On January 6, 2021, many learned the meaning of the word insurrection for the first time. When a violent mob stormed the US Capitol, captured on live television, words did not come easy. Insurrection sounds so antiquated, so out of the realm of possibility! Yet in front of our eyes, individuals wielding weapons and dressed in tactical gear, homemade costumes, and “Make America Great Again” T-shirts overwhelmed police barriers and threatened lawmakers who were voting to certify Joe Biden’s victory as the forty-sixth president. Americans still do not agree on what they saw that day or what it means.
Two articles exploring literature of liberation point toward the long history of insurrection as a pathway to freedom, albeit pursued by those in different positions from the January 6 rioters. These two articles, “‘The Fate of St. Domingo Awaits You’: Robert Wedderburn’s Unfinished Revolution,” by Shelby Johnson, and “Phillis Wheatley on...
