Rebels in Arms - (Early American Places) by Justin Iverson

About the Book

"Enslaved Black people took up arms and fought in nearly every colonial conflict in early British North America. They fought in Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia in 1676, in the Tuscarora and Yamasee Wars in the Carolinas and Georgia in the second decade of the eighteenth century, in Florida during the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1740, in Virginia and Pennsylvania in the French and Indian War from 1754-1763, and throughout North America and the Caribbean during the American Revolutionary War, among many others. Rebels in Arms takes a transatlantic approach that employs Black perspectives of six case studies to show how enslaved people and Maroons took up arms and participated as soldiers in conflicts traditionally thought to have been fought over colonial or imperial interests. Iverson argues that slave resistance in the British Atlantic and United States became increasingly militarized over time. Indeed, enslaved soldiers, Maroons, and plantation rebels together relied on military methods, institutions, and operations to achieve their goals. Military violence increasingly became their modus operandi and the militarization of slave resistance continued to rise throughout the eighteenth century and up until the Civil War. This book contributes to recent scholarship that reconceptualizes the participation of enslaved people in armed conflict in the Atlantic world"--

Book Synopsis

Enslaved Black people took up arms and fought in nearly every colonial conflict in early British North America. They sometimes served as loyal soldiers to protect and promote their owners' interests in the hope that they might be freed or be rewarded for their service. But for many Black combatants, war and armed conflict offered an opportunity to attack the chattel slave system itself and promote Black emancipation and freedom.

In six cases, starting in 1676 with Nathaniel Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia and ending in 1865 with the First South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Regiment near Charleston, Rebels in Arms tells the long story of how enslaved soldiers and Maroons learned how to use military service and armed conflict to fight for their own interests. Justin Iverson details a different conflict in each chapter, illuminating the participation of Black soldiers. Using a comparative Atlantic analysis that uncovers new perspectives on major military conflicts in British North American history, he reveals how enslaved people used these conflicts to lay the groundwork for abolition in 1865. Over the nearly two-hundred-year history of these struggles, enslaved resistance in the British Atlantic world became increasingly militarized, and enslaved soldiers, Maroons, and plantation rebels together increasingly relied on military institutions and operations to achieve their goals.

Review Quotes

Contrary to some contemporary arguments, work like this book highlights a profound lived struggle for the natural rights of human liberty in Anglo-Atlantic (and Francophone, Iberian, and so on) societies that long denied such rights.--Jeffrey R. Kerr "The Journal of Southern History"

Rebels in Arms: Black Resistance and the Fight for Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic is an important piece of scholarship relating to those freedom seekers and their roles through centuries of abuse and subjugation.--Wilford Kale "The Virginia Gazette"

Rebels in Arms offers an interesting take on the topic of Black/maroon resistance to white control in the Atlantic World during a roughly two-hundred-year period.--Gene Smith "author of The Slaves' Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812"

Iverson investigates well-researched, discrete episodes stretching over almost two centuries to illuminate the important martial role played by enslaved and free Africans in the Americas.--Gerald Horne "author of The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America"

Justin Iverson's Rebels in Arms makes an important contribution to the recent scholarship on African and African American armed resistance to slavery. Looking comparatively, Iverson sees intriguing patterns across the Anglo-Atlantic. Freedom seekers mastered the weapons and tactics necessary to challenge the enslavers' monopoly on violence while also forging strategic alliances with the enemies of their enemies. Rebels in Arms is must-reading for every student of the protracted struggle to abolish slavery in the Americas.--Joseph P. Reidy "author of Illusions of Emancipation: The Pursuit of Freedom and Equality in the Twilight of Slavery"

About the Author

JUSTIN IVERSON is the 480th Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Wing Historian at Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia. His research has appeared in Florida Historical Quarterly and Atlantic Studies. He lives in Norfolk, Virginia.