TRYING LIBERTY: The Quiet Revolution on Long Island
It is 1775 and the colonies are caught up in the tide of liberty. In New York Quakers have committed themselves to extending the circle of liberty by freeing their slaves.
But progress to free their slaves halts as the simmering conflict ignites when the British stage a massive battle in Brooklyn. Triumphant the army takes over all of Brooklyn and the surrounding counties. When the occupying army plants itself inside Long Island homes the life of every resident is stretched then upended.
In a few short years competing loyalties splinter towns and households as each family is faced with unbidden life-changing choices. The Quakers find unanticipated difficulties in executing their plan of freeing their slaves. The newly begun war and the occupying army make life unsettling on the Island. But it is the enslaved who have particularly difficult choices. Do they remain enslaved but secure? Do they join the British army and be paid? Do they chance freedom in a yet unformed nation?
While battling danger and want Long Islanders also grapple with questions of a time not yet: of what to do once precious liberty is achieved when the position of slave and master Mother country and Colony are abolished.
Historically accurate Trying Liberty brings to light the numerous quandaries Long Islanders faced in this tumultuous period of the would-be nation.
