A new book by a Missouri S&T professor examines a period of slave unrest that stretched from the islands of the Caribbean to New York City in the first half of the eighteenth century.

Dr. Justin Pope’s newest book, Dangerous Spirit of Liberty: The Politics of Slaves and Rebels in Early America and the West Indies, 1688-1748, a part of the series called “Studies in Constitutional Democracy,” will be available for purchase on Wednesday, April 30, published by the University of Missouri Press.

Pope says that he discovered hidden political movements behind the unrest of this age. He argues that enslaved Africans and African Americans sought to unite their communities against the oppression of slavery. Through elections, protests and widespread rebellion, slaves shared a “dangerous spirit of liberty” across Colonial America, before the more familiar revolutionary period.

“By the early 1740s, rumors swirled and widespread rebellions were taking place in communities throughout North America,” says Pope, an assistant professor of history and political science at Missouri S&T. “Those in power responded to rumors of any plotting with brutal conspiracy trials, exhorting false confessions and executing hundreds of men and women in travesties of justice in need of retelling.”

Dangerous Spirit of Liberty has been compiled with Pope’s archival research from numerous countries, including England, Spain, Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“The book provides new evidence of vast slave communication networks and shows how people of African ancestry shared rumors between 1688 and 1748,” says Pope. “Slaves in colonial commerce and ship hands helped foster resistance, while already banished slaves helped carry plots and experiences into neighboring colonies.”

Pope’s research specializations include Colonial America, the American Revolution, slavery and abolition, Native American history, and Atlantic history. His earlier research has been published in the academic journals Slavery and Abolition and Early American Studies, in which his article won the John M. Murrin Essay Prize.

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit  www.mst.edu.