The institution of African slavery in North America began in late August 1619 and persisted until the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in December 1865.

Over those 246 years, many slaves plotted and conspired to start rebellions, but most of the plotted rebellions never took place. Slaveholders and whites discovered them before they could begin. Therefore, North America witnessed only a handful of slave revolts between 1614 and 1865. Nat Turner’s Rebellion in August 1831 stands as the most deadly.

Patrick Breen, an Associate Professor of History at Providence College and author of The Land Shall Be Deluged in Blood: A New History of the Nat Turner Revolt joins us to investigate the ins and outs of this bloodiest of North American slave revolts.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/133

Sponsor Links

• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• William and Mary Quarterly
• WMQ Editor Josh Piker, “The Five-Reader Problem”
• WMQ Editor Josh Piker, “Getting Lost”
• Susanah Shaw Romney, “5,000 More Words”
• Episode 105: Josh Piker, How Historians Publish History (Behind-the-Scenes of the William and Mary Quarterly)

Complementary Episodes

• Episode 016: Alan Taylor, The Internal Enemy
• Episode 020: Kyle Bulthuis, Four Steeples Over the City Streets
• Episode 083: Jared Hardesty, Unfreedom: Slavery in Colonial Boston
• Episode 091: Gregory Dowd, Rumors, Legends, and Hoaxes in Early America
• Episode 125: Teri Snyder, Death, Suicide, and  Slavery in British North America

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