#thegreatresistance
LightNews LightNews
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from my research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 30: Although many of the prior revolts had been in the cane fields of the countryside, the uprising of 1835 was in the city of Salvador. An ironic poster that reads 'Bahia. Preferida pelos turistas desde 1500,' which is translated as 'Bahia. Preferred by tourists since 1500.' It is illustrated by a boat of Europeans carrying weapons and flags encountering indigenous people on the coastline of Brazil. A outdoor set of stairs leading up to a church at dusk, with decorative red bunting fluttering in the breeze. A mural on a 10(ish) storey building depicting a young Afro-Brazilan man wearing white shorts and holding a green potted plant as he floats into the clouds.
December 31, 2025 at 12:16 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from my research trips, along with a book snippet. Today: Southampton County, VA and Montego Bay, Jamaica
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 29: ‘Nat Turner’s revolt, though shocking to the United States, was only the opening act for what happened after Christmas that year in Jamaica.’ A green field with trees in the distance, in Southampton, County, Virginia. A memorial to Samuel Sharpe, who led a revolt in Jamaica. He was a Baptist deacon and is shown holding the Bible and preaching, with one hand in the air, while an attentive listener sits on the ground, watching him. Behind the statues is a sign explaining the Sharpe's place in Jamaican history.
December 30, 2025 at 12:27 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from my research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Cartagena, Colombia

💙📚 #booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 28: ‘Those still enslaved in newly liberated Latin America nations continued to seek alternative routes to freedom: running away, petitioning, or using the courts. There was no escaping the fact that although these wars had been fought for political freedom, the ornate rhetoric of independence turned out to be hollow.’ Sunset along a colonial-era street with a white building with small window balconies, in Cartagena, Colombia. View along a bit of wall at the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas fort in Cartagena, Colombia. It is dusk behind a low sheet of cloud. A mural of an Afro-Colombian woman on the side of building in Cartagena, Colombia.
December 29, 2025 at 1:13 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from my research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Charleston, South Carolina

💙📚 #booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 27: ‘Denmark Vesey had lived with one hand on freedom and the other reaching out to those in bondage. Now, with this sentence of death in 1822, his 22 years of freedom were at an end.’   Green low country marshlands under a cloudy grey sky. The old city market in Charleston, where enslaved and free Black people sold their wares. The buying and selling of humans took place in other parts of the city. A statue of Denmark Vesey on a brick patio within a park. There are trees behind him and a blue sky with few clouds. The strong sunlight is striking the statue, producing a partial sunburst.
December 28, 2025 at 11:03 AM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Barbados

💙📚 #booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 26: ‘Nanny Grigg was certain that freedom was coming to Barbados. That’s what they were saying in Britain … But January 1 came and went without emancipation. Grigg persisted and told the others “they were all damned fools to work”.’ A light pink house with white trim, part of the Golden Grove plantation which was near the Bayley plantation where the 1816 revolt led by Bussa broke out. A dirt road in Barbados, under a blue sky with some white clouds in St Philip parish, Barbados. A statue commemorating the fight for freedom in Barbados and also depicting the rebel leader Bussa. It depicts a man stepping forward, having broken his chains.
December 27, 2025 at 2:09 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from my research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: LaPlace, Louisiana

💙📚 #booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 25: ‘A much larger grasp at freedom took place in 1811 about 30 miles upriver from New Orleans … The plotters decided to strike on a cold night, right at the beginning of the Mardi Gras season … ’ A white house with a rust-coloured metal roof and two gabled windows. A porch runs the length of the house. This is the old Andry plantation house, in LaPlace, LA where the 1811 slave revolt began. A map of the plots of land divided into plantations along the Mississippi River, in an area outside of New Orleans known as the German Coast. A memorial to Charles Deslondes, who led the 1811 uprising, at the nearby Whitney Plantation.
December 26, 2025 at 1:16 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Havana, Cuba

💙📚 #booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 24: ‘Far from seeing it as a work of art, the Cuban authorities believed his book of paintings to be the master plan for a conspiracy. No, José Antonio Aponte told officials when they arrested him, they had it all wrong: His creation was meant for the king of Spain.’ A light-coloured stone colonnade in Havana, Cuba, with people and more buildings visible at the end. An ornate doorway frames a flight of stairs, with the surviving torso of a statue (headless, armless, and missing the lower legs) as decoration in front of a blue wall on the landing. A photograph looking up from the ground level to a corner of a courtyard building where there are large arched windows with panes of blue glass in the arch, and blue shutters with white slats.
