Example Of Book Review On “Rebels And Runaways,” By Larry Eugene Rivers

Slave resistance in the 19th C is a fascinating book written by Larry Eugene Rivers. The book by the “godfather” of pop art who graduated with a BA in art education from the New York University in 1951, has won several coveted awards mainly from Florida Historical Society. It is a comprehensive investigation of the slave escape in antebellum Florida. It offers a gripping research that examines 1821 to 1865 slave resistance witnessed in antebellum Florida and its local and international consequences. Rivers is a Jewish immigrant born in 1923 and died in 2002 was a renowned American artist, actor, and filmmaker.
Rivers uses slave resistance in the 19th C to depict the importance of Florida as a runaway slave haven in the 17th C by explaining the unique history of slave resistance and protests in the area. He uses various sources like oral histories, slaveholders will and newspaper accounts in doing so. In quite a moving fashion, he elucidates how life was to slaves of African origin whose families were shattered as they were shipped from Upper South to more uncivilized areas of the Lower South such as Florida and how they relentlessly fought back just to have a say on little piece of what ones was, ‘a normal life’.
Despite a seething milieu of violence, the book analyzes the various levels of slave confrontations; from the viewpoints of the slaves as well as the masters and how they varied in various parts of antebellum Florida. Generally, Rivers illustrates how the Atlantic world understand a number of African Slaves successfully ministered their escape to independence, a course that often than not, lead North however sometimes farther South, to places such as the Bahamas and the Caribbean (p. 23-31). The author discusses some of the most famous slave insurgencies such as Stono, Louisiana and Gabriel among others. According to Rivers, the Second Seminole War will remain the greatest sustained slave rebellion in the history of America due to its scope, size, and intensity.
The pedantically researched provides a comprehensive account of slave resistance, violence, and protest. It gives a three-phased slave resistance account namely; ‘day-to-day resistance, runaways and finally, violent resistance (p. 13-17). The study contributes to the prodigious prove that the slave were not servile but constantly fought back and ran away in the face of robust efforts by their owners to keep them docile and confined.
It is an insightful investigation of the ever-evolving forms of slave rebellion accentuating the gross disparity in forces that enslaved blacks, individually and collectively, faced while trying to acquire the very least of space necessary to even dream autonomy a remote prospect. Known for painting sculptures, Rivers’ style is precise yet zealous and magnificently without any jargon. Both his primary and secondary research is quite impressive especially the many comparisons with areas in the Old South make the book indispensable for anyone desiring to understand the major forms of flight, upheaval as well as protests in the antebellum era (p.121-147). Unlike most studies of antebellum that overlook the numerous, strong and relentless resistance poised by enslaved Africans in Florida, Rivers’ poignant research provides a strong statement that slave rebellion witnessed in antebellum Florida will forever be remembered as the largest slave resistance in American history.

Work Cited

Rivers, Larry E. Rebels and Runaways: Slave Resistance in Nineteenth-Century Florida. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2012.