Rough Crossings

In his book Rough Crossings, Simon Schama poses a challenging question: if you were a black person living in America during the Revolutionary War, who would you want to win?

During the war, the last British governor of Virginia issued a declaration that any rebel-owned slave who served the King would be emancipated. In response, tens of thousands of black Americans escaped from farms, plantations, and cities. But the people who put their fates in the hands of the British would find their hopes cruelly dashed, in a tragic saga that takes the reader from Virginia to Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone. Rough Crossings is a powerful story of hope and betrayal, and a heartbreaking reminder that even during its struggle for independence, not every American was allowed to be free.

Simon Schama studied history at Cambridge University, where he was also a fellow of Christ’s College. He has taught at Brasenose College, Oxford and Harvard University. He is the author of Patriots and Liberators: Revolution in the Netherlands, 1780-1813; Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel; The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Cultures in the Golden Age; Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution, for which he received the NCR Award for non-fiction; and the historical novel Dead Certainties (Unwarranted Speculations). As a writer and presenter, his television work includes The Art of the Western World; Rembrandt: The Public Eye and the Private Gaze; and “Envy” for The Seven Deadly Sins.

“At the end of this immaculately controlled, brave and important work, only the most callous of readers could fail to shed a tear.” — The Guardian (London)