American Negro Slave Revolts as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it? Matthew J. Clavin Author Of American Negro Slave Revolts Matthew J. Clavin It is hard to believe that this book first appeared eighty years ago. At a time when Jim Crow ruled and leading scholars adamantly argued for slavery’s benign nature, Aptheker proved that slavery was a savage institution that enslaved Americans violently resisted from the colonial era through the Civil War. Written by a radical White historian who commanded Black soldiers during the Second World War, the book obliterates the idea of the passive and pliant slave.