They called it revolution. History called it blood.

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Abraham Madu

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Jan 12, 2026, 1:47:55 AM (yesterday) Jan 12

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They called it revolution. History called it blood.

Every revolution listed here was soaked in violence—some justified as liberation, others as necessary bloodshed. The American Revolution killed tens of thousands. The French guillotined their own citizens by the thousands. The Russian Revolution drowned millions in civil war and purges. China’s revolution cost an estimated 40–80 million lives. Cuba’s firing squads echoed for decades.

Yet the caption argues that “pleading with oppressors” never freed anyone. It’s a seductive narrative—but is it true? South Africa ended apartheid through negotiation and resistance. India gained independence through civil disobedience and underground struggle. Gandhi and Mandela didn’t just plead—they leveraged moral authority, global pressure, and strategic resistance.

So here’s the real question: is violence the only language of liberation, or have we romanticized bloodshed while ignoring the nuance of power shifts throughout history?

What does freedom actually require—and at what cost?

Follow @african.echo for more African and global stories they don’t teach you.

Sources:

- “Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction” by Jack A. Goldstone (Oxford University Press)

- “The Black Book of Communism” (Harvard University Press, estimates on revolutionary death tolls)

...authorities executed far more slave women than what the historical record reveals. It turns out that most of the black women who were executed in the era of slavery had killed their white masters and their families. Enslaved women mostly strangled, clubbed, stabbed, burned, shot, poisoned, or hacked to death their white masters, mistresses, overseers, and even their owners’ children. Poisoning and arson were the most prevalent methods slave women used to kill their oppressors.

The arm of “justice” came down hard on these women who chose to resist their oppression by killing their white owners. Virginia executed Jane Williams in 1852 for slashing to death with a hatchet her master’s wife and infant.