Island on Fire: The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire

In 1831, a peaceful labor strike in Jamaica turned into a full-blown revolt against slavery, led by the enigmatic preacher Samuel Sharpe. Island on Fire is a dramatic account of these events, using diaries, letters, and colonial records to tell the intimate story of the men and women who rose up and briefly tasted liberty. The revolt failed to improve conditions for the enslaved, but it crucially wounded the institution of slavery itself.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 376 pages
Publication date: 25 March 2022
Publisher: Harvard University Press

Winner of the prestigious National Book Critics Circle Award, “Impeccably researched and seductively readable…tells the story of Sam Sharpes revolution manqué, and the subsequent abolition of slavery in Jamaica, in a way that is acutely relevant to the racial unrest of our own time.” —Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls Rising

The final uprising of enslaved people in Jamaica began as a peaceful labor strike just a few days before Christmas in 1831. A harsh crackdown by white militias quickly sparked a full-blown revolt, leaving hundreds of plantation houses in smoking ruins. The rebels lost their daring bid for freedom, but their headline-grabbing defiance triggered a decisive turn against slavery.

Island on Fire is a dramatic day-by-day account of these transformative events. A skillful storyteller, Tom Zoellner uses diaries, letters, and colonial records to tell the intimate story of the men and women who rose up and briefly tasted liberty. He brings to life the rebellions enigmatic leader, the preacher Samuel Sharpe, and shows how his fiery resistance turned the tide of opinion in London and hastened the end of slavery in the British Empire.

“Zoellner’s vigorous, fast-paced account brings to life a varied gallery of participants…The revolt failed to improve conditions for the enslaved in Jamaica, but it crucially wounded the institution of slavery itself.” —Fergus M. Bordewich, Wall Street Journal

“It’s high time that we had a book like the splendid one Tom Zoellner has written: a highly readable but carefully documented account of the greatest of all British slave rebellions, the miseries that led to it, and the momentous changes it wrought.” —Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains

Weight: 340g
Dimension: 140 x 210 x 28 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780674271159