Reddit reviews The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America

> Well as I understand the American Revolution was wanting to have independence from Britain.

A big part of the reason for that was that Britain was moving toward abolition for its colonies, for the simple reason that slavery was too DANGEROUS. The enraged and outraged slaves were poisoning the livestock, poisoning the masters, dropping the babies, setting fire to the big house and barns, and things had gotten so out of hand that the slaveowners were fleeing their plantations, leaving everything behind! This was the case in Jamaica, where the escaped slaves, known as "Maroons", hid out in the inaccessible mountains and, from there, mounted attacks on the plantations.

>The slaves, however, were unhappy with their status, so they rebelled whenever they could. Many of them were successful in running away from the plantations and joining the Maroons in the almost inaccessible mountains.

>Several slave rebellions stand out in Jamaica’s history for example, the Easter Rebellion of 1760 led by Tacky; and the Christmas Rebellion of 1831 which began on the Kensington Estate in St. James, led by Sam Sharpe. He has since been named a National Hero.

>The Maroons also had several wars against the English. In 1739 and 1740 after two major Maroon Wars, treaties were signed with the British. In the treaty of 1740, they were given land and rights as free men. In return they were to stop fighting and help to recapture run-away slaves. This treaty resulted in a rift among the Maroons as they did not all agree that they should return run-away slaves to the plantations.

>The frequent slave rebellions in the Caribbean was one factor that led to the abolition of the slave trade and slavery. Other factors included the work of humanitarians who were concerned about the slaves’ well-being. Humanitarian groups such as the Quakers publicly protested against slavery and the slave trade. They formed an anti slavery committee which was joined by supporters such as Granville Sharp, James Ramsay, Thomas Clarkson and later on, William Wilberforce.

>On January 1, 1808 the Abolition Bill was passed. Trading in African slaves was declared to be “utterly abolished, prohibited and declared to be unlawful”. Emancipation and apprenticeship came into effect in 1834 and full freedom was granted in 1838. Source

The British government had been weighing abolition since the early-to-mid-1700s, as you can see from the events outlined above. The colonies caught wind of what was in the air; they knew what was coming. In "The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the United States of America", author Gerald Horne makes a compelling case that the real reason for the War of Independence was to keep slavery. The writing was on the wall; Britain intended to outlaw slavery in her colonies. The only way to maintain this highly profitable monstrosity was to declare independence.

The problem was that slavery was unsupportable even then; the slave states had compulsory "slave militias" in which all white men were required to serve two years (I think) starting at age 21. These "slave militias" checked passes for any slaves caught off their plantations; captured runaway slaves; put down rebellions; and rescued plantation owners and their families from insurrections and fires. Slavery was becoming terribly dangerous!

This, BTW, was the basis for the 2nd Amendment, which provides for a "well-regulated militia" to be the legal basis for personal ownership of firearms, and for these to be administered at the state level. The slave states did NOT want the federal government conscripting their slave militias to serve in wars against foreign powers; those slave militias were desperately needed right there at home!

To give you a picture of how incendiary the slavery situation was becoming, the Haitian revolution began in August, 1791. That turned out to be the only successful slave rebellion ever, and there it was, right on the US's southern border. To illustrate the unsustainable nature of slavery - this is on the eve of the Haitian revolution:

>In 1789, whites numbered 40,000; mulattoes and free blacks, 28,000; and black slaves, an estimated 452,000. Source

Just HOW are 40,000 people supposed to control over ten TIMES that many people - who are enraged and murderous, and who have NOTHING to lose??

This is the population problem - once the slave population reaches a certain level, controlling it becomes impossible, and the masters are in mortal danger if they stay there. THEY knew; they were fleeing other slave-holding colonies across the Caribbean and emigrating to the American colonies.

But the slaveowners in the soon-to-be US were completely drunk on the profits of slavery; they were determined to keep it. Even if it meant fighting a war to do so.

>In my lifetime the only party that has ever benefited from the electoral college has been Republican because that party does whatever it can to gain power, even it means cheating the system, making certain citizens vote worth less by messing with the system or violating american citizens rights.

Mine as well. It is only REPUBLICAN candidates who "win" the Presidential election while losing the popular vote.

>Our government is now being ruled by White Nationalist now sadly.

With that horrid Stephen Miller, grandson of foreign immigrants, as their racist poster proud-boy.

>prior to Trump I had hoped it was going the better direction.

Me too :sigh: