-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
New York's Afro-Irish Uprising of 1741, a Graphic Novel
by David Lester, Marcus Rediker
Based on the little known real life "Slave Insurrection" of 1741, this book imagines outlaw fugitive John Gwin and an eclectic crew of renegades as they attempt to disrupt and overthrow the colonial social order.
Rebel fugitive John Gwin was previously introduced in Under the Banner of King Death and this graphic novel continues his adventures. Revolution by Fire is a hypothetical look at the inner workings of the so called "New York Conspiracy" or "Slave Rebellion" of 1741, following the figures who were considered the real-life masterminds of the plot.
Featuring an eclectic crew of African-American, Irish, and mixed race Hispanic sailors, soldiers, and renegades, Gwin and his band are determined to capture New York City in their own names and fight the higher class "wigs and ruffles" wearing white people. Unfortunately for the conspirators, suspicions about an uprising were already in the minds of the Governor and his fellow elites, and the events that followed change the course of everyone's lives forever.
Based on the chapter titled "Outcasts of the Nations of the Earth" in Rediker's and Peter Linebaugh's The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic, the book provides a fly-on-the-wall view of a historical event reimagined, highlighting cooperation among races and classes that transcends the social order of its time—and inspire us today.
"Revolution by Fire is a riveting graphic narrative of the 1741 New York City slave conspiracy. The innovative graphic narrative brings into full view America's slave past and how enslaved people courageously rebelled against their enslavers. Readers particularly interested in the multiracial dimensions of slave resistance will find this graphic narrative a real gem." —Dr. Karlos K. Hill, author of The Murder of Emmett Till: A Graphic History
This information about Revolution by Fire was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Marcus Rediker is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of several books including The Amistad Rebellion (Viking 2012) and The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic (Beacon 2000). He worked with David Lester and Paul Buhle to adapt his book The Fearless Benjamin Lay (2017) into Prophet Against Slavery: Benjamin Lay, a Graphic Novel (Beacon, 2021) and Villains of All Nations into Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic, a Graphic Novel (Beacon 2023).
If you liked Revolution by Fire, try these:
by Scott Shane
Published 2024
A riveting account of the extraordinary abolitionist, liberator, and writer Thomas Smallwood, who bought his own freedom, led hundreds out of slavery, and named the underground railroad, from Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist, Scott Shane. Flee North tells the story for the first time of an American hero all but lost to history.
by Robert Harris
Published 2023
From the bestselling author of Fatherland, The Ghostwriter, Munich, and Conclave comes this spellbinding historical novel that brilliantly imagines one of the greatest manhunts in history: the search for two Englishmen involved in the killing of King Charles I and the implacable foe on their trail - an epic journey into the wilds of seventeenth-...
by Esi Edugyan
Published 2019
A dazzling new novel about a boy who rises from the ashes of slavery to become a free man of the world.
We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
