In 1861 a group of slaves in Adams County, Mississippi, conspired to gain their freedom by overwhelming their masters. The conspiracy was discovered and more than thirty slaves in and around Natchez were hanged and several were whipped to death. In 1971 Winthrop D. Jordan came across the previously unanalyzed transcript of the testimony of some of the conspiring slaves. This book is an exhaustive analysis of his findings.

Winthrop D. Jordan , the William F. Winter Professor of History at the University of Mississippi, is the author of several books, including White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812, for which he received the Bancroft Prize, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, the National Book Award, and the Francis Parkman Prize.