Black Rebellion: Five Slave Revolts - Softcover

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1502367971 ISBN 13: 9781502367976

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014

Synopsis

The Maroons! it was a word of peril once; and terror spread along the skirts of the blue mountains of Jamaica when some fresh foray of those unconquered guerrillas swept down from the outlying plantations, startled the Assembly from its order, Gen. Williamson from his billiards, and Lord Balcarres from his diplomatic ease,—endangering, according to the official statement, "public credit," "civil rights," and "the prosperity, if not the very existence, of the country," until they were "persuaded to make peace" at last. They were the Circassians of the New World, but they were black, instead of white; and as the Circassians refused to be transferred from the Sultan to the Czar, so the Maroons refused to be transferred from Spanish dominion to English, and thus their revolt began. The difference is, that while the white mountaineers numbered four hundred thousand, and only defied Nicholas, the black mountaineers numbered less than two thousand, and defied Cromwell; and while the Circassians, after years of revolt, were at last subdued, the Maroons, on the other hand, who rebelled in 1655, were never conquered, but only made a compromise of allegiance, and exist as a separate race to-day.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Fired with an abolitionist's passion, these five true accounts of slave uprisings in Latin America and the United States are among the best writings we have of the struggle to end slavery in the Western hemisphere.

Written by a dedicated antislavery crusader and first published in the Atlantic Monthly in the 1850s and 1860s, these highly readable essays combine in-depth research with assured, absorbing prose to tell fascinating and important stories: of black warrior societies of the "Maroons," descendents of escaped slaves who lived in the jungles of the West Indies and South America; of Gabriel, whose dedication to throwing off the shackles of oppression turned him into a figure with an almost mystical aura; and Nat Turner's furious insurrection; and more.

About the Author

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911) was a militant abolitionist, member of the Underground Railroad, outspoken financial backer of John Brown's raid, commander of the first regiment of freed slaves to fight in the Civil War, Emily Dickinson's friend and editor, and one of the best American essayists of the nineteenth century.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1502367971
• ISBN 13: 9781502367976
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 72