Providing a fresh look at liberty and freedom in the Revolutionary era from the perspective of black Americans, Black Americans in the Revolutionary Era examines the conditions of black American life during this time and the ways in which Revolutionary rhetoric about liberty provided African Americans with the language and inspiration for advancing their cause. Woody Holton (Ph.D., Duke University) is an associate professor at the University of Richmond in Virginia, where he teaches classes on African Americans, Native America, early American women, the origins of the Constitution, Abigail Adams, and the era of the American Revolution. He is especially interested in studying the impact of ordinary citizens on grand political events. He is the author of Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (1999), which won the Organization of American Historians Merle Curti Social History Award, and Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (2007), which was a finalist for the National Book Award.