Negro Comrades of the Crown

Throughout the history of the early republic, many African Americans viewed Britain, an early advocate of abolitionism and emancipator of its own slaves, as a powerful ally in their resistance to slavery in the Americas. This allegiance was far-reaching, from the Caribbean to outposts in North America to Canada. In turn, the British welcomed and actively recruited both fugitive and free African Americans, arming them and employing them in military engagements throughout the Atlantic World, as the British sought to maintain a foothold in the Americas following the Revolution. In this path-breaking book, Horne rewrites the history of slave resistance by placing it for the first time in the context of military and diplomatic wrangling between Britain and the United States. Painstakingly researched and full of revelations, Negro Comrades of the Crown is among the first book-length studies to highlight the Atlantic origins of the Civil War. Gerald Horne is Moores Professor of History and African-American Studies at the University of Houston. His books includeThe Deepest South: The United States, Brazil, and the African Slave Tradeand Race War!: White Supremacy and the Japanese Attack on the British Empire(both available from NYU Press).