Black Thunder (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Arna Bontemps
- First Published: 1936
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Historical realism
- Time of Work: 1800
- Setting: Henrico County, Virginia
- Principal Characters: Gabriel, Juba, Thomas Prosser, Bundy, Moseley Sheppard, Ben, Mingo
- Genres: Long fiction, Historical fiction
- Subjects: African Americans, Racism, South or Southerners, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Revolutions, Capital punishment
- Locales: Richmond, VA
The Story:
In 1800, in Henrico County, Virginia, a slave rebellion grew out of Thomas Prosser’s beating of his aging slave Bundy, whom he considered to be more of a liability than an asset. Bundy’s main wish had been to die free, but the beating resulted in his death. He had dreamed of a rebellion like the Toussaint L’Ouverture uprising in Santo Domingo, which had drawn enough public support to succeed.
A group of French liberals in Richmond, espousing the ideals of the recent French Revolution, opposed slavery. They thought that slave owners oppressed both blacks...
[The entire page is 2150 words long]
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