Slaves with Swag (BOOK REVIEW)
Slaves with Swag:
The Negroes Your History Teacher Forgot to Mention
by Daryl T. Hinmon
Knowledge of Self Publishing
Paperback, $14.95
150 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-9787862-1-2
Book
Review by Kam Williams
“Every
February, your history teachers taught you about nine African-Americans: Martin
Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, George Washington Carver, Phyllis
Wheatley, Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks and Thurgood
Marshall. There are millions more you should know about…
The
intent of this book is to provide not very well publicized facts as documented
by past historians... This book is not offered as an all-encompassing history
book, but rather as a guide to offer the reader a different perspective of the ‘History’
discipline…
If,
after reading this text in its entirety, you have not learned anything new and
have not experienced a different perspective of history, contact the publisher
for a full refund of the purchase price.”
--
Excerpted from Introduction
Very rarely
does a book come with a money-back guarantee. But that is precisely the case when
you invest in Slaves with Swag by Daryl T. Hinmon, a riveting read which
endeavors to fill in some of the blanks in black history.
For, it is the author’s contention
that the generic, grade school education leaves most students with “the very
false impression that ALL slaves were submissive, timid, illiterate, severely
oppressed and dirt poor.” So, he sets about disabusing us of that conventional
wisdom via biographies of some heroes who defied that very demeaning definition
of African-Americans forefathers.
In fact,
the five gentlemen pictured on the book’s cover were slaves who had been
anything but deferential. In total, this informative tome highlights the escapades
of over fifty of these so-called “slaves with swag,” in an attempt to
illustrate just how widespread resistance to the institution of slavery really
was.
For
example, Hinman recalls how young Isaac Burgan struck a white man in the back
of the head with a poker to save his mother from a whipping at the hands of a sadistic
overseer. The text also chronicles a newspaper account of a 1774 revolt by six
male and four female runaways who killed their owner in the field before
proceeding inside the big house to slay his wife and son. They continued the
rampage on a couple of neighboring plantations until the rebellion was crushed
and the participants lynched.
A treasure
trove of fascinating stories about intrepid souls ignored by history who were
willing to make the ultimate sacrifice in the name of freedom. Satisfaction
guaranteed, too!
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