December 25, 2025 at 8:53 AM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Richmond, Virginia
💙📚 #booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 23: 'Gabriel and his men were going to carry a white silk flag saying death or liberty and march to Richmond, Virginia.’ A memorial to Gabriel Prosser, with a stone that reads 'Here lies the hero Gabriel not forgotten.' The stone is set within a dried-out wreath, and there is an apple placed nearby and many small pebbles and pennies. A large patch of grass with a bridge in the distance. This is part of a historic African Burial Ground in Richmond, Virginia. A sculpture commemorating the fight for freedom, in Richmond, Virginia. In the foreground is a woman holding a child in one arm and with the other hand a paper with the date of the Emancipation Proclamation on it. Across from her, a man is breaking free from chains. It is dusk in the photo, with the sun setting behind nearby trees.
December 24, 2025 at 8:45 AM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: northern Haiti
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 22: ‘Dessalines’s vision was clear: “In the end we must live independent or die”.’ A statue of Jean-Jacques Dessalines in Cap-Haïtien, with the top of the plinth draped in the colours of the Haitian flag, red and blue. The incredible Citadelle La Ferrière built by Henry Christophe in the north of Haiti. A small boat with a colourful patchwork sail, photographed off the coast of northern Haiti.
December 23, 2025 at 11:05 AM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Curaçao, 2022
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 21: 'A priest who had been sent to convince the slaves to go back to work claimed Tula told him: "We do not want to do anybody harm but we seek our freedom. The French blacks have been given their freedom, Holland has been taken over by the French, hence we too must be free".' Yellow outbuildings with red roofs and white trip along a dirt path at Landhuis Knip, a plantation where a slave rebellion occurred in 1795. A white stone plinth and monument of a fist holding a broken chain, representing the slave revolt led by a man named Tula at the Knip plantation in Curaçao. A mural in Willemstad, the capital of Curaçao, depicting a woman of colour with a yellow flower next to her cheek. She is wearing a red head wrap.
December 22, 2025 at 12:32 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Haiti
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 20: ‘I am Toussaint Louverture, you have perhaps heard my name. You are aware, brothers, that I have undertaken vengeance, and that I want freedom and equality to reign in Saint-Domingue.’ Street mural in Port-au-Prince depicting Toussaint Louverture. A Haitian voudou flag, with symbols of Erzulie, who represents love and womanhood/feminine spirits. Le Marron Inconnu, or the Unknown Maroon, is a statue in the centre of Port-au-Prince. The figure is a man who holds a sword in his right hand and is kneeling on his right leg with his left stretched out behind him, as he arches back and blows on conch shell that he is holding in his left hand.
December 21, 2025 at 3:55 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from my research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Great Exuma, Bahamas
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 19: 'There had been long-simmering tensions in the Bahamas between the black loyalists and whites who were trying to coerce the black population into work, despite the fact that they were free. The former slaves had come this far, and many were prepared to carry on fighting to defend the freedom they had been promised …' The ruins of a stone building on Great Exuma, Bahamas. A close-up of hands holding a seashell. A shot taken through a screen, with small mangroves in the foreground and white sand and blue water beyond, with a boat in the distance.
December 20, 2025 at 8:50 AM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from my research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: St Vincent and the Grenadines
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 18: 'Dorsetshire Hill is by no means the tallest on the island, but it’s high enough to have a large cellular phone tower and various satellite dishes placed there. Next to these is a much smaller obelisk … It is a memorial to Joseph Chatoyer, the paramount chief of the island’s Black Caribs, a role he had assumed by 1768, and one he still held when he died after more than 25 years of fighting the British.' The monument to Joseph Chatoyer, with a picture of him next to it, under a blue sky with big, white clouds. View from a car window making its way up Dorsetshire Hill, near Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines. A view the houses and harbour of Kingstown, St Vincent, from Dorsetshire Hill.
December 19, 2025 at 12:20 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
📚Forget about this year’s Christmas presents – what is next year’s reading list looking like? 💙📚#booksky

We are halfway through #35chaptersin#35days of #thegreatresistance – so it’s the perfect time to place a pre-order (it really helps authors)! Link in bio. Thank you! ❤️
The cover of The Great Resistance, with 'pre-order now!' written above it
December 18, 2025 at 10:19 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: London
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 17: 'Equiano bought his freedom in 1766, at the age of 19, paying for it with the money he earned doing side work, returning to what he called “my original free African state.” But keeping that freedom was a challenge.' A statue honouring Olaudah Equiano in the Telegraph Hill lower park, south-east London. It was designed by local schoolchildren. A carved baptismal font depicting biblical scenes in St James's Piccadilly, London, where Ottobah Cugoano was baptised in 1773. A mural on the side of a building in London commemorating the writer and composer Ignatius Sancho.
