A slave rebellion is an armed uprising by enslaved people, as a way of fighting for their freedom. Rebellions of enslaved people have occurred in nearly all societies that practice slavery or have practiced slavery in the past. A desire for freedom and the dream of successful rebellion is often the greatest object of song, art, and culture amongst the enslaved population. Many of the events, however, are often violently opposed and suppressed by slaveholders.
William Beckford was a Jamaican-born planter and Whig politician who twice served as Lord Mayor of London in 1762 and 1769. One of the best known political figures in Georgian era London, his vast wealth derived from the sugar plantations and hundreds of slaves he owned in the British colony of Jamaica. In Britain, Beckford was a supporter of the Whig party, including Prime Minister William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. He also publicly supported progressive causes and frequently championed the London public.
The Organization of American Historians (OAH), formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S. and abroad include college and university professors; historians, students; precollegiate teachers; archivists, museum curators, and other public historians; and a variety of scholars employed in government and the private sector. The OAH publishes the Journal of American History. Among its various programs, OAH conducts an annual conference each spring, and has a robust speaker bureau—the OAH Distinguished Lectureship Program.
David William Blight is the Sterling Professor of History, of African American Studies, and of American Studies and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. Previously, Blight was a professor of History at Amherst College, where he taught for 13 years. He has won several awards, including the Bancroft Prize and Frederick Douglass Prize for Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, and the Pulitzer Prize and Lincoln Prize for Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. In 2021, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society.
Tacky's War, Tacky's Revolt, or Tacky's Rebellion was a widespread fight for their freedom by enslaved people in the British Colony of Jamaica in the 1760s. Led by Akan people -- tribes including Ashanti, Fanti, Nzema and Akyem, -- it was loosely led by a Fanti royal and warlord called Tacky (Takyi) in eastern Jamaica, and Dahomean war chief or coastal headman Apongo in the western end of the island.
Marcus Rediker is an American professor, historian, writer, and activist for a variety of peace and social justice causes. He graduated with a B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976 and attended the University of Pennsylvania for graduate study, earning an M.A. and Ph.D. in history. He taught at Georgetown University from 1982 to 1994, lived in Moscow for a year (1984-5), and is currently Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History of the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh.
Pekka Johannes Hämäläinen is a Finnish historian who has been the Rhodes Professor of American History at the University of Oxford since 2012. He was formerly in the history department at University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Merle Curti Award is awarded annually by the Organization of American Historians for the best book in American social and/or American intellectual history. It is named in honor of Merle Curti (1897–1996). A committee of 5 members of the Organization of American Historians chooses the winners from published monographs submitted by the author(s). Committee members represent the entire spectrum of American history and serve a one-year term. Beginning with the awards of 2004, the Committee may select 1 book "winner" in American intellectual history, 1 book "winner" in American social history, and may list other "finalists" in each field. "Winners" split a $1000 cash award. Although not explicitly stated, "American" refers to the "United States of America" alone.
Thomas Dublin is an American historian, editor and professor at Binghamton University. He is a social historian specialized in the working-class experience in the United States, particularly throughout New England and the Mid-Atlantic states.
The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was primarily used for sugarcane production, and experienced many slave rebellions over the course of British rule. Jamaica was granted independence in 1962.
Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers is an American historian. She is an associate professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South. She is an expert in African-American history, the history of American slavery, and women's and gender history.
James A. Rawley was professor of history emeritus at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He was a specialist in the American Civil War, American race-relations and the life of Abraham Lincoln. His The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History (1981) was updated by Stephen D. Behrendt in 2005. The James A. Rawley Prize (OAH) is given in his memory by the Organization of American Historians for the best book on race relations, and the James A. Rawley Prize (AHA) is given in his memory by the American Historical Association for the best book in Atlantic history.
Zachary Bayly (1721-1769) was a wealthy planter and politician in Jamaica.
Cindy Hahamovitch is an American historian, and the B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor of Southern History at the University of Georgia. She has won a Merle Curti Award, a Philip Taft Labor History Book Award and a James A. Rawley Prize (OAH).
They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South is a nonfiction history book by Stephanie Jones-Rogers. They Were Her Property is "the first extensive study of the role of Southern white women in the plantation economy and slave-market system" and disputes conventional wisdom that white women played a passive or minimal role in slaveholding. It was published by Yale University Press and released on February 19, 2019. For the book Jones-Rogers received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Merle Curti Social History Award from the Organization of American Historians.
William Caleb McDaniel is an American historian. His book Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for History. He is also an Associate professor of History at Rice University.
Amy Elizabeth Murrell Taylor is an American historian. She is the T. Marshall Hahn Jr. Professor of History at the University of Kentucky.
Wendy Anne Warren is an American historian. Her book New England Bound won a Merle Curti Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for History. She is also an Associate professor of History at Princeton University.
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory is a 2020 book by historian Claudio Saunt that focuses on the forced removal of Native Americans from the eastern United States during the 19th Century. It was awarded the Bancroft Prize in American history, and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Seth Rockman is an American historian. He is an associate professor of history at Brown University. He is the recipient of the Merle Curti Award and the Philip Taft Labor History Book Award for his 2009 book Scraping By: Wage Labor, Slavery, and Survival in Early Baltimore.
