Rough Crossings: The Slaves, the British, and the American Revolution [9780060539177]

Overview

“The most dramatic account so far of the extraordinary expeience of slaves in and after the American Revolution. . . . Schama’s gift for plunging us into the very center of the action makes reading an exhilarating and often moving experience.”—Daily Telegraph

If you were black in America at the start of the Revolutionary War, whom would you want to win? In response to a declaration by the last governor of Virginia that any rebel-owned slave who escaped and served the King would be emancpated, tens of thousands of blacks voted with feet, escaping to fight beside the British. Originally designed to break the plantations of the American South, this military strategy instead unleashed one of the great exoduses in American history.

Told in the voices of the slaves and the white abolitionists who aided them, Simon Schama vividly details the odyssey of these escaped blacks, shedding light on an extraordinary chapter in America’s birth.

Rough Crossings reveals a forgotten front of the Revolutionary War, where the fight for freedom was truly a matter of life and death—and the sides were not as clear as we’ve been told.

• A Forgotten History: Discover why tens of thousands of enslaved people risked everything to side with the British, seeing King George III, not the Founding Fathers, as their potential liberator.
• The Founding Fathers' Dilemma: Uncover the "dirty little secret" of the Revolution as prominent Patriots like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson watch their own enslaved workers flee to fight against the American cause.
• From Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone: Follow the dramatic, often tragic journey of the Black Loyalists from the battlefields of the South to the harsh settlements of Nova Scotia and, for some, a return to Africa to found a new colony of free people.
• Narrative History at its Finest: Through the vivid, immersive storytelling that has made Simon Schama a master of the genre, this account is told through the diaries, letters, and records of the people who lived it.