December 18, 2025 at 10:06 AM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Haiti
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 16: If all the fears of white planters could have been bundled up into one person, he might have been Makandal: An African. A healer. A herbalist who had a way with poisonous plants. A maroon. Even his name held magic, being the Kikongo word for amulet or charm. On the right is a statue of Baron Samedi, a key lwa (deity) in Haitian vodou, who represents the dead. He is often depicted in top hat and with a cane, as he is here. Next to him is Damballa, another important lwa, considered to the creator of life and associated with wisdom. He is often depicted as a serpent, as he is in this photo, and in this instance with a human face. A bright pink tropical hibiscus flower, with yellow stamen and a red stigma. A brightly decorated Haitian bus, known as a tap-tap. The words 'Love,' 'Super,' and 'Bel' are written across its windows and there are images of people and animals among the designs on it.
December 17, 2025 at 12:50 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: South Carolina
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
Chapter 15: 'Then the freedom-seekers stopped, possibly near the Jacksonboro Ferry, which crossed the Edisto River. According to a later account, “Sixty, some say a hundred … halted in a field; and set to dancing, Singing and beating Drums, to draw more Negroes to them, thinking they were now victorious over the whole Province”.' A US road marker, under a blazing sun, which reads: The Stono Rebellion (1730). The Stono Rebellion, the largest slave insurrection in British North America, began nearby on September 9, 1739. About 20 Africans raided a store near Wallace Creek, a branch of the Stono River. Taking guns and other weapons, they killed two shop-keepers. The rebels marched south towards promised freedom in Spanish Florida, waving flags, beating drums, and shouting 'Liberty!'. A dirt road under a cloudy sky in late afternoon, in rural South Carolina.
December 16, 2025 at 1:27 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Accompong, Jamaica
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
‘Even now, the road to Accompong is winding, its coordinates still not accurately mapped on GPS. Here, nestled in the green carpet of the cockpits, one group of self-emancipated people created a community and became known as the Leeward maroons. They elected a man named Cudjoe in the 1730s to lead them … His British adversaries later described him as a “bold, skilful and enterprising man”.’ The Kindah tree in Accompong, Jamaica which has a sign saying 'kindah, one family', and represents the unity of the village, which was founded by self-emancipated slaves in the early 1700s. A view of Accompong, with a cloudy sky, and green hills in the distance, and a small traditional palm-thatched outbuilding in the foreground. A wall in Accompang, Jamaica, with a mural showing a man holding a gun, representing a maroon warrior, probably the famous leader Cudjoe.
December 15, 2025 at 1:05 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: New York City
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
‘April 6, 1712, started like any other Sunday, with the city’s residents going to church and returning to their homes. Once it had grown dark, the spring day cooling with the setting of the sun, a group of plotters slipped away to a nearby orchard in the East Ward of the city, and by midnight around 25 people had gathered. Unlike their counterparts on many of the Caribbean islands, enslaved people in New York were not in the majority. They were outnumbered by the Europeans, so those gathering that night made a point of arming themselves well …’ A colonial-era map of lower Manhattan. The African Burial Ground National Monument near Broadway and Duane Street in lower Manhattan.
December 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Guadeloupe
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
‘French officials also fretted about marronage and rebellion. Much detail went into their Code Noir, down to the “large sticks” that an enslaved person was prohibited from carrying in Article XV. A number of points addressed the issue of slave autonomy. In addition to bans on weapons, slaves from different enslavers were prohibited from gathering “under the pretext of a wedding or other excuse.” There were to be no meetings, under pain of lashing, in “major roads or isolated locations.” Frequent offenders could even face death …’ A copy of the 1685 slave code of France, the Code Noir. A small memorial with a head and shoulders constrained by a chain, commemorating the people of Guadeloupe who fought against re-enslavement by the French in 1802. Behind are small houses, and mountain covered in cloud. Tied to the base of the statue is a bouquet of bright red Heliconia Caribaea flowers. The ruins of a stone windmill on a sugar plantation, next to a dirt road and under a blue sky with large cumulus clouds.
