Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age

by Sylvia R. Frey

The era of the American Revolution was one of violent and unpredictable social, economic, and political change, and the dislocations of the period were most severely felt in the South. Sylvia Frey contends that the military struggle there involved a triangle--two sets of white belligerents and approximately 400,000 slaves. She reveals the dialectical relationships between slave resistance and Britain's Southern Strategy and between slave resistance and the white independence movement among Southerners, and shows how how these relationships transformed religion, law, and the economy during the postwar years.

Genres: History, American History, American Revolution, Nonfiction, African American

376 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

Reviews

[Dan Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Impressive story of black resistance during the American Revolution. Frey covers the black Americans in the South who escaped from slavery to join the Loyalist ranks, as well as the cultural changes in slave life during and after the war that produced a new form of black identity. This book would make a good trilogy with Cassandra Pybus's "Epic Journeys of Freedom" (focusing on the black Loyalists who relocated from the U.S.) and Maya Jasanoff's "Liberty's Exiles" (focusing on all of the Loyalists who evacuated from the U.S.).

[Alexander B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Painfully dry even got my academic preference. A few good bits of historiography but mostly a list of names and very particular events that are not of interest to a lay person.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars...

[Mathew Powers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had more time to go into detail, but suffice it to say -- this book is fantastic.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good research and info but disorganized and redundant in places.