James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the first half of the 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. The Red Rover presents some of the first serious depictions of characters of African lineage in American literature. The novel follows the activities of the sailor Dick Fid, a free black sailor Scipio Africanus and Royal Navy officer James Wilder as they encounter the famous pirate, "The Red Rover".