First published in 1936, Black Thunder was widely and favorably reviewed, but - as the author writes in his introduction to this edition - "the theme of self-assertion by black men whose endurance is strained to the breaking point was not one that readers of fiction were prepared to contemplate at the time." Black Thunder is the true story of a slave insurrection that failed. But in his telling of the story of that failure, Bomtemps manages to reveal and dramatize through the character of his protagonist, Gabriel, a quality of folk courage unparalleled in the proletarian literature of this country.