From Publishers Weekly
With thorough, judicious research, Yale history professor da Costa reconstructs "one of the greatest slave uprisings . . . of the New World," which occurred in the British colony of Demerara, now known as Guyana, in 1823. She records the debates in Britain and its outposts over rights and reforms, showing how planters and missionaries differed and how the colony's slaves grew resentful of the pace of change. Missionary John Smith, drawn to Demerara by serendipity, became a convert to the slaves' causes and was blamed for the rebellion; he was sentenced to death, but died in jail. Da Costa suggests, rather, that some 12,000 slaves, stimulated by rumors of freedom and by harassment, linked to one another by family and work loyalties, started the uprising on their own, seizing their plantations. Though only three whites died during the rebellion, hundreds of slaves were killed or wounded and 33 were executed after summary trial. The conflict ultimately influenced the British decision a decade later to abolish slavery in its colonies. Illustrations not seen by PW .
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Slave rebellions have generally proved to be rather nasty affairs, and the rebellion of slaves in the British colony of Demerara (now Guyana) was no exception. The violence was horrific, though the retaliatory violence of the slave masters far exceeded anything perpetrated by the slaves. However, as da Costa's outstanding chronicle illustrates, this rebellion was not a mere expression of incoherent rage. On the contrary, the slaves fought for clearly defined objectives on the basis of the premise that their "rights" in an unwritten but understood social contract had been violated. Da Costa, a superb writer and a superb historian, unfolds his narrative like a Greek tragedy, in which all the major characters fall victim to their own hubris. Masters and slaves are revealed as players in a game they cannot hope to fully understand. Perhaps the most tragic figures were English missionaries like John Wray and John Smith; they were caught between the demands of Christian compassion and egalitarian sentiments toward the slaves and their "duties" toward their race and class as British subjects. Da Costa has given us a riveting drama and a magnificent historical tract.
Jay Freeman
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