Profile Books Blood on the River (Hardback) book History Hardcover

Winner of the 2021 Cundill History Prize
Winner of the 2021 Frederick Douglass Prize
'A richly detailed account of a gripping human story'Washington Post
'[An] epic history ... a sweeping, thoughtful narrative' Los Angeles Times
On Sunday 27 February, 1763, thousands of slaves in the Dutch colony of Berbice - in present-day Guyana - launched a massive rebellion which came amazingly close to succeeding. Surrounded by jungle and savannah, the revolutionaries and their enslavers struck and parried for an entire year. In the end, the Dutch prevailed because of one advantage: their access to soldiers and supplies.Blood on the Riveris the explosive story of this little-known revolution, one that almost changed the face of the Americas.
Drawing on 900 interrogation transcripts collected by the Dutch when the Berbice rebellion finally collapsed, which were subsequently buried in Dutch archives, historian Marjoleine Kars reconstructs an extraordinarily rich day-by-day account of this pivotal event.Blood on the Riverprovides a rare, in-depth look at the political vision of enslaved people at the dawn of the Age of Revolution.
An astonishing original work of history,Blood on the Riverwill change our understanding of revolutions, slavery and of the story of freedom in the New World.