Artist Leah Gordon’s exhibition, “Monument to the Vanquished Peasant,” is now up and running at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry through Jan. 26, 2026. Leah designed a special wallpaper for the show, featuring the many-headed hydra. I love it! www.theherbert.org/news/333/a-n...

In Bologna tomorrow, Tuesday, Nov. 4, at 6:30 pm I will be in conversation with my dear friend Matilde Cazzola about “history from below” at the Libreria modo infoshop, via Mascarella, 24/b. Join us! www.facebook.com/events/79022...

Last week I saw another painting by Caravaggio in person: “Supper at Emmaus” (1606), at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. For his technical mastery, innovative methods, and psychological/emotional depth, I regard him as the world’s greatest painter. I wish I could write history the way he paints.

Next Thursday, October 30, in Milan, at 6:30 pm, I will speak, at the invitation of my friend and editor Raf Scelsi, on the theme “Piracy and the Maritime Origins of the Working Class.” Join us at the Shake Bookshop, Via Ingegnoli 13.

Next week in Milan, Tuesday, Oct. 28, at 7:00 pm, I will meet with the excellent historian Carlo Greppi and members of the research group "Laboratorio Lapsus” to discuss “history from below.” The event is organized by my publisher, elèuthera editrice. , Register here: shorturl.at/kjq2A and join us!

The smile on my face as I lectured at the University of St. Thomas two weeks ago says it all. I had a great time on my visit, thanks to Kanishka Chowdhury, his colleagues, and his students.

We offer through @pmpress.bsky.social a special discount on our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin: The Quaker Dwarf who Fought Slavery*, co-written with Michelle Markel and illustrated by Sarah Bachman. Use OCTOBER at checkout for a 20% discount. pmpress.org/index.php?l=...

Also from my collection, the great Haitian artist, Frantz Zéphirin's painting entitled *The Spirit of the Indian Facing Colonization*, depicting the Spanish ship, *Conquistador*; the mask of red death killing an indigenous woman; and the face of the African who will replace her.

As many of you know, I collect Haitian art. The most famous painting in my collection is Frantz Zephirin’s *The Slave Ship Brooks*, which has been exhibited around the world, including the 2022 Venice Biennale. Here are photos of the painting and of Frantz when he had just completed it.

Here is a review I wrote for the *New York Times*. A Horrific Tale of the Slave Trade, Destined to Become a Classic www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/b...

Here is a lovely blog post by @leehall.bsky.social, for our book launch of *Fearless Benjamin*, Tues., Nov 11. I love the title: "It’s Never Too Late to Have a Truth-Filled Childhood.” Please mark your calendars, spread the word, and join us for the event! www.radnorquakers.net/its-never-to...

FHA is very pleased to announce that registration is now open for our annual fall event! Please join us online Sunday, 16 November for a book talk given by Professor Marcus Rediker featuring his new work, Freedom Ship: The Uncharted History of Escaping Slavery by Sea @marcusrediker.bsky.social

It’s publication day! Our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin: The Quaker Dwarf who Fought Slavery*, co-written with Michelle Markel and illustrated by Sarah Bachman, is out today with @pmpress.bsky.social. Use BEN! at checkout for a 20% discount. Help spread the word! pmpress.org/index.php?l=...

I loved listening to this interview @marcusrediker.bsky.social did on @kpfa.org about his new book *Freedom Ship*! Rediker tells the inspiring history of enslaved Black people in the U.S. deep South who escaped by ship with the help of free Black communities and abolitionist white sailors.

It was my great pleasure last night to speak, along with James Robinson, organizer Peter Rachleff, Walter Greason, and Ben Mchie at the East Side Freedom Library, an inspiring community center and liberated zone in St. Paul, MN! Thanks to Ry Siggelkow for the photo.

Excited to announce, two new translations of *The Many-Headed Hydra* appear this month: in Catalán, translated by Marta Cazorla Rodríguez, Manifest Books, Barcelona, and in Polish, translated by Andrzej Wojtasik, by Praktyka Teoretyczna, Warsaw. Thanks to all who gave new life to a 25-year old book!

