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Distinguished historians examine the genesis, development, and impact of slavery in America and explore related areas of study.
Distinguished historians examine the genesis, development, and impact of slavery in America and explore related areas of study.
Covers slavery, abolition, reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights movement, and the continuing challenges of racism
Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her—but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he’s ever known.
Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human.
The Known World tells the story of Henry Townsend, a Black farmer and former slave who falls under the tutelage of William Robbins, the most powerful man in Manchester County, Virginia. Making certain he never circumvents the law, Townsend runs his affairs with unusual discipline. But when death takes him unexpectedly, his widow, Caldonia, can't uphold the estate's order, and chaos ensues.
The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave (1831) was the first female slave narrative from the Americas. The Story of Mattie J.Jackson (1866) recounts a quest for personal freedom and ends with a family reunion in the North after the Civil War. The Memoir of Old Elizabeth, a Colored Woman (1863) is the tale of a 97-year-old ex-slave who became a preacher. Lucy A.Delaney's From the Darkness Cometh the Light or Struggles for Freedom (c. 1891) records a former slave's achievements in the quarter-century after the end of the Civil War.
Nancy Prince, born free in Massachusetts in 1799, tells of her exotic travels to Europe, Russia, and Jamaica. Susie King Taylor, who gained freedom by escaping behind Union lines with her family in 1862, records her experiences as a teacher, laundress, and nurse with the Union army, and her later experiences during the Reconstruction. Bethany Veney recounts her years in slavery and in freedom, tracing her spiritual growth throughout her life. And Louisa Picquet, who gained freedom in the late 1840s from the man who held her as slave and concubine, focuses on her life as a sexual victim and on her efforts to buy her mother out of slavery.
Distinguished historians examine the genesis, development, and impact of slavery in America and explore related areas of study.
The Negro Pilgrimage in America from Plymouth to Little Rock and Beyond... is about the long and arduous journey of African Americans, often marked by tragedy, but always sustained by spirit. Here is the story of a march that began almost 400 years ago -- the true tales of individual men and women, as well as a proud panorama of a people who enriched American culture and life.
Brilliantly illuminates the horror and injustices of slavery as it tells the true story of one of the last-known survivors of the Atlantic slave trade―abducted from Africa on the last "Black Cargo" ship to arrive in the United States.
Harriet Tubman was born a slave and dreamed of being free. She was willing to risk everything—including her own life—to see that dream come true. After her daring escape, Harriet became a conductor on the secret Underground Railroad, helping others make the dangerous journey to freedom.
The Tubman Command tells the story of Tubman at the height of her powers, when she devises the largest plantation raid of the Civil War. General David Hunter places her in charge of a team of Black scouts even though skeptical of what one woman can accomplish. For her gamble to succeed, “Moses” must outwit alligators, overseers, slave catchers, sharpshooters, and even hostile Union soldiers to lead gunships up the Combahee River. Men stand in her way at every turn--though one reminds her that love shouldn’t have to be the price of freedom.
A survey of the people, events, and places of Black history from 1492 to the present include the forgotten stories of escaped slaves, little-known entrepreneurs, and civil rights activists.