Based on a real, little-known event that could have changed history, Congo Jack takes place on the West Indian island of Dominica in 1802 when most of the all-black 900- man British Eighth West India Regiment rose in revolt. It's the story of an actual member of this regiment, an African soldier-slave named Congo Jack. Here is a passionate, moving love story, military action, mutiny, a court-martial trial, and exotic locales. But what makes Congo Jack so compelling is its absorbing theme of redemption, and what Congo Jack must discover about himself and the world.
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Editorial Reviews
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"...blazes new trails in historical fiction" (Ronald K. Richardson, Ph.D., Professor Of History, Clark University, 1997 -- 'Ronald K. Richardson, PH.D., Professor of History, Clark University, 1997
"...gripping" -- Publishers Weekly, 1997
"...is suspenseful and surprising" -- Hartford Courant, 1998
"...never lags in realism or in emotion-milking power" -- Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 1997
"...truly a remarkable passage of self-discovery" -- Caribbean American, 1997
"CONGO JACK...is suspenseful and surprising." -- Hartford Courant, 1998
"Expertly sculpted by Buckley...CONGO JACK never lags in realism or in emotion-milking power..." -- Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 1997
"History comes alive in CONGO JACK...an enjoyable and engaging piece of fiction." -- David Barry Gaspar, Ph.D. Professor of History, Duke University, 1997
"...gripping" -- Publishers Weekly, 1997
"...is suspenseful and surprising" -- Hartford Courant, 1998
"...never lags in realism or in emotion-milking power" -- Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel 1997
"...truly a remarkable passage of self-discovery" -- Caribbean American, 1997
"CONGO JACK...is suspenseful and surprising." -- Hartford Courant, 1998
"Expertly sculpted by Buckley...CONGO JACK never lags in realism or in emotion-milking power..." -- Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, 1997
"History comes alive in CONGO JACK...an enjoyable and engaging piece of fiction." -- David Barry Gaspar, Ph.D. Professor of History, Duke University, 1997
About the Author
Roger N. Buckley is a Professor of History at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Born in New York City of West Indian immigrant parents, he holds a Ph.D. in British Empire history from McGill University in Montreal. He is the author of Slaves in Red Coats: The British West India Regiments, 1795-1815 and The British Army in the West Indies, 1792-1815: The History of a Military Community in an Age of Revolutionary Change. He is also the editor of The Haitian Journal of Lieutenant Howard, York Hussars and The Napoleonic War Journal of Captain Thomas Henry Browne.
Dr. Buckley lives in Coventry, Connecticut. Congo Jack is his first novel.
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This review is from: Congo Jack (Hardcover)
Early 19th century: A Black man is sold by Muslims to white slave traders in Nigeria who then survives the middle passage and is sold to the British Army on the Caribbean island of Dominica. Having forever lost his Nigerian tribe,this man, Congo Jack, fully adopts the values of his "new tribe"-- the British military system and the regiment he belongs to, whose perquisites place him above the common Black field slaves of the island. In fact he and his Black soldier-comrades do not see themeselves as slaves at all: they perceive themeslves as pure British privates. This presumption is put to the test when his all-black regiment mutinies in spearheading a revolution in loose conjunction with the contemporaneous one in Haiti. Congo Jack is faced with making decisions that define his self-identity and destiny-- proud, loyal British soldier or mutineering,revolutionary Black slave? The author masterfully presents several characterss using well developed powers of speech, imagery and narration to move those around them to think or not think, act or not act, sometimes rightly, somtimes wrongly in this riveting episode of historical fiction. A moving story on several plains.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Through the bars of the window of my cell I could see the first peep of the dayspring. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
buckra soldiers, yuh mus, inner hill, great salt sea, rum dum, field negro, judge advocate, firing party, grenadier company Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Souvarine Petro, Sergeant Major, Jubba Lily, Eighth West India Regiment, Captain Cameron, Fort Shirley, West Indies, Articles of War, Outer Cabrit, Private Jack, Captain Puxley, Devil's Mountain, West Indian, Captain Mapp, Captain Morris, Congo Jack, Governor Johnstone, High God, Mandara Hills, Margi Dzirnu, Colonel Johnstone, Inner Cabrit, Madu Mamza, Sixty-eighth Regiment, Light Company New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Through the bars of the window of my cell I could see the first peep of the dayspring. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
buckra soldiers, yuh mus, inner hill, great salt sea, rum dum, field negro, judge advocate, firing party, grenadier company Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Souvarine Petro, Sergeant Major, Jubba Lily, Eighth West India Regiment, Captain Cameron, Fort Shirley, West Indies, Articles of War, Outer Cabrit, Private Jack, Captain Puxley, Devil's Mountain, West Indian, Captain Mapp, Captain Morris, Congo Jack, Governor Johnstone, High God, Mandara Hills, Margi Dzirnu, Colonel Johnstone, Inner Cabrit, Madu Mamza, Sixty-eighth Regiment, Light Company New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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