eBook

Fire on the water : sailors, slaves, and insurrection in early American literature, 1789-1886

Warren, Lenora

2019,2020

Overview

Lenora Warren tells a new story about the troubled history of abolition and slave violence by examining representations of shipboard mutiny and insurrection in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Anglo-American and American literature. Fire on the Water centers on five black sailors, whose experiences of slavery and insurrection either inspired or found resonance within fiction: Olaudah Equiano, Denmark Vesey, Joseph Cinqué, Madison Washington, and Washington Goode. These stories of sailors, both real and fictional, reveal how the history of mutiny and insurrection is both shaped by, and resistant to, the prevailing abolitionist rhetoric surrounding the efficacy of armed rebellion as a response to slavery. Pairing well-known texts with lesser-known figures (Billy Budd and Washington Goode) and well-known figures with lesser-known texts (Denmark Vesey and the work of John Howison), this book reveals the richness of literary engagement with the politics of slave violence. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.

• Publisher: Bucknell University Press
• Subject: 18th century / 19th century / Abolitionists in literature / American literature / American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism / Antislavery movements in literature / English literature / English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism / HISTORY / General / History and criticism / LITERARY CRITICISM / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh / LITERARY CRITICISM / General / Slave insurrections in literature / Slave rebellions in literature / Slavery in literature / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General
• ISBN: 9781684480173, 1684480175, 9781684480180, 1684480183