Narrative of a Five Years' Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam — John Gabriel Stedman

Description

One of the most important and illustrated accounts of slavery ever published. Scottish soldier John Gabriel Stedman spent five years in Surinam fighting against enslaved Africans who had escaped Dutch plantations.

His 1796 narrative is a landmark document of Atlantic slavery — harrowing, contradictory, and utterly essential. The book is illustrated with 80 engravings by William Blake, making it one of the most visually powerful historical documents of the 18th century.

Excerpt

Chap. I. — Introduction

The exploring of foreign countries having of late years, and particularly since the recent discoveries of the immortal Captain Cook, so generally been the object of persons both in private and public situations; and the histories of their labours and pursuits being so interesting to the curiosity of the public, I have ventured to offer such observations as I have had an opportunity of making in a very singular part of the globe, on which few Englishmen have been thrown, either by accident or curiosity. The colony of Surinam, in Dutch Guiana, so far as it is inhabited and cultivated by Europeans near the sea-coast, has indeed been known for many years past. But the deep inundations, with the impenetrable thickness of the woods, have been such constant discouragements and obstructions to discovery, that but very little true information concerning that country has as yet been obtained.