The multiple award-winning family saga and winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize

Happy Dreams of Liberty
​An American Family in Slavery and Freedom


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Oxford University Press
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When Samuel Townsend died at his home in Madison County, Alabama, in November 1856, the fifty-two-year-old white planter left behind hundreds of enslaved people, thousands of acres of rich cotton land, and a net worth of approximately $200,000. In life, Samuel had done little to distinguish himself from other members of the South's elite slaveholding class. But he made a name for himself in death by leaving almost the entirety of his fortune to his five sons, four daughters, and two nieces: all of them his slaves.

About the Author

R. Isabela Morales is an award-winning author and historian. Her first book, Happy Dreams of Liberty: An American Family in Slavery and Freedom, was published by Oxford University Press in 2022. Among other honors, it won the 2023 Frederick Douglass Book Prize, the foremost international book award for the history of slavery and abolition, and the 2023 Tom Watson Brown Book Award, one of the most prestigious book prizes in Civil War history. Dr. Morales served as the Editor of The Princeton & Slavery Project, Princeton University’s ground-breaking public history initiative, from 2017-2024. She is currently the Education and Exhibit Manager at the Stoutsburg Sourland African American Museum, Central New Jersey's first dedicated Black history museum.

Dr. Morales received her Ph.D. in history from Princeton University. She completed an M.A. in history from Princeton and a B.A. in history and American Studies from The University of Alabama, where she first began the research that would become Happy Dreams of Liberty. She is now working on her second book, tentatively titled The Black Widow of Hazel Green​, under contract with Liveright at W. W. Norton.
Curriculum Vitae