The Rest I Will Kill

dann

Penultimate Amazing
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Feb 2, 2004
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Has anybody read Brian McGinty’s The Rest I Will Kill about the Civil War hero William Tillman?
I first heard about Tillman 10 years ago in British stand-up comedian Mark Steel’s 30-minute lecture about the American Civil War (available online in audio (mp3) versions), in which he mentions how he would love to see the story adapted for the big screen, albeit it not with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role! :)
 
A real hero would have captured the prize crew not murdered them in their beds with an axe. How on earth could anyone make an edifying film out of this obscenity?
 
A real hero would have captured the prize crew not murdered them in their beds with an axe. How on earth could anyone make an edifying film out of this obscenity?
The prize crew; also known as the pirates who would sell a man into slavery.
 
A real hero would have captured the prize crew not murdered them in their beds with an axe.

Hmmm, I think that when you are outnumbered and about to be sold into slavery (rather than treated as an honourable POW), you may get some leeway in how you resist.

(In the finale of Saving Private Ryan, were you shouting "just arrest them!" at the trigger happy Matt Damon and Tom Hanks?)
 
Has anybody read Brian McGinty’s The Rest I Will Kill about the Civil War hero William Tillman?
I first heard about Tillman 10 years ago in British stand-up comedian Mark Steel’s 30-minute lecture about the American Civil War (available online in audio (mp3) versions), in which he mentions how he would love to see the story adapted for the big screen, albeit it not with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the title role! :)

Fixed the first link for you - there was a typo in it which meant it didn't work (it had swww instead of www).

Sounds like a very interesting book. I think I'll get it on Audible and listen to it next. Thanks for the suggestion!

Edit: Dammit. It's only a little over four hours long - about half the length of what I'd normally consider spending a credit on. Maybe I'll buy it at the member price, without using a credit. $18.22 for such a short book still seems a bit steep.
 
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https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/the-lion-of-the-day/
This version of events is a bit more graphic than others I read.

Ranb

Lets see the privateers planned to sell a freeman, who had never been a slave, into slavery and apparently the Confederate government had no problem with crap like that. Why? Because Tillman was an African American and therefore he could by definition be sold regardless.

Then we find out that the ship that seized the ship Tillman was on had been involved in the illegal African slave trade in the 1850s, during which kidnapped human beings were forcibly taken to be sold at a profit in America, and almost certainly large numbers perishing in the process.

Ugh!!!
 
A real hero would have captured the prize crew not murdered them in their beds with an axe. How on earth could anyone make an edifying film out of this obscenity?

That would have put the Tillman and his one accomplice in jeopardy. Much safer to kill all but those on the prize crew he needed.
 

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