Black Thunder by Arna Bontemps

First published: 1936

The Work

Black Thunder, Arna Bontemps’ defining novel, is a fictionalized account of the early nineteenth century Gabriel Insurrection, in Virginia. The novel, which chronicles the Gabriel Prosser-led rebellion against the slave owners of Henrico County, was generally lauded by critics as one of the most significant black American works of fiction. Richard Wright praised the work for dealing forthrightly with the historical and revolutionary traditions of African Americans.

Gabriel, a slave convinced that anything “equal to a grey squirrel wants to be free,” urges other slaves to revolt against their owners. The rebellion is hastened when a tyrannical slave owner whips another slave, Bundy, to death. Although the insurrection ultimately fails, Prosser nonetheless emerges a hero. The “power of black folk” credo is important to this novel. Bontemps’ treatment of Bundy’s funeral is faithful in detail to the customs of the time. Bontemps’ use of signs and portents pushes the story to its heroic ending. Stunning characterizations of Pharaoh, Drucilla, Ben, and Gabriel become multileveled, believably universal personalities through Bontemps’ skillful use of folk material. Elements of magic appear in Black Thunder just as they appear in folktales and beliefs as recorded by collectors.

Bundy’s spirit returns to haunt Pharaoh, the slave who betrays the rebellion and whose death is foreshadowed. Use of charms and countercharms is rampant, conjure-poisoning looms at all times, and rebellious slaves debate omens in the stars. The tapestry that Bontemps weaves shows the intricate beliefs of slaves to be colorful and compelling. Bontemps’ narrative techniques have origins in black folklore about death, ghosts, and spirits.

Black Thunder’s strength, largely, is in its depiction of an alternate worldview, which, while retaining the power to sanctify or punish, is painfully adapting to a new land and people. Critics note that Bontemps situates his story in the politics of the times: Readers see blame for slave unrest placed at the feet of Thomas Jefferson during John Quincy Adams’ bitter reelection campaign. Bontemps depicts the Virginia legislature debate considering sectional segregation of blacks, slaves and free, and chronicles the press. Black Thunder was written during the 1930’s; some critics believe it reflects the mood of the Depression.

Bibliography

Bishop, Rudine Sims. Free Within Ourselves: The Development of African American Children’s Literature. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2007. Discusses Bontemps’s seminal role in the history of African American children’s literature and his influence on his contemporaries.

Bontemps, Arna. Introduction to Black Thunder. Beacon Press: Boston, 1968. In the introduction to this reprinted edition, Bontemps tried to place Black Thunder not only in the context of his own life but also in the context of the years of the Civil Rights movement, up to and including the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. An unusually frank and enlightening author’s introduction.

Carlton-Alexander, Sandra. “Arna Bontemps: The Novelist Revisited.” CLA Journal 34 (March, 1991): 317-330. Attempts to refocus critical attention on Black Thunder. Carlton-Alexander particularly examines some of the negative comments that have been made about the novel.

Davis, Arthur P. From the Dark Tower: Afro-American Writers, 1900-1960. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1974. This survey of African American fiction includes a chapter on Bontemps. Particularly focuses on recurring themes in Bontemps’s collection of poetry, Personals (1963), and his novels, Black Thunder, God Sends Sunday (1931), and Drums at Dusk (1939). Davis considers Black Thunder to have been Bontemps’s outstanding work.

Flamming, Douglas. “A Westerner in Search of ’Negro-ness’: Region and Race in the Writing of Arna Bontemps.” In Over the Edge: Remapping the American West, edited by Valerie J. Matsumoto and Blake Allmendinger. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. Discusses the relationship between racial and regional marking in Bontemps’s ficton.

Jones, Kirkland C. Renaissance Man from Louisiana: A Biography of Arna Wendell Bontemps. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992. The first full-length biography of Arna Bontemps. An excellent source for information not only about the man himself but also the background of his works, including Black Thunder. Includes a bibliographic essay that serves as a handy guide to primary and secondary material about Bontemps.

Sundquist, Eric J. The Hammers of Creation: Folk Culture in Modern African-American Fiction. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992. Originally presented as a series of lectures, the three chapters in this book are more informally and more accessibly written than much modern literary criticism. The chapter on Black Thunder specifically focuses on Bontemps’s use of folk culture and sources in his novel.

Weil, Dorothy. “Folklore Motifs in Arna Bontemps’ Black Thunder.” Southern Folklore Quarterly 35 (March, 1971): 1-14. Examination of how Bontemps’s use of folklore helps to deepen readers’ understanding of characters and events in Black Thunder.

Wright, Richard. “A Tale of Courage.” Review of Black Thunder, by Arna Bontemps. Partisan Review and Anvil 3 (February, 1936): 31. Very favorable review of Black Thunder. Wright argues that Bontemps’s novel marked a turning point in the African American novel. Of equal interest to those interested in either Bontemps or Wright.