Spring Sale: 20% off featured titles
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Award Winners
    • Signed Editions
    • Digital Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Book Club Subscriptions
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Read Rise Resist Gear
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store
McAfee Secure

Don't Miss

  • Spring Sale: 20% Off Select Titles
  • Must-Read Japanese Fiction Sale
  • Indiespensable #91: Gold Diggers
  • BOOX #25: The End Is Just the Beginning
  • Powell's Virtual Events
  • Oregon Battle of the Books

Visit Our Stores


Sarah Reif: Storytime Rhyme: 13 Perfect Collections for Poets of All Ages (0 comment)
Jack Prelutsky’s The Dragons Are Singing Tonight has lived in my head rent-free ever since it entered the storytime rotation for my brother and me sometime in the mid-90...
Read More»
  • Karen Cushman: Learning From Millie's World (0 comment)
  • Keith Mosman: Must-Read Paperback Releases of Spring 2021 (0 comment)

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Island on Fire The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire

by Tom Zoellner
Island on Fire The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire

  • Comment on this title
  • Synopses & Reviews
  • Award Excerpt

ISBN13: 9780674984301
ISBN10: 0674984307



All Product Details

View Larger ImageView Larger Images
$29.95
New Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Cart
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
2Burnside
1Cedar Hills

Awards

Winner of the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

“Tom Zoellner tells the story of Sam Sharpe’s revolution manqué, and the subsequent abolition of slavery in Jamaica, in a way that’s acutely relevant to the racial unrest of our own time. Island on Fire is impeccably researched and seductively readable.” — Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls’ Rising

From a New York Times bestselling author, a gripping account of the slave rebellion that led to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

For five horrific weeks after Christmas in 1831, Jamaica was convulsed by an uprising of its enslaved people. What started as a peaceful labor strike quickly turned into a full-blown revolt, leaving hundreds of plantation houses in smoking ruins. By the time British troops had put down the rebels, more than a thousand Jamaicans lay dead from summary executions and extrajudicial murder.

While the rebels lost their military gamble, their sacrifice accelerated the larger struggle for freedom in the British Atlantic. The daring and suffering of the Jamaicans galvanized public opinion throughout the empire, triggering a decisive turn against slavery. For centuries bondage had fed Britain’s appetite for sugar. Within two years of the Christmas rebellion, slavery was formally abolished.

Island on Fire is a dramatic day-by-day account of this transformative uprising. A skillful storyteller, Tom Zoellner goes back to the primary sources to tell the intimate story of the men and women who rose up and tasted liberty for a few brief weeks. He provides the first full portrait of the rebellion’s enigmatic leader, Samuel Sharpe, and gives us a poignant glimpse of the struggles and dreams of the many Jamaicans who died for liberty.

Review

“A pounding narrative of events that led to the end of slavery in the British colonies....Zoellner’s vigorous, fast-paced account brings to life a varied gallery of participants....The revolt failed to improve conditions for the enslaved in Jamaica, but it crucially wounded the institution of slavery itself.” Fergus M. Bordewich, The Wall Street Journal

Review

“Zoellner makes deft use of primary sources, and illustrates how the atmosphere of energetic political reform and events like Sharpe’s rebellion converged to end slavery in the ‘agricultural prison camp’ of Jamaica, and in the British Empire at large.” The New Yorker

Review

“Resurrecting this important historical episode, Zoellner moves nimbly through the research, giving an exciting account of the events as well as the significant consequences when the news reached England weeks later.” Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

About the Author

Tom Zoellner is the author of Uranium, Train, and The Heartless Stone and coauthor of the New York Times bestseller An Ordinary Man. He teaches at Chapman University and Dartmouth College and is the politics editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Be the first to share your thoughts on this title!




Product Details

ISBN:
9780674984301
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
05/12/2020
Publisher:
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Pages:
376
Height:
1.30IN
Width:
5.70IN
Illustration:
Yes
Author:
Tom Zoellner

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$29.95
New Hardcover
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
QtyStore
2Burnside
1Cedar Hills
Used Book Alert for book Receive an email when this ISBN is available used.
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Sitemap
  • © 2021 POWELLS.COM Terms

{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##