The River Flows On
Black Resistance, Culture, and Identity Formation in Early America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9312926 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Douglas R Egerton (Le Moyne College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 93 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 860-860 |
| Publication date | 2006-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/4486454 |
| OpenAlex | W2322245834 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
For the past sixty-three years, ever since Herbert Aptheker challenged the prevailing historiography regarding the behavior of enslaved Africans in America, specialists have advanced theories explaining the timing and geography of slave insurgency (or its relative absence). In a new and thoughtful interpretation, Walter C. Rucker examines patterns of African settlement in North America and concludes that West African cultures, far from being an impediment to collective rebellion, helped shape the most notable plots and insurrections of the colonial and early national eras. In some cases, Rucker's analysis provides a fresh perspective on much-studied events. He demonstrates that of the twenty-eight Africans charged with revolt in 1712 New York City, at least nine had Akan day-names. Most likely, Rucker argues, those rebels shared a common culture and orientation; resistance, in the author's view, became the crucible in which those enslaved Africans created a collective, if distinct, identity. As late as 1822, several of the Africans who banded together with Denmark Vesey expressed a distinct distrust of “country-borns” (p. 175). Although Rucker keeps his focus on British America, occasional comparisons with characteristics of other slave societies, such as the correlation of dance with resistance in Brazil, enrich and broaden his analysis
Archaeology · Art · Colonialism · Dance · Distrust · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Historiography · Identity (music · Political science · Resistance (ecology · Settlement (finance · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law · Race, History, and American Society
| Citations per year | 0.45 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2015 - 2025 (11) |
| Highly cited | No |