Rebellious Passage

Kerr-Ritchie, Jeffrey R.

ISBN 10: 1108700004 / ISBN 13: 9781108700009

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2019

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9781108700009

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rebellious Passage
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1108700004
• ISBN 13: 9781108700009
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

In late October 1841, the Creole left Richmond with 137 slaves bound for New Orleans. It arrived five weeks later minus the Captain, one passenger, and most of the captives. Nineteen rebels had seized the US slave ship en route and steered it to the British Bahamas where the slaves gained their liberty. Drawing upon a sweeping array of previously unexamined state, federal, and British colonial sources, Rebellious Passage examines the neglected maritime dimensions of the extensive US slave trade and slave revolt. The focus on south-to-south self-emancipators at sea differs from the familiar narrative of south-to-north fugitive slaves over land. Moreover, a broader hemispheric framework of clashing slavery and antislavery empires replaces an emphasis on US antebellum sectional rivalry. Written with verve and commitment, Rebellious Passage chronicles the first comprehensive history of the ship revolt, its consequences, and its relevance to global modern slavery.

About the Author

Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie is Professor of History at Howard University, Washington DC and author of Freedpeople in the Tobacco South: Virginia, 1860–1900 (1999); Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World (2007); and Freedom's Seekers: Essays on Comparative Emancipation (2014).