Edward Coles's guest appearances

Edward Coles

Virginia Historical Society Podcasts

Captains of Industry by James Parton (1822 - 1891)

Lawrence Jackson

James Madison

John Harrison

James Gordon

Douglas Brinkley

Woodrow Wilson

Robert E. Lee

Cokie Roberts

Jeremy Black

Michael Reynolds

Patrick Henry

Louis Brandeis

John Brown

John Grady

Edward Lee

OwlTail

Bruce G. Carveth

On August 2, 2012, Bruce G. Carveth delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Edward Coles: Crusade Against Slavery." Edward Coles was a wealthy heir to a central Virginia plantation who left his family's Virginia tobacco plantation in 1819 and started the long trip west to Edwardsville, Illinois. He paused along the Ohio River on an emotional April morning to free his slaves and offer each family 160 acres of Illinois land of their own. Some continued to work for Coles, while others were left to find work for themselves. Coles later became the second governor of Illinois, the loyal personal secretary to President James Madison, and a close antislavery associate of Thomas Jefferson. In "Crusade Against Slavery," Bruce G. Carveth and his coauthor detail Coles's remarkable life story and his role in the struggle to free all slaves. Carveth is an independent writer and former editor. (Introduction by Paul Levengood)

Edward Coles: Crusade Against Slavery by Bruce G. Carveth

Edward Coles, Noblest of the Pioneers, and His Great Speech