As the U.S. prepares to celebrate its Independence Day on July 4, watch our interview with historian Gerald Horne about the role slavery and the slave trade played in igniting the rebellion that ultimately led to the nation’s founding. Below you can read the introduction to Horne’s new book, The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America. He is also the author the newly published, Race to Revolution: The U.S. and Cuba during Slavery and Jim Crow.

Excerpted from THE COUNTER-REVOLUTION OF 1776: SLAVE RESISTANCE AND THE ORIGINS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,” by Gerald Horne. Copyright © 2014 by Gerald Horne. Used by permission of NYU Press. All rights reserved.