The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam is an autobiographical account of Stedman's experiences in Surinam from the year 1773 through 1777. While Stedman kept a diary of his time in Surinam, which is held by the
University of Minnesota Libraries, the
Narrative manuscript wasn't composed until ten years after his return to Europe. In the
Narrative manuscript, Stedman vividly describes the landscapes of Suriname, paying great attention to flora, fauna, and the social habits of indigenous, free and enslaved Africans, and European colonists in Suriname. His observations of life in the colony encompass the different cultures present at the time: Dutch, Scottish,
native, African, Spanish, Portuguese, and French. Stedman also takes time to describe the day-to-day life in the colony. The first pages of the
Narrative record Stedman's voyage to Surinam. He spends his days reading on the deck of the
Boreas, attempting to avoid those sick from the turbulent sea. The
Boreas was accompanied by another ship the
Weftellingwerf and three new frigate built transports. Stedman first arrives in Surinam on 2 February 1773. Upon his arrival in Surinam, Stedman and the troops are met by residents of the fortress Amsterdam, along the
Surinam River. Here, Stedman gives his first description of the landscape of Surinam. According to Stedman, the land abounded with delicious smells – lemon, orange, and
shaddocks. The natives, dressed in loincloths, were somewhat shocking to Stedman at first, and he described them as "bargemen as naked as when they were born." Parts of the
Narrative continue to focus on descriptions of Surinam's natural environments. Stedman writes that parts of Surinam are mountainous, dry, and barren, but much of the land is ripe and fertile, enjoying a year-long growing season, with rains and a warm climate. He notes that in some parts the land is low and marshy, and crops are grown with a "flooding" method of irrigation similar to that used in ancient Egypt. Stedman also describes Surinam as having large uncultivated areas; there are immense forests, mountains (some with valuable minerals), deep marsh, swamps, and even large savanna areas. Some areas of the coast are inaccessible, with navigational obstructions such as rocks, riverbanks, quicksand, and bogs. In his
Narrative, Stedman writes about the contrast between the beauty of the colony and his first taste of the violence and cruelty endemic there. One of his first observations involves the torture of a nearly
naked enslaved woman, chained to an iron weight. His narrative describes the woman receiving 200
lashes and carrying the weight for a month as a result of her inability to fulfill a task to which she was assigned.
Publication history 's illustrations of the work of Stedman's work first published in 1792-1794 Stedman's
Narrative was published by
Joseph Johnson, a
radical figure who received criticism for the types of books he sold. In the 1790s, more than 50 percent of them were political, including Stedman's
Narrative. The books he published supported the rights of slaves, Jews, women, prisoners and other oppressed peoples around the world. Johnson was an active member of the
Society for Constitutional Information, an organization attempting to reform Parliament. He was condemned for the support and publication of writers who voiced liberal opinions, such as
Mary Wollstonecraft,
Benjamin Franklin and
Thomas Paine. Stedman's
Narrative became a major literary success. It was translated into
French,
German,
Dutch,
Italian, and
Swedish, and was eventually published in more than twenty-five different editions, including several abolitionist tracts focused on Joanna. Stedman was highly acclaimed for his insights on the
slave trade and his
Narrative was embraced by the abolitionist cause. Paradoxically, it also became the handbook for
counter-insurgency tactics in the tropics. It took almost two centuries for a critical edition to be published. The unabridged critical edition, edited by Richard and Sally Price, was published in 1988. An abridged edition published in 1992 by Price and Price remains in print, as well as two editions published in 1962 and 1966 by the renowned antiquarian Stanbury Thompson. Of Thompson's 1962 and 1966 editions, Price and Price write, "Thompson's work confused as much as it elucidated. Examination of the original notebooks and papers that Thompson had used (which are now in the
James Ford Bell Library at the
University of Minnesota) revealed that, not only had he inserted his own commentary into that of Stedman...but he had changed dates and spellings, misread and incorrectly transcribed a large number of words". A facsimile edition of the 1988 unabridged critical edition of Stedman's original 1790 manuscript, edited by Richard and Sally Price, was published in 2010 by iUniverse and in 2016 by Open Road. This latter edition remains available. , originally published in Stedman's
Narrative Blake's illustrations Stedman's
Narrative associated him with some of Europe's foremost radicals. His publisher, Johnson, was imprisoned in 1797 for printing the political writings of
Gilbert Wakefield. Johnson commissioned
William Blake and
Francesco Bartolozzi to create
engravings for the
Narrative. Blake engraved sixteen images for the book and delivered them in December 1792 and 1793, as well as a single plate in 1794. The images depict some of the horrific atrocities against slaves that Stedman witnessed, including
hanging,
lashing and other forms of torture. The Blake plates are more forceful than other illustrations in the book and have the "fluidity of line" and "hallucinatory quality of his original work". Torn between the roles of "incurable romantic" He intended to use these notes and journals to produce a book. On 15 June 1778, just a year after returning to the Netherlands from Surinam, Stedman began piecing together these notes and journals into what would ultimately become his
Narrative. In 1787, Stedman began showing pieces of his journal to friends in an attempt to secure financial backing for the publication of the manuscript. He also attempted to gain potential subscribers in major cities throughout Europe. In these entries, Stedman tells of occasions throughout his life when he interceded on the behalf of others to alleviate suffering. He explained that he wrote "purely following the dictates of nature, & equally hating a made up man and a made up story." Mary Louise Pratt refers to these changes as a "romantic transformation of a particular form of colonial sexual exploitation". ==Stedman and slavery==