Rough Crossings facts for kids
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| Author | Simon Schama |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | History |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Publisher | BBC Books |
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Publication date
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2005 |
| Media type | Print (book) |
| Pages | 445 |
| ISBN | 0-06-053916-X |
| OCLC | 61652611 |
| 326.0973/09033 22 | |
| LC Class | E269.N3 S33 2006 |
Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution is a history book written by Simon Schama. It won a big award in 2006, the National Book Critics Circle Award, for being a great non-fiction book. Later, a TV show was made based on this book.
Contents
The Story of Freedom Seekers
Rough Crossings tells an important part of African-American history. It's about thousands of enslaved African Americans who bravely escaped their enslavers. They joined the British side during the American Revolutionary War.
Fighting for Freedom
The book explains how some legal decisions in England said that slavery was not allowed there. This was a big step towards freedom. The British government then made an offer: if enslaved African Americans fought for Britain and King George III, they would be free.
Loyalists and Their Choices
The book also shows how complicated things were. Some white people who supported Britain (called Loyalists) actually owned enslaved people themselves. Also, some Black people chose to fight for American independence.
Life After the War
After the war ended, Britain lost. The book follows what happened to the Black Loyalists, who were formerly enslaved people who fought for Britain. They were sent to Nova Scotia, which was a British colony in North America.
Challenges in Nova Scotia
Life in Nova Scotia was tough for them. They didn't get a warm welcome. They even faced the first race riots on the continent, which happened in a place called Shelburne.
Journey to Sierra Leone
Some Black Loyalists stayed in Nova Scotia. But many others decided to move again. They traveled all the way back to Africa to settle in a new place that would become Sierra Leone. The people living in Freetown, Sierra Leone, today are often descendants of these brave settlers. They have strong family ties to the United States, the Caribbean, and Canada.
TV Show and Play
In 2007, a TV show called Rough Crossings was shown on BBC Two. It was a mix of drama and documentary, based on Simon Schama's book. The show was later released on DVD.
Also in 2007, a theater company called Headlong Theatre created a play based on the book. It was adapted by Caryl Phillips and toured around the UK.
See also
- Slavery in the colonial United States
- Abolitionism in the United Kingdom
- History of Sierra Leone
- Book of Negroes, a historical document
- The Book of Negroes (2007), a fictional telling of this story
