American Uprising

The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt

Daniel Rasmussen

• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780061995217
• eBook ISBN:
  9780062084354
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

"A chilling and suspenseful account [of] the culmination of a signal episode in the history of American race relations." —Adam Goodheart,  The New York Times Book Review
 
In January 1811, five hundred slaves, dressed in military uniforms and armed with guns, cane knives, and axes, rose up from the plantations around New Orleans and set out to conquer the city. Ethnically diverse, politically astute, and highly organized, this self-made army challenged not only the economic system of plantation agriculture but also American expansion. Their march represented the largest act of armed resistance against slavery in the history of the United States.
 
American Uprising is the riveting, long-neglected story of the rebel army's dramatic march on the city, and its shocking conclusion. No North American slave uprising—not Gabriel Prosser's, not Denmark Vesey's, not Nat Turner's—has rivaled the scale of this rebellion either in terms of the number of the slaves involved or the number who were killed. More than one hundred slaves were slaughtered by federal troops and French planters, who then sought to write the event out of history and prevent the spread of the slaves' revolutionary philosophy.
 
Through groundbreaking research, Daniel Rasmussen offers a window into expansionist America, illuminating the early history of New Orleans and providing new insight into the path to the Civil War and the slave revolutionaries who fought and died for the hope of freedom.
 
 "Crisp, confident . . . Rasmussen tells this story with verve." —John Stauffer,  The Wall Street Journal
 
"Breathtaking. . . . [A] fascinating narrative of slavery and resistance [that] tells us something about history itself—about how fiction can become fact, and how 'history' is sometimes nothing more than erasure." —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Index

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific passage, please use the search feature of your e-book reader.

abolitionists, 178

Abraham (slave), 124

Adams, Henry, 59

Adams-Onis Treaty, 184, 185

Africa

chanting in, 42

embrenche (ritual scar) of, 25

military oaths in, 36

slaves from, 17–18, 20, 25, 40–41, 53, 90 (see also specific countries)

African Americans

and Bureau of Colored Troops, 195

and civil rights movement, 214–17

Congressional Medals of Honor awarded to, 195

and constitutional amendments, 198

courage of, 195–96, 198

legally free, 197, 198

lynchings of, 216

in Reconstruction period, 205

and segregation, 211–15

violence against, 216

volunteers to U.S. Army, 190–98

Afro-American History Society, 201–2

Akan people, 22, 23

blood markings of, 86, 106

Cuban revolt of, 35

and guerilla warfare, 90

in New Orleans revolt, 106–7

New York revolt of, 36

See also Asante kingdom

Alabama National Guard, 214

Amar (slave), 156, 240n15

American expansionism

and Civil War, 186

and Claiborne, 68, 169

driven by fear, 176

in Florida (see Florida)

in history, 210

and Indian Removal, 184–85

and Madison, 63, 186

in Texas, 185

and war with Mexico, 185, 186

Americanization

costs of, 163

of Louisiana, 54–56, 159, 167

American Revolution, 53, 54

Andry, Gilbert, 98, 99, 100, 110, 128, 135, 136

Andry, Manuel, 71–81

and counterattack, 137, 140

Deslondes as slave driver for, 74–81

Deslondes’ attack on, 85, 99

escape of, 99–100, 131, 135, 136

help sought by, 135–36

mansion of, 71–72, 99–101, 135–36

and reprisals, 149, 153, 157, 206

slave attack on, 98–100

and slave trial, 153

slave uprising plotted at plantation of, 86, 127

Aponte Rebellion, Cuba, 98

Aptheker, Herbert, American Negro Slave Revolts, 208–9

Articles of Confederation, C.S.A., 188

Asante kingdom

heritage of, 106–7

slaves from, 20, 22, 106

August...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Prologue
• January 6, 1811
• January 8, 1811
• January 9, 1811
• January 10, 1811
• January 12–21, 1811
• January 29, 1811
• Epilogue
• Acknowledgments
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright
• About the Publisher