Narrative, of a Five Years' Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana on the Wild Coast of South America

In the 1770s, enslaved and formerly enslaved people of African descent led a rebellion in the Dutch colony of Surinam (now Suriname), South America. This included Maroon communities of people who had managed to escape slavery and form their own settlements in the forest. Throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, fleeing and rebellions were a form of resistance against the brutal system of colonial slavery.

John Gabriel Stedman was a Dutch army officer who volunteered to travel to Surinam, joining hundreds of other troops to fight against and suppress the armed rebellion. Stedman kept a diary of his voyage and time in the colony, which formed the basis of this Narrative. The artist and poet William Blake made these engravings, based on Stedman’s own drawings. The text, published in 1796, was considerably altered by the editor William Thomson. Stedman’s diary, his draft of the Narrative and the published version each contain different and conflicting accounts.

How did contemporary readers respond to the book?

Though Stedman was not an abolitionist, the Narrative became a significant work within the campaigns to abolish the slave trade and slavery. The Narrative includes graphic descriptions and illustrations of the Dutch colonists’ brutal, violent treatment of enslaved and free Africans and people of African descent. After its publication in Britain, the Critical Review reflected that 'we have never opened any work which is so admirably calculated to excite the most heart-felt abhorrence and detestation of that grossest assault on human nature—domestic slavery' (January 1797). At the same time, the work contains racial stereotypes throughout and Stedman defended slavery as an institution.

Other parts of the Narrative contain Stedman’s descriptions of Indigenous communities in Surinam, such as the Lokono-Arawak people. The text also depicts the landscapes, plants and animals of Surinam.

How did William Blake come to work on this?

Blake met Captain John Stedman through the publisher Joseph Johnson. Stedman maintained a friendship with Blake, gave him gifts, and praised his work, though Stedman was furious with the way Johnson and Thomson altered his text and pictures. The first plate shows Stedman the artist and Blake the engraver presenting the brutality of the slave-owning colonists. The last image intends to represent equality, and is related to Blake’s use of Europe, Asia and Africa as entities in the prophetic books, as well as his anti-slavery position which is explored in Songs of Innocence.