AMERICAN UPRISING!

To show my appreciation to those who have stopped by to read granny exercising her freedom of speech  for these last few years I am giving away two free copies of the newly soon to be released book "American Uprising."  Since I only have two copies to giveaway, the first two people who respond to this post by sending me an email will be the recipients of this giveaway.  grannystandingfortruth12@gmail.com.

Below are details of what the book is all about. Although, I wish I could be like Oprah and give every single one of my readers a copy.  However, I am not Oprah and besides, it's the economy and those darn rightwing folks have added grandma's check to their hit list.

AMERICAN UPRISING
The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt
By
Daniel Rasmussen

Many Americans are familiar with the slave revolts led by John Brown and Nat Turner, but the story of the greatest act of slave resistance in American history has never been told, until now. In his riveting narrative, AMERICAN UPRISING: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt (Harper; January 4, 2011; Hardcover; $26.99), twenty-three year-old author Daniel Rasmussen provides a groundbreaking contribution to the historical record. Based on the author’s Harvard thesis, which won three separate awards and caught the attention of scholars across the country, AMERICAN UPRISING employs extensive original research to provide a multi-dimensional portrait of the American South just a few years after the Louisiana Purchase.

On January 8, 1811 a group of sugar plantation slaves violently rebelled along the River Road outside of New Orleans. Led by slave driver Charles Deslondes, as well as two other slaves, Kook and Quamana, the slaves marched on the practically defenseless city during the plantation owners’ annual period of revelry and celebration preceding Mardi Gras. Enlisting additional slaves as the march proceeded, Deslondes’ group, armed with guns, cane knives, and axes, sought to strike a death blow to the heart of the region’s seat of power and establish a black republic on the shores of the Mississippi.

As the 200th anniversary of the rebellion approaches in January 2011, AMERICAN UPRISING shares the story of this elaborate plot and the slave army’s dramatic march on the city, as well as its shocking conclusion. As the rebellion continued, federal officials and French planters eventually joined forces and exacted terrible retribution, beheading over 100 slaves and dangling their dismembered corpses from the gates of New Orleans.

With race once again central to the national conversation, Rasmussen’s book has the potential to fundamentally alter the way we view some of the darkest chapters in American history. The slaves who come to life in this book are not victims, but proud, angry men from all different walks of life, who shared a belief that freedom was worth fighting, and indeed, dying for. Rasmussen’s tale – more Braveheart than Beloved – promises to provoke a new discussion about how we think about America’s complex racial past and to stir controversy in New Orleans itself, where the revolt remains a well-kept secret.

Garnering exceptional early praise from the most prominent historians in the country, AMERICAN UPRISING is an important work from a brilliant new writer. This eye-opening history pulls back the curtain on a long-neglected period in New Orleans history, offering new insights into the rise of slavery in the South and our nation’s path to Civil War.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daniel Rasmussen graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University in 2009, winning the Kathryn Ann Huggins Prize, the Perry Miller Prize, and the Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize.

AMERICAN UPRISING
The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt
By Daniel Rasmussen
Harper
On-sale: January 4, 2011
Hardcover; $26.99
ISBN: 9780061995217