Daniel Rasmussen, American Uprising

Organized by the Duke Universities Libraries; co-sponsored by the FHI, Department of History, and Department of African and African American Studies

From the Duke Libraries website:

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 New York Times best-selling book, American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt (Harper 2011), twenty-three-year-old author Daniel Rasmussen recounts the heroic and horrific events that took place in New Orleans in January 1811. Of 500 armed slaves, more than 100 were killed by federal troops and French planters, after which news of the incident was suppressed. Rasmussen’s extensive original research into the uprising considers the political, economic, and cultural elements surrounding the event and its aftermath. 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.

Reception to follow. Copies of the book will be available for sale. This event is free and open to the public.

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. For more information, visit his website.

For more information, please contact aaron [dot] welborn [at] duke [dot] edu (Aaron Welborn) at the Duke Libraries.