Originally published in 1961, Benjamin Quarles’s The Negro in the American Revolution remains one of the most comprehensive histories of the presence and politics of Black people in the colonies and their complicated participation in the American Revolution. Enduringly innovative in its source base and subsequent analysis, Quarles’s landmark work continues to serve as a cornerstone for scholars across disciplines. In addition to the original text, this critical edition includes an introduction by the editors and five new essays by historians and literary scholars that bring together methodological insights drawn from Quarles’s original work with the latest innovations in archival research, revealing how gender, geographic location, and placemaking shaped the wartime experiences of Black people.

Contributors include Leslie Alexander, Tara Bynum, Michael Dickinson, Vanessa Holden, Adam McNeil, Tamika Nunley, and Derrick Spires.