
Water from the Rock
Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age
Sylvia R. Frey(Author)
Princeton University Press
Published on 1. July 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-0-691-23778-7 (ISBN)
Description
A multifaceted history of Black resistance during the War of Independence
The American Revolution brought about violent and unpredictable social changes throughout the new nation, particularly in the South. Sylvia Frey reveals how slave resistance gave rise to a Black liberation movement that was central to the revolutionary struggle in the southern colonies, and how Black resistance persisted after the war as a struggle for cultural power that manifested itself in the establishment of separate Black churches with distinctive ritual patterns and moral values. She examines how white Southerners responded to Black resistance amid their own fight for independence from the British, and how they reacted to new movements by African Americans in the postwar period. With an incisive foreword by Manisha Sinha, Water from the Rock shows how the upheavals of war created opportunities for a quiet revolution that laid the foundations for the modern civil rights movement in America.
The American Revolution brought about violent and unpredictable social changes throughout the new nation, particularly in the South. Sylvia Frey reveals how slave resistance gave rise to a Black liberation movement that was central to the revolutionary struggle in the southern colonies, and how Black resistance persisted after the war as a struggle for cultural power that manifested itself in the establishment of separate Black churches with distinctive ritual patterns and moral values. She examines how white Southerners responded to Black resistance amid their own fight for independence from the British, and how they reacted to new movements by African Americans in the postwar period. With an incisive foreword by Manisha Sinha, Water from the Rock shows how the upheavals of war created opportunities for a quiet revolution that laid the foundations for the modern civil rights movement in America.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
372 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-23778-7 (9780691237787)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
07/2025
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€24.49
Available for download
Person
Sylvia R. Frey (1935-2021) was professor emerita of history at Tulane University. Her books include The British Soldier in America: A Social History of Military Life in the Revolutionary Period and (with Betty Wood) Come Shouting to Zion: African American Protestantism in the American South and British Caribbean to 1830. Manisha Sinha is the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut.