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Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Versions and Supplements
Maps and Figures
Introduction for Students

Chapter 1. From Africa to America, 1441-1808
Opening Vignette: Prince Henry's African Captives
African Origins
The History of West Africa
Slavery in West Africa
The Rise of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Europe in the Age of the Slave Trade
The Enslavement of Indigenous Peoples
The First Africans in the Americas
The Business of Slave Trading
The Long Middle Passage
Capture and Confinement
On the Slave Coast
Inside the Slave Ship
Hardship and Misery On Board
Conclusion: The Slave Trade’s Diaspora
Chapter Review
Document Project: Firsthand Accounts of the Slave Trade
Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, 1789 - Belinda, The Petition of Belinda - James Barbot Jr., General Observations on the Management of Slaves, 1700 • A Slave in Revolt Alexander Falconbridge, An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa, 1788 - The Brig Sally's Log
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 2. African Slavery in North America, 1619-1739
Opening Vignette: "20 and Odd Negroes:" The Story of Virginia's First African Americans
Slavery and Freedom in Early English North America
Settlers, Servants, and Slaves in the Chesapeake
The Expansion of Slavery in the Chesapeake
The Creation of the Carolinas
Africans in New England
Slavery in the Middle Atlantic Colonies
Slavery and Half-Freedom in New Netherland
Slavery in England’s Middle Colonies
Frontiers and Forced Labor
Slavery in French Louisiana
Black Society in Spanish Florida
Slavery and Servitude in Early Georgia
The Stono Rebellion
Conclusion: Regional Variations of Early American Slavery
Chapter Review
Document Project: Making Slaves
The Codification of Slavery and Race in Seventeenth-Century Virginia, 1630–1680 • The Massachusetts Body of Liberties – An Act for Regulating of Slaves in New Jersey, 1713–1714 • The South Carolina Slave Code, 1740 - Samuel Sewall, The Selling of Joseph (1700) - The Code Noir
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 3. African Americans in the Age of Revolution, 1740-1783
Opening Vignette: The New York Slave Plot of 1741
African American Life in Eighteenth-Century North America
Slaves and Free Blacks across the Colonies
Shaping an African American Culture
The Slaves’ Great Awakening
The African American Revolution
The Road to Independence
Black Patriots
Black Loyalists
Slaves, Soldiers, and the Outcome of the Revolution
American Victory, British Defeat
The Fate of Black Loyalists
Closer to Freedom
Conclusion: The American Revolution’s Mixed Results for Blacks
Chapter Review
Document Project: Black Freedom Fighters
Phillis Wheatley, A Poem to the Earl of Dartmouth, 1772 • Phillis Wheatley, Letter to the Reverend Samson Occom, 1774 • Lemuel Haynes, Liberty Further Extended, 1776 • Jean Baptiste Antoine de Verge, "American Soldiers" • Boston King, Memoirs of a Black Loyalist, 1798 • The Death of Major Peirson
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 4. Slavery and Freedom in the New Republic, 1783-1829
Opening Vignette: Benjamin Banneker and the Limits to Freedom in the New Nation
The Limits of Democracy
The Status of Slavery in the New Nation
Slavery’s Cotton Frontiers
Slavery and Empire
Slavery and Freedom outside the Plantation South
Urban Slavery and Southern Free Blacks
Gabriel’s Rebellion
Achieving Emancipation in the North
Free Black Life in the New Republic
Free Black Organizations
Free Black Education and Employment
White Hostility
The Colonization Debate
Conclusion: African American Freedom in Black and White
Chapter Review
DOCUMENT Project: Free Black Activism
Absalom Jones and Others, Petition to Congress on the Fugitive Slave Act, 1799 • Letters From a Man of Color • Sentiments of the People of Color, 1817 •  Freedom’s Journal • Kidnapping of an African-American Mother and Child • Bobalition Broadside, 1825
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 5. Black Life in the Slave South, 1820-1860
Opening Vignette: William Wells Brown and Growing Up in the Slave South
The Expansion and Consolidation of Slavery 212
Slavery, Cotton, and American Industrialization 213
The Missouri Compromise Crisis 215
Slavery Expands into Indian Territory 216
The Domestic Slave Trade 218
Black Challenges to Slavery 220
Denmark Vesey’s Plot 221
David Walker’s Exile 222
Nat Turner’s Rebellion, the Amistad Case, and the Creole Insurrection 225
Everyday Resistance to Slavery 227
Disobedience and Defiance 227
Runaways Who Escaped from Slavery 229
Survival, Community, and Culture 232
Slave Religion 233
Gender, Age, and Work 235
Marriage and Family 237
Conclusion: Surviving Slavery
Chapter Review
Document Project: Slave Testimony
James Curry, Narrative of James Curry, A Fugitive Slave • Lewis Clarke, Questions and Answers about Slavery (1845) • Mary Reynolds, The Days of Slavery, 1937
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 6. The Northern Black Freedom Struggle and the Coming of the Civil War, 1830-1860
Opening Vignette: Mary Ann Shadd and the Black Liberation Struggle Before the Civil War
The Boundaries of Freedom
Racial Discrimination in the Era of the Common Man
The Growth of Free Black Communities in the North
Black Self-Help in an Era of Moral Reform
Forging a Black Freedom Struggle
Building a National Black Community: The Black Convention Movement and the Black Press
Growing Black Activism in Literature, Politics, and the Justice System
Abolitionism: Moral Suasion, Political Action, Race, and Gender
Slavery and the Coming of the Civil War
Westward Expansion and Slavery in the Territories
The Fugitive Slave Crisis and Civil Disobedience
Confrontations in "Bleeding Kansas" and the Courts
Emigration and John Brown's Raid at Harper's Ferry
Conclusion: Whose Country Is It?
Chapter Review
DOCUMENT Project: Forging an African American Nation --
Slave and Free; North and South
Sarah Mapps Douglass, To Make the Slaves’ Cause Our Own, 1832 • Henry Highland Garnet, An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America, 1843- Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, 1852 - Escaping Slavery via the Underground Railroad - Dred and Harriet Scott - "Jim Crow"
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 7. Freedom Rising: The Civil War, 1861-1865
Opening Vignette: Robert Smalls and the African American Freedom Movement during the Civil War
The Coming of War and the Seizing of Freedom, 1861–1862
War Aims and Battlefield Realities
Union Policy on Black Soldiers and Black Freedom
Refugee Slaves and Freedpeople
Turning Points, 1862–1863
The Emancipation Proclamation
The U.S. Colored Troops
African Americans in the Major Battles of 1863
Home Fronts and War’s End, 1863–1865
Riots and Restoration of the Union
Black Civilians at Work for the War
Union Victory, Slave Emancipation, and the Renewed Struggle
for Equality
Conclusion: Emancipation and Equality
Chapter Review
Document Project: Wartime and Emancipation
Alfred M. Green, Let Us . . . Take Up the Sword, 1861 • Isaiah C. Wears, The
Evil Injustice of Colonization, 1862 • Susie King Taylor, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp, 1902
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 8. Reconstruction: The Making and Unmaking of a Revolution, 1865-1885
Opening Vignette: Jourdan and Mandy Anderson Find Security in Freedom after Slavery
A Social Revolution 378
Freedom and Family 378
Church and Community 381
Land and Labor 384
The Hope of Education 386
A Short-Lived Political Revolution 390
The Political Contest over Reconstruction 390
Black Reconstruction 393
The Defeat of Reconstruction 397
Opportunities and Limits outside the South 400
Autonomy in the West 400
The Right to Work for Fair Wages 403
The Struggle for Equal Rights 405
Conclusion: Revolutions and Reversals
Chapter Review
Document Project: The Vote
Sojourner Truth, Equal Voting Rights, 1867 • Proceedings of the American Equal
Rights Association, A Debate: Negro Male Suffrage vs. Woman Suffrage, 1869 • Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Woman’s Right to Vote, early 1870s
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 9. Black Life and Culture During the Nadir, 1880-1915
Opening Vignette: Ida B. Wells: Creating Hope and Community Amidst Extreme Repression
Racism and Black Challenges
Racial Segregation
Ideologies of White Supremacy
Disfranchisement and Political Activism
Lynching and the Campaign against It
Freedom’s First Generation
Black Women and Men in the Era of Jim Crow
Black Communities in the Cities of the New South
New Cultural Expressions
Migration, Accommodation, and Protest
Migration Hopes and Disappointments
The Age of Booker T. Washington
The Emergence of W. E. B. Du Bois
Conclusion: Racial Uplift in the Nadir
Chapter Review
Document Project: Agency and Constraint
A Georgia Negro Peon, The New Slavery in the South, 1904 • W. E. B. Du Bois,
Along the Color Line, 1910 • Letter to the Editor, From the South, 1911
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 10. The New Negro Comes of Age, 1915-1940
Opening Vignette: Zora Neale Hurston and the Advancement of the Black Freedom Struggle
The Great Migration and the Great War
Origins and Patterns of Migration
Black Communities in the Metropolises of the North
African Americans and the Great War
The New Negro Arrives
Institutional Bases for Social Science and Historical Studies
The Universal Negro Improvement Association
The Harlem Renaissance
The Great Depression and the New Deal
Economic Crisis and the Roosevelt Presidency
African American Politics
Black Culture in Hard Times
Conclusion: Mass Movements and Mass Culture
Chapter Review
Document Project: Communist Radicalism and Everyday Realities
W. E. B. Du Bois, Negro Editors on Communism: A Symposium of the American Negro Press, 1932 • Carl Murphy, Baltimore Afro-American • W. P. Dabney, Cincinnati Union • Angelo Herndon, You Cannot Kill the Working Class, 1934 • Richard Wright, 12 Million Black Voices, 1941
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 11. Fighting for a Double Victory in the World War II Era, 1939-1948
Opening Vignette: James Tillman and Evelyn Bates Mobilize for War
The Crisis of World War II
America Enters the War and States its Goals
African Americans Respond to the War
Racial Violence and Discrimination in the Military
African Americans on the Home Front
New Jobs, Wartime Migration, and Race Riots
Organizing for Economic Opportunity
The Struggle for Citizenship Rights
Fighting and Dying for the Right to Vote
New Beginnings in Political and Cultural Life
Desegregating the Army and the GI Bill
Conclusion: A Partial Victory
Chapter Review
Document Project: African Americans and the Tuskegee Experiments
Interview with a Tuskegee Syphilis Study Participant, 1972 • Nurse Rivers•
Tuskegee Study Participants - Alexander Jefferson, Interview with a Tuskegee
Airman, 2006 • Tuskegee Airmen -- William H. Hastie and George E.
Stratemeyer, Resignation Memo and Response, 1943
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 12. The Early Civil Rights Movement, 1947-1963
Opening Vignette: Paul Robeson: A Cold War Civil Rights Warrior
Anticommunism and the Postwar Black Freedom Struggle
African Americans and Truman’s Loyalty Program
Loyalty Programs Force New Strategies
The Transformation of the Southern Civil Rights Movement
Triumphs and Tragedies in the Early Years, 1951–1956
New Leadership for a New Movement
The Watershed Years of the Southern Movement
Frustrations Mount
Civil Rights: A National Movement
Civil Rights in the North and West
Fighting Back
The March on Washington and the Aftermath
Conclusion: The Evolution of the Black Freedom Struggle
Chapter Review
Document Project: We Are Not Afraid
Anne Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi, 1968 • Cleveland Sellers, The River of
No Return, 1973 • Elizabeth Eckford, The First Day: Little Rock, 1957 • Images of
Resistance Protest and Terror
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 13. Multiple Meanings of Freedom: The Movement Broadens, 1963-1975
Opening Vignette: Stokely Carmichael and the Meaning of Black Power
The Emergence of Black Power 665
Expanding the Struggle Beyond Civil Rights 665
Early Black Power Organizations 666
Malcolm X 668
The Struggle Transforms 671
Black Power and Mississippi Politics 672
Bloody Encounters 674
Black Power Ascends 676
Economic Justice and Affirmative Action 681
Politics and the Fight for Jobs 681
Urban Dilemmas: Deindustrialization, Globalization, and White Flight 682
Tackling Economic Injustice 684
War, Radicalism, and Turbulence 686
The Vietnam War and Black Opposition 687
Urban Radicalism 690
Conclusion: Progress, Challenges, and Change 693
Chapter Review
Document Project: Black Power: Expression and Repression
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, October 1966 Black Panther Party Platform and
Program • COINTELPRO Targets Black Organizations, 1967 • FBI Uses Fake
Letters to Divide the Chicago Black Panthers and the Blackstone Rangers, 1969 •
“Special Payment” Request and Floor Plan of Fred Hampton’s Apartment, 1969 •
Tangible Results, 1969 • Church Committee Report, 1976
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 14. The Challenge of Conservatism in an Era of Change, 1968-2000
Opening Vignette: Shirley Chisholm: The First of Many Firsts
Opposition to the Black Freedom Movement 723
Emergence of the New Right 723
Law and Order, the Southern Strategy, and Anti–Affirmative Action 724
The Reagan Era 726
The Persistence of the Black Freedom Struggle 729
The Transformation of the Black Panthers 729
The Emergence of Black Women 731
The Fight for Education 734
Black Political Gains 736
The Expansion of the Black Middle Class 737
The Different Faces of Black America 739
The Class Divide 739
Hip-Hop, Violence, and the Emergence of a New Generation 742
Gender and Sexuality 744
All Africa’s Children 746
Conclusion: Black Americans on the Eve of the New Millennium 749
Chapter Review
Document Project: Redefining Community
Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement, 1977 • Cleo Manago, Speech for the Million Man March, 1995 • Douglas S. Massey, Margarita Mooney, Kimberly C. Torres, and Camille Z. Charles, Black Immigrants and Black Natives Attending Selective Colleges and Universities in the United States, 2007 • A Graffiti Artist in Long Island City, Queens, New York, 2009 • Run-DMC, 1987 • Salt-N-Pepa, 1994
Notes
Suggested References

Chapter 15. African Americans and the New Century, 2000-Present
Opening Vignette: Barack Hussein Obama, America's 44th President
Diversity and Racial Belonging
New Categories of Difference
Solidarity, Culture, and the Meaning of Blackness
Diversity in Politics and Religion
Trying Times
The Carceral State, or “the New Jim Crow”
9/11 and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
Hurricane Katrina
Change Comes to America
Obama’s Forerunners, Campaign, and Victory
The Obama Administration
Obama and Race in America
The 2012 Election
Conclusion: The Promise or Illusion of the New Century
Chapter Review
Document Project: Black Lives Matter
A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement • Protesting the Killing of Unarmed Black Men • Ferguson Citizen, Police Confrontation • “We Can’t Breathe” Headline • Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, “Recent Phoenix Police Officer Involved Shooting,” news release, December 15, 2014 • Thomas J. Nee to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, December 29, 2014 • Letter From Sybrina Fulton
Notes
Suggested References

Appendix: Documents
Appendix: Tables and Charts
Glossary of Key Terms
Index

Authors

Deborah Gray White

Deborah Gray White (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago) is Board of Governors Professor of History at Rutgers University. She is the author of many works including Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994; Ar'n't I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South; and the edited volume Telling Histories: Black Women Historians in the Ivory Tower. She is a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the Woodrow Wilson International Center Fellowship. Her current project uses the mass marches and demonstrations of the 1990s to explore the history of the decade.

Mia Bay

Mia Bay (Ph.D., Yale University) is Professor of History at Rutgers University and the Director of the Rutgers Center for Race and Ethnicity. Her publications include To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells and The White Image in the Black Mind: African-American Ideas about White People, 1830-1925. She is a recipient of the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship and the National Humanities Center Fellowship. Currently, she is at work on a book examining the social history of segregated transportation and a study of African American views on Thomas Jefferson.

Waldo E. Martin, Jr.

Waldo E. Martin Jr. is professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. His scholarly and teaching interests include modern American history and culture with an emphasis on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; his principal areas of research and writing are African American intellectual and cultural history. He is the author of "A Change is Gonna Come": Black Movement, Culture, and the Transformation of America 1945-1975 (forthcoming) and The Mind of Frederick Douglass (1985); he coedited, with Patricia Sullivan, The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in the Untied States (forthcoming). Martin has published numerous articles and lectured widely on Frederick Douglass and on modern African American cultural and intellectual history.

Bedford/St.Martin's

In 1981, Charles Christensen and Joan Feinberg founded an imprint of St. Martin's Press called Bedford Books and started work on The Bedford Reader. Today, Bedford/St. Martin's is publishing across the disciplines of English, History, Communication, Music, and College Success. Books like A Writer's Reference, The Bedford Series in History and Culture, and A Speaker's Guidebook work because they grow from where disciplines are, where they're going, and what they need.

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