The Great Resistance

Magisterial … Gibson constructs a sweeping vision of resistance to slavery as a defining element of Western history that made “abstract concepts of freedom concrete.” Expansive and elegant, this is a marvel – Publishers WeeklyMarvellous. Gibson completely rethinks the history of resistance to Atlantic slavery as equivalent in its scale and intensity to slavery itself. Rather than a patchwork of intermittent rebellions, she narrates an unremitting four-hundred-year campaign for freedom, with all the heroism and the compromises that entailed – Alan Lester, Professor of Historical Geography, University of SussexGibson insists on the primacy of the enslaved themselves as agents of their own liberation, “the true instigators of liberty.” A solid contribution to the literature of the New World slave trade – Kirkus ReviewsSuperb! Meticulously researched yet incredibly readable, this is slavery in the Americas as a state of war from beginning to end. The buried histories uncovered in this gripping book centres the story on the enslaved - their agency, dignity and furious resistance. A hugely impressive achievement – Matthew Parker, author of THE SUGAR BARONSImpressive … a narrative history brimming with action … those who made up what Gibson calls the great resistance ultimately drove the movement toward emancipation for the millions yearning to be free – Wall Street JournalSuperb! Meticulously researched yet incredibly readable, this is slavery in the Americas as a state of war from beginning to end. The buried histories uncovered in this gripping book centre the story on the enslaved - their agency, dignity and furious resistance – Matthew Parker, author of THE SUGAR BARONSA gripping and insightful compendium of resistance to four hundred years of slavery that has long needed to be told – Malik Al Nasir, author of SEARCHING FOR MY SLAVE ROOTSA new intellectual and political perspective on the emergence of freedom in the modern world … Gibson invites us to see ourselves as inheritors of something much broader too: a powerful history of political thought and on-the-ground resistance - in many forms, always against seemingly insurmountable odds - that stretched across continents and centuries – The AtlanticA panoramic account … as rich in stories from Spanish Cuba, Portuguese Brazil, French Martinique or Dutch Curaçao as from the more familiar settings of the United States or the Anglophone Caribbean – Guardian

Carrie Gibson is a British-American historian and journalist. She received her PhD from Cambridge in 2011, and her thesis focused on the Hispanic Caribbean in the era of the Haitian Revolution. She is the author of the 2014 book Empire’s Crossroads: A History of the Caribbean from Columbus to the Present Day. Her second book, El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America, was published in 2019 and shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize in 2020. Before embarking on a career as a historian, Carrie was a journalist for the Guardian and Observer, and continues to contribute to media outlets. She is currently living in Seoul, South Korea.

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