The nineteenth century is one of the most significant centuries in the history of man. Slavery is only a part of that time, albeit a significant one. It is the century when the industrial revolution truly took hold. Ways of life were continually changing, generally improving. The concept of the individual as an autonomous person and not just a subject of the ruling class was beginning to take hold. That naturally led to critical examination of slavery.
Slavery was justifiable to an aristocratic class that had for been generations comfortable with ruling over others, both free and slave. On the other hand, there were those who were developing a fierce sense of individual liberty previously unknown in the world, and largely unattainable prior to the industrial revolution.
TRILOGY consists of passages from three autobiographical books by people of that time.
Cornelia Randolph was the aristocratic daughter of a plantation owner who owned hundreds of slaves. Solomon Northup was a free black man who had been kidnapped into slavery for a period of twelve years. Albion Tourgee had been a Northern officer in the civil war, moving to the South after the war, becoming a carpetbagger.
None of these three knew each other personally, but they share the times. They are a window into those times.
