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Black Thunder
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Black Thunder

novel by Bontemps
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Article History

Black Thunder, historical novel by Arna Bontemps, published in 1936. One of Bontemps’s most popular works, this tale of a doomed early 19th-century slave revolt in Virginia was noted for its detailed portrait of a slave community and its skillful use of dialect. Although it was virtually unnoticed when it was first published, a second printing in 1968 attracted much critical attention.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.