December 13, 2025 at 11:16 AM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Lisbon, Portugal
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
‘Lourenço da Silva Mendonça had plenty of personal reasons to attack the Portuguese, but now he was looking beyond his family and to the supreme court of Christendom. He wanted to make sure the pope understood how the entire system of colonial slavery had brought them and other Africans—as well as Amerindians and “New Christians” who had been forced to abandon their Judaism—to this point.’ A view of the Tagus River in Lisbon, with the arm of a person taking a picture to the right, a seagull on a perch to the left, and a flying seagull in the background. Decorative tiles with a ship from Portugal's age of exploration, above the words Praça do Municipio (Municipal Plaza). A street corner in Lisbon with a road sign that reads Rua Do Poço dos Negros (Street of the Blacks’ Pit), marking the place where the bodies of people who did not survive the slaving voyages from Africa in the 16th century were thrown into a pit.
December 11, 2025 at 10:54 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Barbados
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
‘Details of the rebels’ plans came out during the trial, but how much was true and how much was in the fevered imaginations of colonial officials is a matter of speculation: “Their grand design was to choose them a King, one Coffee an Ancient Gold-Coast Negro, who should have been Crowned the 12th June last past in a Chair of State exquisitely wrought and Carved after their Mode; with Bowes and Arrowes to be likewise carried in State before his Majesty their intended King: Trumpets to be made of Elephant Teeth and Gourdes to be sounded on several Hills to give Notice to their general Rising, with a full intention to fire the Sugar-Canes, and so run in and Cut their Masters the Planters Throats … ” Brown and green sugar cane against a cloudy sky. Green plants taking over the ruins of an old house in Barbados. Palm trees, blue skies, and a bit of ocean spray on the windy and rugged east coast of Barbados.
December 11, 2025 at 1:48 PM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: northern Brazil
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
‘While the Portuguese and Dutch were fighting, elsewhere in Brazil a new community had established itself, a place that could possibly undermine the entire European project in the colony. This was one scene Frans Post did not paint. He might not have known how to get to Palmares, though he most likely heard about its maroon community...’ A view of hills and city from 36,000ft flying over northern Brazil. A cobbled street with small houses and tall, tropical trees. A rainy-spattered window looking on to field of green stalks, with darker green trees and a chimney in the distance.
December 10, 2025 at 8:01 AM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from two decades of research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Virginia
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
‘Europeans and Africans lived in close quarters in hardscrabble 1630s Virginia ... Sometimes they made common cause, such as the “six ... servants and a negro of Mr Reginald’s” who in July 1640 sailed away in a skiff on the Elizabeth River, but were apprehended. The servants, including two Dutchmen, were all listed by full name in the proceedings, except for “Emanuel, the foresaid Negro.” Emanuel and two others were to receive, among other punishments, 30 stripes of the lash, and were “to be burnt in the cheek with the letter R,” branding them for life.’ A broody, cloudy sky over the sandy bay at Old Port Comfort, Virginia. A historical marker that reads: First Africans in Virginia. The first documented Africans in Virginia arrived here in Aug. 1619 on the White Lion, an English privateer based in the Netherlands. Colonial officials traded food for these “20 and odd” Africans, who had been captured from a Portuguese slave ship. Among present-day Hampton's earliest African residents were Antony and Isabella. Their son, William, was the first child of African ancestry known to have been born in Virginia (ca 1624). Many of the earliest Africans were held as slaves, but some individuals became free. A legal framework for hereditary, lifelong slavery in Virginia evolved during the 1600s. The United States abolished slavery in 1865.
December 9, 2025 at 8:02 AM
carriegibson.bsky.social
In the run-up to the publication of my new book, The Great Resistance, on 6 Jan 2026 (link in bio), I’ll have a daily post featuring photos from research trips, along with a snippet from each of the book’s 35 chapters. Today: Portuguese colonial churches
💙📚#booksky #thegreatresistance #history
‘On a quiet Sunday morning in July 1595, a slave named Amador burst into a mass at a church in the town of Trindade, a short distance outside the capital of São Tomé. He grabbed the chalice from the priest and drank some of its palm wine before ordering his accomplices to kill the officiating cleric … From there, Amador led five or six men to the engenho of Pedro Álvares Freire, where they killed the owner and set fire to the sugar mill.’ Two women chat at the doorway of a church in Cabo Verde. A whitewashed church in Madeira, with palm trees in front of it. Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Homens Pretos in Olinda, Brazil, which has a small bell-tower and a facade with three arches and three windows facing the street. The church's white exterior has been discoloured by pollution and mildew over the years, giving it a mottled patina.
December 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM