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Night of the silent drums

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This book should be made of glass rather than paper. I read through this book and saw the lives, the greed, the desperation, and the joy of people long since dead. "Night of the Silent Drums" brings the history of the bloody 1733 St. Jan, Dansk Vestindia slave revolt to the present. The Virgin Islands' drought that year was the only thing dry about this book. And it succeeds without couching our preconceived notions of slavery or slaves, plantations or masters, by telling the truth as well as the facts. This work is gratefully and substantially more than ink on paper. When you pick up this one you will become more of a witness than a reader

To look at and experience the island of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, who would know that such a tranquil place has such a violent history? This is an account of the slave rebellion of 1733-1734, a true story told in fiction form through the eyes of Dr. Cornelius Bodger. Denmark had claimed the island in the early part of the 18th century and dedicated it to the cultivation of crops, most notably sugar. But in 1733, a new breed of slave was brought to work the fields: not a breed born into slavery in Africa, but abducted African royalty instead, a proud race that refused to submit to a life of bondage and toil.Thus is it was that a rebellion was fomented by these enslaved African royals and their followers with the intention that the island be converted into their form of government and run under such auspices. For six bloody months, rebels squared off against planters, and a good deal of the island's population perished.Oddly enough, the rebellion didn't end on a bombastic note; it was quietly and in stages put down, and with the deaths of the rebel leaders, the island slowly returned to normalcy.After having read this book, should you visit St. John, you'll probably find it hard to believe that this pretty little island was once hell in paradise.

I am currently more than 200 pages into this book and we have not yet gotten to the St. John slave rebellion of 1733-1734. The book is writen from the perspective of a Danish physician who is humane toward slaves, and the book is going through his day-to-day life in 1733 St. John and St. Thomas islands that were then colonies of Denmark. I think this book is interesting if you want to think about the day-to-day activities of slaves and non-slaves in a society that primarily earns its money through the exploitation of slave labor. However, if you are looking for an exciting read that recounts the slave rebellion itself, then you have to wade through approximately 300 pages until you get to the action. The book is more than 400 pages long and I will update my review when I finish it.

I suppose that the author is slowly building up to the rebellion, but it is taking a very long time. This book needed a stronger editor who could have cut at least 100 pages and maybe as many as 200.

This is an amazing page-turner, especially if you're at all a history buff. The author did a great job of weaving historical documents together into a very gripping story of an amazing human tragedy. The book contains gut-wrenching passages that reflect the worst in human cruelty, but also glimmers of hope in the best of human compassion. I have visited St. John and St. Thomas several times, most recently with a week after having finished the book. It completely changed my perspective on the Virgin Islands, and struck me as amazing how little the Islands do to preserve their history. Sadly, it seems that locals either don't know the history, or only talk about history since the US acquisition from the Dutch during WWI. The interplay between European politics, the African slave trade, Dutch colonialism and human events is fascinating. I made a point to visit some of the plantation ruins on St. John that are central to the book. The site where the slave uprising began, the locations of several key battles, and the headquarters of one of the leaders of uprising are all still there, amazingly intact, and sadly neglected. No tourist signs, no information, I didn't even know the places were there the first times I visited St. John, and had to dig for them a bit this most recent visit. I hope to read this book again prior to future trips to St. John, and am even inspired to do my own source-material research into the history and details. Highly recommended.