed of Gift falling into obscurity.
I will let Levy's words from the introduction describe what I found most fascinating about the book: We are taught... that the founders wanted to free their slaves, but could not, because they faced insurmountable obstacles.... Most important, we are taught that the young nation was too fragile to support large emancipations: the founders knew, and historians have reiterated this point for two centuries, that compromise on slavery was the price of a republic... There has always been good evidence to support these claims.... But one need only hear the basic facts of the Deed of Gift to wonder if the whole story has yet emerged.... The fact that [Carter] freed more slaves than Washington and Jefferson owned together ought to have made some mark on the historical record.... No other Virginian of the Revolutionary era, including those who founded a great nation and spoke eloquently of the immorality of slavery, managed to reconcile freedom in theory and freedom in practice with such transparent simplicity."
Make the last two chapters into an essay, and this would easily be 4.5 stars
March 5, 2015
An important, highly detailed look at a life almost forgotten by history. Robert Carter was a peer of Virginia's aristocrats, but richer than most. His eccentricities and social ineptitude separated him from them even before his religious experience. His actions toward his slaves indicated that he saw them as individual human beings from the first, an attitude that was strongly reinforced upon his conversion to the Baptist faith. In time, this led to his freeing his slaves -- a most radical action for the time. Given the subsequent hardening of attitudes toward slavery in the South, it is perhaps no surprise that this act of humanity was pointedly ignored. Which is too bad, because the example he set serves as a demythologizing spotlight on the actions of our founding fathers who owned slaves.
June 1, 2017
Someone should write a revision of Profiles in Courage. It would include people such as Giordano Bruno, Champlain, Kepler, Humbolt, Roger Williams, Newton Knight and Robert Carter III. There people were so far ahead of their times and yet put the lie to anyone who says "you need to put their times in context when interpreting them." Levy writes a thought-provoking (albeit a bit too detailed at times) account of a most remarkable man.
June 10, 2023
In the preface to the book, author Andrew Levy partly laments, partly is befuddled by, why Robert Carter III, the man who in a single stroke of a pen and with little fanfare, emancipated over 400 of his slaves. It was not the first time that a slaveholder, even a wealthy Virginia planter like Carter had done such a thing, but never on such a scale and with seemingly such a stinging rebuke of the system.
In a way, as we follow Carter’s journey from a relatively aimless young adulthood in a controversial but wealthy Virginia family to his very unconventional adulthood, Carter’s life seemed to be leading up to this moment. It is a fact that perhaps he himself was acutely aware of.
One can ask why a man like Carter who was not only wealthy, but in the upper 1% of wealthy Virginia planters, would do something that he knew would surely alienate him from his community (he would eventually be chased out of Virginia once it became known what he had done, never to return). The answer is not clear but perhaps partly lies in the fact that Carter was in Virginia society but never really of it. He had influence by sheer financial power through loans to other planters who were struggling but was never fully liked or accepted by them (he would be unsuccessful in politics at a time when most people of means held office, a fact that never particularly troubled him).
Perhaps Carter did what he did as a giant middle finger to the system?
Perhaps.
The true answer however perhaps is that toward the end of his life, Carter would come to detest a system that he was always uncomfortable with. While many planters such as Washington talked about never breaking up slave families or beating slaves, only to do so when it was expedient for him, Carter actually went out of his way, even at great financial cost to himself, stuck to his principles.
One can argue that Carter’s freeing of his slaves (unlike Washington, while he was still alive) was incremental and that a certain number were only emancipated year by year and by certain age groups, and yet the act was so monumental and far reaching that as late as 1850, fifty years later, descendants of Carter’s slaves were still being freed by it, much to the consternation of Carter’s sons and grandsons.
So why do we never hear about this man?
Perhaps it is because as Levy suggests, the act was such an affront to the foundations of slavery that slaveholders and those sympathetic to them were invested in making sure that it would be consigned to the dustbin of history. Where sadly it seemingly still resides today.