The talk I gave yesterday in the #slaveryarchive Book Club series, about my new work *Freedom Ship*, is now available on Youtube. Thanks to @araujohistorian.bsky.social and @elotroalex.bsky.social for the invitation and for organizing the event. www.youtube.com/live/H17ToyM...

Monday, Oct. 6, 7:00 pm, I will take part in a discussion at the East Side Freedom Library in St. Paul, MN of the question “Why is it Important to Know the History of Resistance to Slavery?” Thanks to my friend Peter Rachleff for the invitation. Join us! eastsidefreedomlibrary.org/event/book-d...

Here is a review of my new book *Freedom Ship* by Eric Foner, published yesterday in *The New York Review of Books* (@nybooks.com). www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

Happy to announce, we will launch our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin* Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 6:00 pm at the Abington Quaker Meeting House, where Benjamin Lay worshipped and where he is buried. See the flyer below for more info. Mark your calendars, join us, & spread the word! @pmpress.bsky.social

Sat., Oct. 4, at 2:00 pm EDT it will be my pleasure to speak about my new book *Freedom Ship* with the #slaveryarchive Book Club. Please register through the link below and join us! Warm thanks to @araujohistorian.bsky.social and Alex Gil for organizing the event. us06web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Next Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 6:30 pm I will speak about my new book *Freedom Ship* in McNeely Hall, Room 100, at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. Thanks to Kanishka Chowdhury for organizing the event. Join us! uofstthomasmn.my.salesforce-sites.com/summit__Summ...

My blurb: "Manuel Barcia brilliantly shows how the concept ‘pirate’ … served the vast and violent purposes of empire. He also demonstrates that the theme of piracy broadly conceived now attracts the best scholars exploring the biggest issues in global history.” yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

Always a pleasure to visit St. Nicholas Church in Millvale, PA, and to see the spectacular murals painted by Maxo Vanka in 1937 and 1941. The first image is entitled “The Capitalist.” The second, taken from the ceiling, reminds me of the work of William Blake.

One copy for our free little library and one to keep. Looking forward to sharing this great book about Benjamin Lay by @marcusrediker.bsky.social

Here is a one-hour interview I did about my new book, *Freedom Ship* with Morteza Hajizadeh for New Books Network (@newbooksnetwork.bsky.social). podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

Yesterday I visited the very impressive International African American Museum in Charleston, SC. I especially liked the replica “Praise House” that was built inside the museum. I also admired the numerous films and contemporary art projects. Highly recommended!

Friday, Sept. 19, 6:00 pm: I'll be part of “Sailing to Freedom,” a free program sponsored by the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program/College of Charleston – the opening of a new exhibition and a book talk about *Freedom Ship*. Info/register here: calendar.charleston.edu/event/sailin...

Saddened to hear of the death of Vincent Scotti Eirene, one of Pittsburgh’s greatest activists over the past forty years. A man of spirit, humor, and fierce devotion to peace and social justice, he was truly one of a kind. Had a good bit of the Yippie in him. Here is one of his favorite photos. RIP.

Thanks to Harris Feinsod for an excellent tour yesterday of Frederick Douglass-related places in Fell’s Point, Baltimore, the waterfront district where he lived much of his life between 1826-1838. Here is the central house on “Douglass Row,” five townhouses he built in 1892, and a nearby mural.

Thanks, Alf!

Tuesday, Sept. 16, 10:30 am, I'll give a talk/workshop at Johns Hopkins entitled "How to Write (Maritime) History from Below." The event is sponsored by the Tidewater Initiative and the Maritime Committee of the Maryland Center for History and Culture. Join us! sites.krieger.jhu.edu/tidewater/ev...

Happy to share the book cover of our fourth and now officially forthcoming graphic novel *Black Schooner: Rebellion on the Amistad* by David Lester, Paul Buhle, and myself, to be published by @beaconpress.bsky.social in June 2026. More info available here: prhcomics.com/book/?isbn=9...

