Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast.

• Author: Muhammad, Patricia M.

Marjoleine Kars. Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast, The New Press, 2020, 362 pages. Hardback, $21.09.

Throughout the history of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, slaves engaged in varying acts of rebellion against their masters. Some poisoned livestock or their oppressors. Others ran away and some led small rebellions against systemic oppression whenever the opportunity on the plantation provided. Those who are familiar with the history of the Americas and slavery have likely heard of the Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint L'Overture. Yet another revolution, one that may be considered less known that occurred decades prior and along the Berbice River, altered the country of Guyana and steered a different course for the future of several former slaves.

Marjoleine Kars, Associate Professor of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, begins the story of the Guyanese rebellion with a few key maps to assist the reader in understanding important territories for ex-slaves' and colonial strategy. Kars discusses the dissatisfaction among slaves culminating in prior slave revolts and a significant uprising in 1763. However, African slaves would not initiate a full-scale rebellion until the following year. Slave masters' mistreatment of slaves provided ample concern for the Dutch who were outnumbered by those whom they oppressed. Throughout the text, the author summarizes discussions of colonial governors, testimony of former slaves and other eyewitness accounts to the brutality slaves endured on the plantation. The author details pivotal characters of the slave revolution primarily led by a Creole named Coffij. During this period of slavery and within this region, Amerindians mostly ally themselves with the Dutch, often engaging in raids to return escaped slaves or to seek revenge against African rebels for prior attacks.

The author continues to provide descriptions of characters' clothes, conversations and correspondence from among slave rebels and between them and Governor Van Hoogenheim. This allows for the reader to draw the likely personality traits of these primary figures as well as understand the likely motives many had throughout the year-long insurrection. French emigre soldiers of Dutch military ranks became mutineers due to their poor treatment. Some sought to join the ranks of the Spanish, while others eventually ventured to African rebel encampments. After they sailed upriver, African rebels...