With this book however, one hopes that Carter’s act will once again enter the national conscience and remind us that despite the narrative that is so often trotted out in defense of slaveholders that, “That’s just how things were then…”, his example shows that there were men of courage who were willing to sacrifice their wealth and status to help bend the arc of justice even just a little, in the right direction.
December 11, 2019
Published by Random House in 2005.
Robert Carter holds a unique place in American history. He was a massively successful plantation owner in the Revolutionary War generation. He knew and worked with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the Virginia legislature. He was not particularly effective as a politician, but he was effective at something that all of the above failed at.
He freed his 450+ slaves while he was still alive and managed to keep his fortune and his property.
He did it over a series of years, but he did it. Thomas Jefferson thought that it couldn't be done and often wrote about the quandary he found himself in. A good student of American history will remember that Washington freed his slaves - but that was after the death of Martha Washington. Carter did it while he was alive.
Carter's motivations seem to have been a combination of religious ideals and political ideals, motivated by such things as the soaring rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence.
The problem is that....
Read more at: https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2019...
Robert Carter holds a unique place in American history. He was a massively successful plantation owner in the Revolutionary War generation. He knew and worked with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the Virginia legislature. He was not particularly effective as a politician, but he was effective at something that all of the above failed at.
He freed his 450+ slaves while he was still alive and managed to keep his fortune and his property.
He did it over a series of years, but he did it. Thomas Jefferson thought that it couldn't be done and often wrote about the quandary he found himself in. A good student of American history will remember that Washington freed his slaves - but that was after the death of Martha Washington. Carter did it while he was alive.
Carter's motivations seem to have been a combination of religious ideals and political ideals, motivated by such things as the soaring rhetoric of the Declaration of Independence.
The problem is that....
Read more at: https://dwdsreviews.blogspot.com/2019...
October 6, 2012
The book is a little dense and repetitive. There isn't a great deal of information on Carter available as the author admits, so he repeats a lot. But the story is interesting and if you can handle a somewhat boring book, you can learn about Carter's Deed of Gift whereby he freed all 500 of his slaves in 1791!!!!!!! (This was while he was still alive. He didn't free them in his will.)The real story, obviously, is how and why he dared to do something that Jefferson and Washington talked about but didn't do.
December 8, 2012
Interesting subject matter, but a little heavy going. Feels like it's repeating itself and trying to eek out whatever historical material is available to hit a page number target.
September 11, 2022
Required reading.
December 20, 2022
*Long Review Alert*
I consider myself (moderately) well read in Virginia history, but how had I never heard of Robert Carter before?!?! He hung out with names like Mason, Washington, and Jefferson (and even played in a musical quartet with Jefferson), but more importantly - he voluntarily freed his slaves decades before the civil war. Carter freed more slaves than Jefferson/Washington owned *combined.*
This book was a fascinating window into the world of one of the contemporaries of the Founding Fathers who found a way to free his slaves and provide a start at a livelihood for them as well: not only did Carter free his slaves, he also provided tenant farmer agreements to help them start their life of freedom. He was able to envision a country where people of all races could live together - others who contemplated emancipation often wanted to ship the formerly enslaved "back to Africa." So often when people criticize Jefferson or Washington, the response is "they were people of their time, we shouldn't judge them by our standards." But the story of Robert Carter is proof that there were people of that time who recognized the evils of slavery and came up with practical ways to abolish it.
Things I found fascinating about Robert Carter and this book (in no particular order):
- He had a deep mystical spiritual experience once in his life and spent the rest of his life (decades) trying to translate that experience into practical action - he was a seeker who bounced around to different faiths trying to find the truth that spoke to him. Spiritual growth (IMO) isn't always a linear, ever-higher trajectory. That experience of religion resonated with me.
- He was super imperfect. We like our heroes to be tidily heroes, and Robert Carter was a terrible dad, emotionally remote person, and not always kind to the people he enslaved. The truth is so much more complicated than a tidy fairy tale, but it is usually more interesting.
