Currently Reading Christian McBurney's Dark Voyage: An American Privateer's War on Britain's African Slave Trade

I finally made the trek to Wakefield Books in my car -- I have been in in Wakefield several times recently on the Grom, but without saddlebags it's a bit dicey carrying much in the netting on the passenger section of the seat. 

And its been too hot to ride around with a backpack on. 

Skip to the end -- I walked up to the History section and there in the middle of the display...

I had just finished re-reading all of The Expanse novels when I heard that Chris McBurney's most recent book was a study of the destructive effects of Rhode Island privateers upon Britain's slave trade during the Revolutionary War. I decided to check it out, as it might inform parts of the Rhode Island History course I am proposing. So far I am four chapters in, and there definitely are details that will broaden the depth of those parts of the course examining the American Revolution, slavery, and BIPOC populations.

Fresh out of the bag

Once I have finished reading Dark Voyage, I will review it on Amazon and also post my thoughts here on the blog.

This is the promo for Dark Voyage in Christian's latest email:

My new book is called Dark Voyage: An American Privateer's War Against Britain's African Slave Trade. The privateer was constructed from and departed Providence in 1778, during the American Revolutionary War. Its officers and crew hailed mostly from North Kingstown, Exeter and South Kingstown. This privateer sailed to West Africa and inflicted more damage against Britain's slave trading forts and ships than any privateer during the war. It is a remarkable story, never before told.

We should all support Rhode Island’s wonderful independent bookstores and historical society gift shops! Currently, their price for Dark Voyage is no higher than amazon.com’s ($35).  These outlets have Dark Voyage in stock:

• Wakefield Books, Wakefield Mall (many copies in stock and best price)
• Charter Books, Newport, 8 Broadway (just north of the Old State House; it is a wonderful, bright, new bookstore) (book signing on August 9, at 6 pm!) 
• Commonwealth Books, Newport, 29 Touro Street
• Barrington Books, Barrington, 184 County Road
• Newport Historical Society Gift Shop, Newport, 127 Thames Street (Brick Market building)
• Island Books, Middletown, Wyatt Square, 575 E. Main Road
• Books on the Square, Providence, 471 Angell Street
• Stillwater Books, Pawtucket, 175 Main Street
• Island Bound Bookstore, Block Island, Water Street
• Block Island Historical Society Museum Shop, 18 Old Town Road
• Rhode Island Publications Society at https://ripublications.org/rips-store/ 

(Most of the above stores also carry my books The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Operation in the Revolutionary War and Spies in Revolutionary Rhode Island.)

To purchase the book online at amazon.com, click here.

You can also purchase from the publisher’s website.

If you do purchase Dark Voyage, it would be greatly appreciated if you could complete a review of it on amazon.com. Such reviews are particularly helpful to authors who do not have big New York or London publishers behind them.

Thank you for being a reader and supporter of smallstatebighistory.com.

Be safe this weekend!

Christian McBurney

Editor and Publisher, The Online Review of Rhode Island History

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