American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt Book

I read this because a friend foisted it upon me, so my enthusiasm was not high. It's to the book's credit that I zoomed through it and found it pretty gripping.

The story of the short-lived and unsuccessful uprising of New Orleans slaves in 1811, this was interesting and vividly-written (although it started out as a senior thesis project, and quite a lot of it reads like a college paper). I found the historical parts about the settling of Louisiana informative. However, too much of the reporting about the slave revolt consists of speculation by the author, since, as he keeps pointing out, "little is known" about the individuals, their thought processes, etc. The revolt itself is actually a pretty small part of the book, which I found disappointing.

It's all left me somewhat depressed, as far too many of the attitudes held towards black people 200 years ago are still hanging around the US today, not as changed or erased as one would hope.