- He took action when it was unpopular and against his own interest to do so - he was a wealthy man, and freeing his slaves was getting rid of free labor (and angering his white neighbors and tenant farmers). It took him decades of wrestling with the implications of his lifestyle to come to the conclusion that emancipation was the right call. Andrew Levy writes "...Carter taught himself instead was that slavery, like all sin, was intertwined in every major institution of his life, and that withdrawal from the slaveholder's life required, as well, withdrawal from the fine mesh of ideas and beliefs upon which slavery depended, including those ideas and beliefs that wore the most benign facades." How many of us can recognize the systems of oppression or coercion that are part of modern life and work to release ourselves (and others) from them?
- Part of the reason that Carter has been forgotten is that he was not a great writer (though he read a lot). He sums up his entire reason for the Deed of Gift which freed his slaves thusly: "I have for some time past been convinced that to retain them in Slavery is contrary to the true Principles of Religion and Justice, and that therefor it was my Duty to manumit them." That is the only explanation he gives for freeing 500 slaves from bondage. As the author points out, this goes against our cinematic biases that to be a "great act" something has to be a sweeping speech or grand gesture. In contrast, his action was a boring legal document filed in a county clerk's office. Yet it had a great impact on the lives of hundreds of people, and their descendants.
- I learned that between 1782 (when Virginia's laws were amended to allow slaveholders to free their slaves) and 1861, Virginians voluntarily freed 100,000 slaves without compensation - during that same period, Northerners freed 60,000 slaves through legislation (in many cases providing compensation to the slave owners).
- The post-revolutionary period is an interesting one for historical hypotheticals - the value of slaves was low, voluntary emancipation of slaves was allowed (and multiple bills were drafted in Virginia for mandatory emancipation), and the economics of slave owning were not great for slaveholders. If Robert Carter had been more of a charismatic figure, could he have convinced contemporaries to share his vision? On the other hand, if he had been more charismatic, he would have cared more about what people thought of him, and would therefore be less likely to free his slaves.
Though this book was dense at times, the story was engrossing enough that I have to give it five stars. Will be thinking and pondering about the lessons of this book for a long time. Levy sums up Carter's life this way: "There are no words, really, to describe ambition this vast, modesty this sublime, or the cunning required to make it all stick. He wanted to be free. He wanted to transcend this material world, spirit himself off to some quiet, solitary place from which the rumble of American history would be but distant cannonade. In the end, he got what he wanted."
I consider myself (moderately) well read in Virginia history, but how had I never heard of Robert Carter before?!?! He hung out with names like Mason, Washington, and Jefferson (and even played in a musical quartet with Jefferson), but more importantly - he voluntarily freed his slaves decades before the civil war. Carter freed more slaves than Jefferson/Washington owned *combined.*
This book was a fascinating window into the world of one of the contemporaries of the Founding Fathers who found a way to free his slaves and provide a start at a livelihood for them as well: not only did Carter free his slaves, he also provided tenant farmer agreements to help them start their life of freedom. He was able to envision a country where people of all races could live together - others who contemplated emancipation often wanted to ship the formerly enslaved "back to Africa." So often when people criticize Jefferson or Washington, the response is "they were people of their time, we shouldn't judge them by our standards." But the story of Robert Carter is proof that there were people of that time who recognized the evils of slavery and came up with practical ways to abolish it.
Things I found fascinating about Robert Carter and this book (in no particular order):
- He had a deep mystical spiritual experience once in his life and spent the rest of his life (decades) trying to translate that experience into practical action - he was a seeker who bounced around to different faiths trying to find the truth that spoke to him. Spiritual growth (IMO) isn't always a linear, ever-higher trajectory. That experience of religion resonated with me.
- He was super imperfect. We like our heroes to be tidily heroes, and Robert Carter was a terrible dad, emotionally remote person, and not always kind to the people he enslaved. The truth is so much more complicated than a tidy fairy tale, but it is usually more interesting.
