Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823 [Paperback]

The night of August 17, 1823 saw the start of one of the most massive slave rebellions in the history of the Western Hemisphere, the uprising in the British colony of Demerara (now Guyana), in which nearly twelve thousand slaves took up arms against their masters. InCrowns of Glory, Emilia Viotti da Costa tells the riveting story of this pivotal moment in the history of slavery. Studying the complaints brought by slaves to the office of the Protector of Slaves, she reconstructs the experience of slavery through the eyes of the Demerara slaves themselves. Da Costa also draws on eyewitness accounts, official records, and private journals (most notably the diary of John Smith, one of four ministers sent by the London Missionary Society to convert Demerara's heathen ), to paint a vivid portrait of a society in transition, shaken to its foundations by the recent revolutions in America, France, and Haiti. Casting new light on the nuances of racial relations in the colonies, the inevitable clash between the missionaries' message of Christian brotherhood and a social order based on masters and slaves, and the larger historical forces that were profoundly eroding the institution of slavery itself,Crowns of Gloryis an original and unforgettable book.

A riveting drama and a magnificent historical tract. --Booklist

A riveting account of the rebellion that gave new urgency to the British Anti-Slavery Movement. --Quarterly Black Review

Extraodinarily moving and analytically nuanced....This book certainly represents an impressively significant contribution to the historiography....Among the outstanding achievements of this work is its common accessibility to specialists across a variety of disciplines as well as the general reader. Eminently readable and solidly researched, this work deftly explores the multifaceted links between individuals and groups, colony and metropolis, and divergent views of the world. --lC[