Volume 36, Number 5 · March 30, 1989
The Ends of Slavery
By David Brion Davis
Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam
by John Gabriel Stedman. transcribed for the first time from the original 1790 manuscript, edited by Richard Price, by Sally Price
Johns Hopkins University Press, 708 pp., $95.00
The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776–1848
by Robin Blackburn
Verso, 560 pp., $49.50
The Arrogance of Race: Historical Perspectives on Slavery, Racism, and Social Inequality
by George M. Fredrickson
Wesleyan University Press, 310 pp., $25.95
Robin Blackburn's monumental book The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery reproduces on the front of its dust jacket the extreme right-side portion of John Trumbull's patriotic painting The Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill. A young American lieutenant, 'wounded in the sword hand, and in the breast,' as Trumbull described the scene, turns in hesitation as he flees the American redoubt on Breed's Hill, wondering if he should sacrifice his life in a vain attempt to save General Joseph Warren. Close by his side stands 'a faithful negro,' actually a black combatant named Peter Salem, who holds in readiness a cocked flintlock musket. So at the outbreak of the American Revolution, a black rifleman stands shoulder to shoulder with a white American patriot holding a sword in his left hand and wearing a plumed hat.[1]
Review, 5616 words
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