- He took action when it was unpopular and against his own interest to do so - he was a wealthy man, and freeing his slaves was getting rid of free labor (and angering his white neighbors and tenant farmers). It took him decades of wrestling with the implications of his lifestyle to come to the conclusion that emancipation was the right call. Andrew Levy writes "...Carter taught himself instead was that slavery, like all sin, was intertwined in every major institution of his life, and that withdrawal from the slaveholder's life required, as well, withdrawal from the fine mesh of ideas and beliefs upon which slavery depended, including those ideas and beliefs that wore the most benign facades." How many of us can recognize the systems of oppression or coercion that are part of modern life and work to release ourselves (and others) from them?
- Part of the reason that Carter has been forgotten is that he was not a great writer (though he read a lot). He sums up his entire reason for the Deed of Gift which freed his slaves thusly: "I have for some time past been convinced that to retain them in Slavery is contrary to the true Principles of Religion and Justice, and that therefor it was my Duty to manumit them." That is the only explanation he gives for freeing 500 slaves from bondage. As the author points out, this goes against our cinematic biases that to be a "great act" something has to be a sweeping speech or grand gesture. In contrast, his action was a boring legal document filed in a county clerk's office. Yet it had a great impact on the lives of hundreds of people, and their descendants.
- I learned that between 1782 (when Virginia's laws were amended to allow slaveholders to free their slaves) and 1861, Virginians voluntarily freed 100,000 slaves without compensation - during that same period, Northerners freed 60,000 slaves through legislation (in many cases providing compensation to the slave owners).
- The post-revolutionary period is an interesting one for historical hypotheticals - the value of slaves was low, voluntary emancipation of slaves was allowed (and multiple bills were drafted in Virginia for mandatory emancipation), and the economics of slave owning were not great for slaveholders. If Robert Carter had been more of a charismatic figure, could he have convinced contemporaries to share his vision? On the other hand, if he had been more charismatic, he would have cared more about what people thought of him, and would therefore be less likely to free his slaves.
Though this book was dense at times, the story was engrossing enough that I have to give it five stars. Will be thinking and pondering about the lessons of this book for a long time. Levy sums up Carter's life this way: "There are no words, really, to describe ambition this vast, modesty this sublime, or the cunning required to make it all stick. He wanted to be free. He wanted to transcend this material world, spirit himself off to some quiet, solitary place from which the rumble of American history would be but distant cannonade. In the end, he got what he wanted."
January 15, 2022
For most of us, American history consists of well-attested narratives. Northerners were against slavery while Southerners were for it. General emancipation of slaves after the Revolution was impractical. The founding fathers were deist in their religious orientation. To these three national myths, the case of Virginian aristocrat Robert Carter stands in stark opposition. In the late eighteenth century, he freed around 500 of his own slaves, to the ire of his neighbors and without compensation, because of religious inspiration. His story provides us with courage to live up to our principles even when they contradict our practices.
Like many aristocrats of his time, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Carter was educated in Enlightenment principles and kept good records of his actions. However, unlike these two other leaders, Carter was not a political leader publicly using high rhetoric to espouse an egalitarian age while swallowing the uncomfortable pill of private slavery. Instead, Carter freed his slaves in the largest emancipation before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. He did so explicitly because he found American rhetoric about universal freedom was not supported by popular practice.
These convictions were buttressed by Carter’s devoutly religious practices. Though an aristocrat invested in the current order, he converted to the Baptist faith around the time of the Revolutionary War. In Baptist churches, he was placed on equal footing with social outcasts and developed an egalitarian social view. He did not leverage equality as an ideal to gain political power, though, unlike others. Instead, as Levy carefully documents with copious references to Carter’s papers, his views slowly morphed over time.
Because of a reversion to conservative living after the Revolution, the Baptists and popular American views fell out of favor in Carter’s mind. He later converted to the Swedenborgian faith, which further called principles of equality to mind. He put practice first and rhetoric second – an example for chattering political classes of today. Yet Carter is not remembered in American history. Perhaps this omission is because of America’s unresolved tensions pertaining to race continuing through the Civil War, the Klan, Jim Crow, and to this day.
Levy’s biography seeks to remember Robert Carter and inspire readers to put practice ahead of rhetoric, not the other way around. Those attentive to American history should remember Carter’s more muted stand. Most Americans do not have great platforms to share their eloquent views with the masses; most of us resemble Robert Carter more than Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. Shouldn’t this man’s place in history push us to lead our own “quiet revolutions?”
