Plausible Man

Susanna Ashton is professor of English at Clemson University. An expert on slavery and freedom narratives, she was a Du Bois fellow at Harvard’s Hutchins Center, a fellow with Yale’s Gilder Lehrman Center, and a Fulbright scholar. The author of Collaborators in Literary America, 1870–1920, she lives in Clemson, South Carolina.

Praise for A Plausible Man:"In reconstructing a life that included so many wild twists and turns, drawing on sources drenched alternately in their recordkeepers’ racism and the protagonist’s self-mythologization, Ashton has accomplished something remarkable, a feat of historical excavation."—The New Republic"A Plausible Man is a remarkable piece of historical sleuthing and often a riveting read. Ms. Ashton’s tale is enhanced by the inclusion of numerous photos of people and places important in Jackson’s life."—The Wall Street Journal"A scholarly detective story about a man who would inspire a world-changing book."—Kirkus Reviews“A Plausible Man takes readers on a journey throughout mid-nineteenth-century America and beyond, exploring the life and times of John Andrew Jackson, whose life inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s world-changing Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”—The Journal of Southern History"Susanna Ashton’s impressive research has recovered from near-oblivion the bold and problematic life of a former slave whose colorful story once thrilled antislavery audiences in the United States and Britain."—Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction"We should be grateful to Susanna Ashton for reviving John Andrew Jackson from long-forgotten archives. His was a truly American life, which is to say, one lived on the border between slavery and freedom. A Plausible Man is not simply plausible; it’s a story with meaning for all of us."—Michael Eric Dyson, New York Times bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop and Long Time Coming"What a fascinating book Susanna Ashton has written! She is a master detective, painstakingly piecing together the fragments of John Andrew Jackson’s life. After reading this biography, readers will not only understand far more about the wildly influential novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin but also about the challenges enslaved people faced during and after bondage—as well as the difficulties of reconstructing those stories. With skill and creativity, Ashton shows us it can be done."—Ethan J. Kytle and Blain Roberts, authors of Denmark Vesey’s Garden: Slavery and Memory in the Cradle of the Confederacy"Stunning research and storytelling... delivers a gripping portrait of a fascinating man who never stopped fighting for his place in a hostile world, and a compelling meditation on the historian’s craft."—Marjoleine Kars, Senior Scholar, MIT, and author of Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast, winner of the 2021 Cundill History Prize and the 2021 Frederick Douglass Book Prize