Rough Crossings: The Slaves, the
British, and the American Revolution
by Simon Schama
A Revolution For Some But Not For All
If you were black in America at the start of the Revolutionary War, which
side would you want to win?
When the last British governor of Virginia declared that any rebel-owned
slave who escaped and served the king would be emancipated, tens of
thousands of slaves fled from farms, plantations, and cities to try to reach
the British camp. A military strategy originally designed to break the
plantations of the American South had unleashed one of the great
exoduses in U.S. history. With powerfully vivid storytelling, Schama details
the odyssey of the escaped blacks through the fires of war and the terror of
potential recapture, shedding light on an extraordinary, little-known chapter
in the dark saga of American slavery.

Personal Review: Rough Crossings: The Slaves, the British, and
the American Revolution by Simon Schama
Schama is always an interesting writer, but he has seldom been as easy to
read as in Rough Crossings. Perhaps the subject itself is so unambiguous
that he finds his way to simplicity. That subject is the fate of African and
African-American refugees from the Thirteen Colonies, the bold
proclaimers of Liberty, during and after the Revolutionary War.
Unmentioned in most American textbooks of history, thousands of slaves
and some free blacks took refuge with the British army and navy during the
war. After the war, many of them were transported to other British lands,
especially to Nova Scotia. Schama details their hopes and their misery
quite eloquently. Eventually, the tale focuses on the efforts of English
abolitionists to establish a "homeland" for liberated American and British
slaves in Sierra Leone. The English abolitionists, especially John Clarkson,
are the central personages of the book, but the former slaves themselves
are the most compelling figures.
For a sometime-American reader like myself, the most enlightening portion
of this book comes first, i.e. the chapters that describe the role of the
defense of slavery in the southern colonies against perceived threats of
abolition and strategic offers of freedom from Britain. The motives of our
Founding Fathers, in other words, were not always as idealistic as we were
taught. An understanding of the American Revolution can't always be
limited to Boston and taxes. The story of Virginian expansionism, the
problems of colonial indebtedness, and colonial racism towards both
slaves and Native Americans must also be told, and Schama does a good
part of that job. Particularly revealing are Schama's pages devoted to
George Washington, whose slaves were as willing to run away to the
British as most others. Inevitably, certain British generals who have been
execrated in American history books emerge as more sympathetic and
honorable than "we" expect. I don't want to "spoil" the narrative with too
many revelations; taken as a "novel of facts", Rough Crossings is an
exciting book to read, with plenty of picturesque scenes, humorous
encounters, pathos and rage.
The book won and deserved to win the National Book Critics Circle Award.
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