Like many aristocrats of his time, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, Carter was educated in Enlightenment principles and kept good records of his actions. However, unlike these two other leaders, Carter was not a political leader publicly using high rhetoric to espouse an egalitarian age while swallowing the uncomfortable pill of private slavery. Instead, Carter freed his slaves in the largest emancipation before Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. He did so explicitly because he found American rhetoric about universal freedom was not supported by popular practice.
These convictions were buttressed by Carter’s devoutly religious practices. Though an aristocrat invested in the current order, he converted to the Baptist faith around the time of the Revolutionary War. In Baptist churches, he was placed on equal footing with social outcasts and developed an egalitarian social view. He did not leverage equality as an ideal to gain political power, though, unlike others. Instead, as Levy carefully documents with copious references to Carter’s papers, his views slowly morphed over time.
Because of a reversion to conservative living after the Revolution, the Baptists and popular American views fell out of favor in Carter’s mind. He later converted to the Swedenborgian faith, which further called principles of equality to mind. He put practice first and rhetoric second – an example for chattering political classes of today. Yet Carter is not remembered in American history. Perhaps this omission is because of America’s unresolved tensions pertaining to race continuing through the Civil War, the Klan, Jim Crow, and to this day.
Levy’s biography seeks to remember Robert Carter and inspire readers to put practice ahead of rhetoric, not the other way around. Those attentive to American history should remember Carter’s more muted stand. Most Americans do not have great platforms to share their eloquent views with the masses; most of us resemble Robert Carter more than Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. Shouldn’t this man’s place in history push us to lead our own “quiet revolutions?”
May 16, 2024
Virginia aristocrat Robert Carter III freed over 450 slaves in the immediate Revolutionary War period. Fact. Substantiated by numerous records. Central to Levy’s book- why this is not familiar history.
In this densely researched account several possible reasons arise, all contributing to a difficult telling of history. Carter was an outlier, one of Virginia’s wealthiest and grandson of King Carter- but his discomfort led him to withdraw from political life and even socially and geographically isolate. Carter was an eccentric, and in matters of religion and morality morphed from Anglican to Baptist to Swedenborgian. Carter saw both advantages and disadvantages of the American Revolution and was conflicted on what should constitute freedom. Carter’s plans for initiating his slaves’ freedom ( through a Deed of Gift) were detailed, complicated, executed over a complex time period, with much litigation and with the help of an untrustworthy agent. Levy contends that these complications make the telling of Carter’s actions difficult and in contrast with our traditional interpretation of slavery, race, and class in understanding US history.
Levy’s narrative chapters of Carter’s evolution and Deed of Gift emancipations are densely researched and demand a purposeful read. In contrast, the more tightly edited introductory and concluding chapters together may offer an abbreviated, accessible and sufficient summary for most readers.
Note: While familiar with King Carter, Corrotomon, Historic Christ Church, and Virginia’s Northern Neck, the history of his grandson and his actions to free his slaves were new to this reader. Levy is right to question why.
In this densely researched account several possible reasons arise, all contributing to a difficult telling of history. Carter was an outlier, one of Virginia’s wealthiest and grandson of King Carter- but his discomfort led him to withdraw from political life and even socially and geographically isolate. Carter was an eccentric, and in matters of religion and morality morphed from Anglican to Baptist to Swedenborgian. Carter saw both advantages and disadvantages of the American Revolution and was conflicted on what should constitute freedom. Carter’s plans for initiating his slaves’ freedom ( through a Deed of Gift) were detailed, complicated, executed over a complex time period, with much litigation and with the help of an untrustworthy agent. Levy contends that these complications make the telling of Carter’s actions difficult and in contrast with our traditional interpretation of slavery, race, and class in understanding US history.
Levy’s narrative chapters of Carter’s evolution and Deed of Gift emancipations are densely researched and demand a purposeful read. In contrast, the more tightly edited introductory and concluding chapters together may offer an abbreviated, accessible and sufficient summary for most readers.
