Title: American Uprising
Subtitle: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt
Description: Daniel Rasmussen wrote this material as part of a senior project at Harvard where he discovered written accounts of the violent uprising of five-hundred slaves near New Orleans in 1811. The result is unbalanced.

By compiling written contemporary reports and oral traditions, he compiled a narrative of the events that, not surprisingly, starts with the assumption that all Louisiana whites were and continue to be wicked and all United States government actions prior to 1865 were imperialistic and illegal.

Slavery, of course, was wrong and needed correction. But Rasmussen's coverage of the events promised in the book title comprise only a relatively small portion of the work. The rest, especially the conclusion, is a standard litany of socialistic themes and rationalizations. Interestingly, he claims in his acknowledgements that a friend helped him 'tone down my polemical tendencies.' Needed more toning down.

Reviewed by J.David Knepper
Subjects: Race relations, Slave insurrections, African Americans, Louisiana, Slavery, History, Slave insurrections, united states, Slavery, united states, history, African americans, louisiana, new orleans, New orleans (la.), history, United states, race relations, New York Times reviewed, Slave revolts
Places: Louisiana, New Orleans Region, New Orleans Region (La.)
People: Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Napoleon
Time periods: 19th century