Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age

Sylvia R. Frey, Author, with foreword by Manisha Sinha

Princeton University Press, 2025

 

Abstract:

black and white image of revolutionary figures struggling, with book title and author's name overlaid in contrasting white and yellow text

The American Revolution brought about violent and unpredictable social changes throughout the new nation, particularly in the South. Sylvia Frey reveals how slave resistance gave rise to a Black liberation movement that was central to the revolutionary struggle in the southern colonies, and how Black resistance persisted after the war as a struggle for cultural power that manifested itself in the establishment of separate Black churches with distinctive ritual patterns and moral values. She examines how white Southerners responded to Black resistance amid their own fight for independence from the British, and how they reacted to new movements by African Americans in the postwar period. With an incisive foreword by Manisha Sinha, Water from the Rock shows how the upheavals of war created opportunities for a quiet revolution that laid the foundations for the modern civil rights movement in America.

 

Jenna Ulizio ’26 and Everett Padro ’26 presenting at int’l virtual conference 6/19

"The Conflict" by Snejana Granatkina, a line drawing of two stick figures fighting over the word "history."Jenna Ulizio ’26 and Everett Padro ’26 will present at the online seminar “Public history for contested and conflicting past(s)” on Thursday, June 19. The seminar is organized by the students of the Master in Digital and Public History (MADiPH) at the University of Luxembourg:

The past is subject to multiple historical interpretations. Perhaps more than ever, the current context offers many examples of contested – and sometimes conflicting – views and interpretations of the past. Beyond certain events and topics that appear very controversial, the overall production, mediation, and discussion of history are also at stake. The very existence, practices and discussion of evidence-based research are sometimes threatened. In this context, we may question what public history can bring to the discussion, what roles historians (still) have in the public interpretations of the past. How does public history deal with controversies, handle contested and conflicting topics?

Fiona Vernal work supporting oral history in CT featured in UConn Today article

In collaboration with Connecticut Humanities and the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History, Fiona Vernal has made an online platform TheirStory accessible to CT organizations and residents to support the creation of oral history collections. Vernal began working with TheirStory creator Zack Ellis in 2022 working on a project on West Indian, African American, and Puerto Rican migrations to Hartford. The article also details the other CT organization and communities that have benefitted from this collaboration.

Helen Rozwadowski Interviewed for Blue History Network Podcast

Professor Helen Rozwadowski was interviewed for the Blue History Network Podcast, which is now up on Spotify and the network’s website. In this podcast, Professor Rozwadowski delves into “a wide variety of subjects, from oceanography in the Nineteenth century to how we, in the present, bring ocean history to the attention of the public“. She also discusses her books, Fathoming the Ocean and Vast Expanses.

Frank Costigliola’s Recent Book Wins Sharon Harris Book Award

Congratulations to Professor Frank Costigliola, whose recent biography of US diplomat and strategist George Kennan was just named a co-winner of the Sharon Harris Book Award from the UConn Humanities Institute.

The book has been warmly received by scholars and the reading public, including an enthusiastic recent review in The New York Review of Books.  An unpaywalled version of the review can be found here: The Enigma of George Kennan

Nu-Anh Tran Editor of Special Journal Issue

On the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, a special issue of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies offers thirteen original translations of Vietnamese songs, poems, memoirs, and fiction about the end of the war and its aftermath. Co-edited by Nu-Anh Tran and Trinh M. Luu, the collection is ideal for teaching at the college- and high school-level. Browse the issue at https://online.ucpress.edu/jvs/issue/20/2