Note: While familiar with King Carter, Corrotomon, Historic Christ Church, and Virginia’s Northern Neck, the history of his grandson and his actions to free his slaves were new to this reader. Levy is right to question why.
January 11, 2018
I know how hard writing can be and especially when writing a book - no less a history book. Therefore, I give this book and author 3 stars. Levy packs the book with details and people on a topic that appears to not have been delved into in past years. Carter's story is interesting for sure. However, I wasn't completely sure he was a martyr. I think if you read this book, you have to put yourself in the mindset of his time. Even so, I struggle with the notion that a slave of any sort, during any time, is evidence of the evil side of mankind. It's been going on since the beginning of time, and I can't explain why or how we adopted the notion, but it's not humane, compassionate or any of the good values we all strive to live by. On a more technical note, I found the sentence structure difficult. Levy includes repeated descriptive clauses in his sentences. He also writes with incomplete sentences and run on sentences, which for me, made it difficult to get into a good reading flow. I had to re-read many sentences and that affected my comprehension. By about page 160, I was exhausted. It does appear that he wanted to do what was right, even if he didn't do it as early as he could have potentially emancipated them. Jefferson and Washington didn't do so until after their deaths. Overall, I respect the author's passion and talent and insight for writing about this topic and a man who was wealthier than I can even begin to imagine, yet struggled with the notion of slavery during a time when it held economic, social and logistical challenges to rectify.
December 8, 2021
If you have never heard of Robert Carter, this book will go far to introducing him and explaining him. He did what no other gentry in his time did: he freed his slaves while he was alive, well most of them. But he had put into place the continued manumission of his slaves on a footing after his death. The more well-known Founders did none of this. Washington kept his slaves in servitude until Martha's death. This facilitated Martha hastening that freedom for fear of assassination as the will said, "upon her death." Jefferson used his human property to pay off debts and keep his life of ease easier. As history that anyone interested in reading a book like Levy's already knows. Carter is unknown and yet should be well known if for anything his Deed of Gift that set his hundreds of slaves free. It wasn't a perfect manumission mission, but it was a full-scale testimony that one could free their slaves if they had but the will to do so.
April 8, 2018
Robert Carter - the first emancipator in the USA. This good man showed that there was decency in the heart of at least one slave owner. He treated his slaves well, allowed them to be educated, allowed them to operate their own farms/land, and never, never allowed families to be broken up through the evil but common practice of slave trade.
He understood the evil of slavery, knowing how immoral it is to reap benefits off the backs of others. He wanted to free his slaves much sooner than he did, but the mores of the day didn't permit it. Or so the story goes.
This wealth, but good man, defied society by freeing his slaves long, long before Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Thank God for people like Robert Carter.
He understood the evil of slavery, knowing how immoral it is to reap benefits off the backs of others. He wanted to free his slaves much sooner than he did, but the mores of the day didn't permit it. Or so the story goes.
This wealth, but good man, defied society by freeing his slaves long, long before Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Thank God for people like Robert Carter.
June 15, 2022
Fascinating book about the life of Robert Carter III and how he squandered his opportunity to gain a fine education.
Scorned for his wasteful life, he seems to have learned his lesson, even hiring a fine tutor from Princeton, Philip Vickers Fithian, for his own children. Fithian even recorded a catalog of Carter's huge library into his journal.
In the 17th century Britain immersed America in the deplorable slave trade with heavy laws that kept slave owners in chains, prohibiting them from freeing slaves en masse.
Most notably, Robert Carter manumitted every single one of his slaves with the Deed of Gift, once legislation was passed by enormous work from Thomas Jefferson that allowed Virginians to free slaves.
Read all about it in this book.
Scorned for his wasteful life, he seems to have learned his lesson, even hiring a fine tutor from Princeton, Philip Vickers Fithian, for his own children. Fithian even recorded a catalog of Carter's huge library into his journal.
In the 17th century Britain immersed America in the deplorable slave trade with heavy laws that kept slave owners in chains, prohibiting them from freeing slaves en masse.
Most notably, Robert Carter manumitted every single one of his slaves with the Deed of Gift, once legislation was passed by enormous work from Thomas Jefferson that allowed Virginians to free slaves.
Read all about it in this book.
November 26, 2024
This is a badly written biography, burdened with leaden and unclear prose. The subject of the biography is an even worse writer, making the extensive quotations, umm, less than illuminating.
And yet...it's a fascinating story. Meandering, uncertain, full of false starts and second thoughts, kind of like life itself. The author has access to *such* a wealth of original sources that almost despite his best efforts, a true picture eventually emerges of a thoughtful, flawed, and pragmatically courageous man. A man who actually freed his slaves, unlike his more famous peers with their soaring prose and paralyzed action (yes, Thomas Jefferson, we're all looking at you).
And yet...it's a fascinating story. Meandering, uncertain, full of false starts and second thoughts, kind of like life itself. The author has access to *such* a wealth of original sources that almost despite his best efforts, a true picture eventually emerges of a thoughtful, flawed, and pragmatically courageous man. A man who actually freed his slaves, unlike his more famous peers with their soaring prose and paralyzed action (yes, Thomas Jefferson, we're all looking at you).
August 6, 2025
An interesting subject, but so badly written.
I tried to gear myself up for enjoying this book, I really did. I’ve always been interested in knowing more about the Carter family from Virginia. I tried hanging on for a few chapters…but it was written in such a confusing fashion, I just couldn’t hang on for the ride. From one Carter to the next and then back again. A better writer could’ve written a much better work.
What an opportunity for another author to take up this subject and write in such a way to capture the interest of those of us that want to learn more about this amazing family.
I tried to gear myself up for enjoying this book, I really did. I’ve always been interested in knowing more about the Carter family from Virginia. I tried hanging on for a few chapters…but it was written in such a confusing fashion, I just couldn’t hang on for the ride. From one Carter to the next and then back again. A better writer could’ve written a much better work.
What an opportunity for another author to take up this subject and write in such a way to capture the interest of those of us that want to learn more about this amazing family.
October 14, 2025
Well, probably a month ago I wrote a long review of this, but it was eaten by Goodreads. So, this is my smaller snapshot. I read this from a digital library loan on my kindle. It is an interesting part of history here in Virginia. A peer of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington who actually freed his 400+ enslaved people, proving that it was doable back in that timeframe. The author is definitely telling a story and not hiding the fact that they have strong opinions about it. I agree with most of their thoughts, but I can see how the storytelling aspect could be a little heavy handed.
Content FYIs: Enslavement was awful, some violence, some mentions of sex, no language.
Content FYIs: Enslavement was awful, some violence, some mentions of sex, no language.
November 7, 2018
This book did not interest me and I did not enjoy reading it there were some interesting parts like at the end. But the overall rating of the book for me would just be two stars. I found the book to not be a manageable way of using my time, It would be very interesting for people who enjoy history and like learning about the past. The book is about Robert Carter III, I did however learn a lot that I normally wouldn't have reading this book. This book did teach me more about slavery and in most other books you learn about the perspective from slaves but in this book you learn about the perspective of the owner. This book did interest me at the point when he freed the slaves but that was the only bit that interested me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2022
I found this book very interesting at times but often tedious, which I think may be partly due to the lack of detailed biographical information, since the subject was not particularly famous himself. He seems to have been enough of an introvert and a homebody to make it difficult for any biographer! But the information on the emancipation plan and how it played out was the best part of the book.
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July 4, 2020Hi! Matt Arnest here. Last male line descendant of all these slaver bastards of whom you speak and attempt to write about. Apparently my family history is someone's lifes' work as a historian, and never once asked me question one. Thomas Maunde Arnest Nomini Hall. My ggg randfather. etc...
January 24, 2023
This is a fascinating book that raises many interesting points about the history of slavery. Robert Carter III lived an unusual and interesting life. He had a tremendous sense of conscience and cared deeply for those who worked his plantations. The book is slightly verbose. But I enjoyed the read and was grateful for a new perspective on history that you don't get in the classroom.