Next Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2025, 12:00 - 1:00 pm, I’ll give a talk about my new book *Freedom Ship* at Georgetown University’s Center for the Study of Slavery. It will be held in Healy Hall, room 208 and is free and open to the public. events.georgetown.edu/event/32116-...

Next Monday & Tuesday, Sept. 15 & 16, I’ll give two talks in Baltimore, one at the Bird in Hand bookstore about *Freedom Ship*, the other at Johns Hopkins University about “How to Write (Maritime) History from Below.” sites.krieger.jhu.edu/tidewater/ev... sites.krieger.jhu.edu/tidewater/ev...

Good news for authors as AI firm Anthropic is forced to respect copyright for the books it illegally scraped. This may set a standard for other AI companies engaged in the same kind of plundering plagiarism on a massive scale. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

I’m teaching a junior-level seminar on Atlantic piracy this semester and very excited to dig into Freedom Ship—the latest book by one of my favorite historians, @marcusrediker.bsky.social! Bonus: students who enroll in pirate classes are seriously into pirates. 🏴‍☠️ I love this class.

It was my great pleasure yesterday to visit “The Art of Labor,” an exhibition at Rivers of Steel in Homestead, PA. The works of art came from the collection of my dear friends Joe White and Delsa White, based on a lifetime of commitment to struggles from below. riversofsteel.com/experiences/...

The excellent Sasha Lilley interviewed me about my new book, *Freedom Ship*, for KPFA’s “Against the Grain.” I got a note from Joan Tarika Lewis, the first female member of the Black Panther Party, whose great grandfather, Edward West Parker, had escaped slavery by sea! kpfa.org/episode/agai...

Sad to learn of the death of Eduardo Torres Cuevas, Director of the National Library of Cuba. Here I am with Eduardo and Alejandro de la Fuente at the Havana Book Fair in 2015.

A brilliant portrait of the radical abolitionist Benjamin Lay, by artist Luis Silva.

Here is the video of the one-hour session in which I discussed my new book *Freedom Ship* with Corey D. B. Walker The event was sponsored by The Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project, which memorializes those who suffered the Atlantic slave trade. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSLH...

New podcast about radical abolitionist Benjamin Lay, featuring Loretta Fox, Mark Povinelli, and me. If you donate, you get a free mug with Lay’s picture that says, “Smash this mug,” as he did to china cups in 1742 to protest the exploitation of tea and sugar workers. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufMJ...

Delighted to say that my first book, *Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea*, has been translated into Portuguese & published by the University of São Paulo Press. Warm thanks to Jaime Rodrigues for helping this to happen. This is my third book translated into Portuguese, with two more on the way.

My friend Norman Marshall, a poet and an actor best known for his portrayal of radical abolitionist John Brown in a one-man show, *Trumpet of Freedom*, has died. The great grandson of a Virginia enslaver and the son of a Klansman, he was fiercely anti-racist and as tough as they come. RIP Norman.

Just found out that 74 of my works have been scraped/stolen by the plundering AI bots, which are nothing more than plagiarism machines really, with zero respect for copyright. My fellow writers, check it out for your own work. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

I have always wanted to teach a graduate class in which all of the reading would be books by my former PhD students. I would invite the authors to visit the class and speak to the students about the creative process within the genesis of their books. Now that would be fun!

Here is one of my favorite paintings from my Haitian art collection: “Family” by Denis Emile (1919-1966), painted in the early 1960s. He was a leader among a group of socially-conscious artists who practiced the “realisme de cruaute.” The painting reminds me of Van Gogh’s “The Potato Eaters.”

Mark Brokaw was one of the greats of modern theatre. It was my good fortune to work with him in a workshop he directed for our play *The Return of Benjamin Lay* at the Signature Theatre in NYC in October 2019. He was simply brilliant. RIP, Mark. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/03/t...

Sorry to say, friends, a combination of bad weather and sickness has forced the cancellation of my outdoor public lecture scheduled for Bryant aPark in NYC tomorrow (Wednesday) evening.