Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The United States has a very complex, oft-oversimplified past. Dr. Robin Bernstein—a Dillon Professor of American History and Professor of African and African-American Studies and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University—unravels a bit of that past in her new book Freeman’s Challenge, a gripping story of murder, greed and race about a young man sentenced to five years of hard labor at Auburn prison in the early 19th century.
In the 19th century, as slavery gradually ended in the North, a village in New York State concocted a new form of unfreedom—the profit-driven prison, uniting incarceration and capitalism. Here, the village of Auburn built a prison that enclosed industrial factories, where “slaves of the state” were leased to private companies.
The book’s protagonist, an Afro-Native teenager named William Freeman, is convicted of horse theft and insists on his innocence. After demanding fair wages, a series of events leads to violence and social aftershocks that reverberate still in our society today.
Freeman's Challenge
Amazon: amazon.com/Freemans-Challenge-Murder-Americas-Original/dp/022674423X
Dr. Robin Bernstein
Web: robinbernsteinphd.com
X: https://x.com/robinmbernstein
Instagram: instagram.com/robinmbernstein
Join us on Books That Make You, for exclusive giveaways book reviews and more:
Web: booksthatmakeyou.com
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We are also the home of The BookFest. For more information, please visit our website: TheBookFest.com
The United States has a very complex, oft-oversimplified past. Dr. Robin Bernstein—a Dillon Professor of American History and Professor of African and African-American Studies and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University—unravels a bit of that past in her new book Freeman’s Challenge, a gripping story of murder, greed and race about a young man sentenced to five years of hard labor at Auburn prison in the early 19th century.
In the 19th century, as slavery gradually ended in the North, a village in New York State concocted a new form of unfreedom—the profit-driven prison, uniting incarceration and capitalism. Here, the village of Auburn built a prison that enclosed industrial factories, where “slaves of the state” were leased to private companies.
The book’s protagonist, an Afro-Native teenager named William Freeman, is convicted of horse theft and insists on his innocence. After demanding fair wages, a series of events leads to violence and social aftershocks that reverberate still in our society today.
Freeman's Challenge
Amazon: amazon.com/Freemans-Challenge-Murder-Americas-Original/dp/022674423X
Dr. Robin Bernstein
Web: robinbernsteinphd.com
X: https://x.com/robinmbernstein
Instagram: instagram.com/robinmbernstein
Join us on Books That Make You, for exclusive giveaways book reviews and more:
Web: booksthatmakeyou.com
Facebook: facebook.com/BooksThatMakeYou
Instagram: instagram.com/books_that_make_you
TikTok: tiktok.com/@books_that_make_you
We are also the home of The BookFest. For more information, please visit our website: TheBookFest.com