January 20, 2018
A story I did not know before; but the presentation of the facts is somewhat disorganized.
September 14, 2020
The topic is helpful and important. The book is poorly written.
July 13, 2021
Good book
August 15, 2021
Dense thanks to many many citations of primary sources, yet vitally important - the final chapter is a bombshell of crucial truth about America
February 22, 2024
Needs to be required reading for teens and adults studying the US founding
November 12, 2015
An untold story of an American Hero. One of the wealthiest Americans who frees his slaves in 1793 and walks away from the plantation life. If one were to believe today's Social Media, all Whites before 1861 owned slaves, which certainly was never the case. Robert Carter took the ideas of the American Revolution to heart and made the decision to free close to 450 slaves and then moved from Virginia to Baltimore.
Should all signs of slave owners from the past removed as many on Social Media desire and demand? If so, then this story would more than likely not be heard. It was the work of an archaeologist and his crew that worked on the Carter Plantation of Nomoni Hall that re-discovered this story and it is part of our American history.
Carter was part of the landed gentry. His grand father was Robert "King" Carter who was the wealthiest man in America. Robert C III was ambivalent about politics, status and social status. In some regards, he WAS the the center, but chose to not conform. He left the Anglican and became Baptist. He funded numerous churches and then left the Baptist Church. One of the elder slaves was one of his spiritual mentors and challenged Carter to become more spiritual. Together they attended church.
There are many facts about the times of the Revolution that are not taught in our school system. One is how the Revolution destroyed the way of life of most of the wealthy, especially in Virginia. Another is that taxes, the root cause of the Revolution, went up-a great deal up-after Independence. Carter was in the midst of this, trying to maintain his lands and stay out of debt.
Because he was aloof from the Founding Fathers, he did not seek their advice, but observed the importance of the ideals of the Revolution and set about taking the stated goals that "All men are created equal" and went to the Court House with the Deed of Gift with the names of 440 of those within his realm.
Well researched, well written. A fascinating bio of an forgotten American.
Reading today's Social Media, the millions that fought on the Union side never get their thanks that are deserved for the war that freed the remaining slaves. A number of the children of the freed slaves fought for the Union and were officers for side that won. Robert Carter III act serves as a reminder that one should act with good morals and not leave morals to Sunday only. Good things came from his action and he had zero regrets.
As for today's Social Media, Memes are not a effective learning tool.
Should all signs of slave owners from the past removed as many on Social Media desire and demand? If so, then this story would more than likely not be heard. It was the work of an archaeologist and his crew that worked on the Carter Plantation of Nomoni Hall that re-discovered this story and it is part of our American history.
Carter was part of the landed gentry. His grand father was Robert "King" Carter who was the wealthiest man in America. Robert C III was ambivalent about politics, status and social status. In some regards, he WAS the the center, but chose to not conform. He left the Anglican and became Baptist. He funded numerous churches and then left the Baptist Church. One of the elder slaves was one of his spiritual mentors and challenged Carter to become more spiritual. Together they attended church.
There are many facts about the times of the Revolution that are not taught in our school system. One is how the Revolution destroyed the way of life of most of the wealthy, especially in Virginia. Another is that taxes, the root cause of the Revolution, went up-a great deal up-after Independence. Carter was in the midst of this, trying to maintain his lands and stay out of debt.
Because he was aloof from the Founding Fathers, he did not seek their advice, but observed the importance of the ideals of the Revolution and set about taking the stated goals that "All men are created equal" and went to the Court House with the Deed of Gift with the names of 440 of those within his realm.
Well researched, well written. A fascinating bio of an forgotten American.
Reading today's Social Media, the millions that fought on the Union side never get their thanks that are deserved for the war that freed the remaining slaves. A number of the children of the freed slaves fought for the Union and were officers for side that won. Robert Carter III act serves as a reminder that one should act with good morals and not leave morals to Sunday only. Good things came from his action and he had zero regrets.
As for today's Social Media, Memes are not a effective learning tool.
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