250 in Black: The Other American Revolutions
To celebrate America's birthday, we're looking back at top 10 American revolutions of all time.
ContrabandCamp’s five-part series “250 In Black” will commemorate the nation’s 250th birthday by exploring the founding of America from a Black perspective. This is part five. Read part one, part two, part three and part four.
“A riot is the language of the unheard…
Unless they’re white. Then, it’s a “revolution.”
— Uncle Rob
What’s the difference between a “revolution” and a civil war? An insurrection and a coup d'état? A confederate and a patriot? A rebellion and a secession?
It’s simple. A revolution is defined as “a sudden, radical, or complete change … a fundamental change in political organization … or a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something.”
None of that happened for Black people on July 4, 1776.
Although non-white Americans have rebelled against tyranny throughout history (The Mina Rebellion, the Black Seminole Rebellion, the Taos Revolt ), those anti-fascist insurgents were not privileged enough to write themselves into posterity as “revolutionaries.” When it comes to a privileged class rising up to demand more privilege, Team White People is the reigning national champion.
The 1776 overthrow of the British monarchy was a coup. It was a civil war that started with a declaration of secession. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the American Revolution is how deeply the insurrectionists chiseled their triumph into our collective memory. Two hundred and fifty years later, people are still quoting what a slaveholder wrote about the equality of “all men.”
But there were other American revolutions throughout American history. Many of them were successful.
Here is a list of the other American revolutions.
