Creating African Americans Chapter 1 Summary

Published by Tapestry Press and copyrighted by Xavier University of Louisiana in 2007, Perspectives In African American History And Culture: An Introductory Reader edited by Dr. Ronald Doris, contains a multitude of articles by several authors. All works center on African American history, culture, art, and philosophy. This particular critique will address “Navigating Distant Shores: A Historical Overview” by Dr. Ronald Doris. This article offers a well organized, structured overview of the life of the Africans, from the early 17th century to modern day 21st century who were kidnaped from their motherland and transported across the Atlantic to involuntary build a country.

The African History evolved throughout the 20th century where an increasing number of white historians working in the field ( Holt & Brown, 2000). However, there were numerous areas in which work needed to be done. Therefore white historians entered the field to share the work. One of them published the first extensive study of slavery.

The recently freed African Americans plead to receive citizenship and equal rights, they expected to be treated as any other human being. After many years of slavery, the African Americans were finally freed from slavery by president Lincoln. Many of them were granted freedom for serving loyally in the Union army, along with certain rights, such as the right to buy land. The freed slaves were then allowed to purchase land, and received help from the government in the form of establishments such as Freedman’s Bureau and Freedmen’s Aid Society. The former slaves were now allowed to attend certain churches, schools, and were also allowed to socialize in public, although only in certain places.

“The Atlantic Slave Trade—The Full Story” was written by Dr. Sheldon Stern, an African-American history professor who later served as a historian at the John F. Kennedy Library Museum. In his article, Dr. Stern discusses the profound ignorance found in the education system on the topic of Slaves, and more specifically on the topic of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Stern states that during his many visits to high schools while he was a historian and director of the American History Project for High School Students at John F. Kennedy Library Museum, he was disappointed to discover that many students were being taught that slavery only existed in the Northern American colonies. Stern adamantly argues with evidence which shows that slave trade in other countries had been occurring for hundreds of years, and that only a small percentage of African slaves were sold to the British colonies in comparison to the vast amounts of African slave purchases made from other countries.

In this article “African Dimensions Of The Stono Rebellion”, John Thornton a professor of history and African American studies, who wrote about the African slaves in the Americas, and specifically the servants in South Carolina during the early eighteenth century. In his writing, the author describes the personality of Africans and their desire to escape from slavery, going through obstacles on their path to freedom. John Thornton is primarily an Africanist, with a specialty in the history of West Central Africa before 1800. His work has also carried him into the study of the African Diaspora, and from there to the history of the Atlantic Basin as a whole, also in the period before the early nineteenth century. Thornton also serves as a consultant

Although blacks were technically granted freedom in the North by the nineteenth century at the latest, in practice they were only granted restricted amounts of economic and social freedom while their political freedom was nonexistent. Despite their newly acquired freedom blacks in the north were constantly subjected to racial prejudices that undermined any effort to actively participate in the development of the American political system. Out of the six New England states in the North only one of the states, Massachusetts which was more tolerant of blacks at the time, permitted black males to both vote and serve jury duty, indicating that blacks had very little say over their representatives in the North (Doc A ). African American’s ability

This unprecedented global tragedy claimed millions of lives over four centuries, and left a terrible legacy that continues to dehumanize and subjugate people around the world to this day. The forced movement of West Africans across the Atlantic to the Caribbean happened on cutting-edge scale of brutality and inhumanity, killings and massive abuses. Millions died without a burial, without a trace. These Europeans paid no monetary price for their progress, but they incurred a terrible cost in the form of the of the root racism that we still battle today. The slave trade left an ineradicable mark.

According to Heather Andrea Williams, an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “Access to the written word, whether scriptural or political, revealed a world beyond bondage in which African Americans could imagine themselves free to think and behave as they chose” (8). This quote reflects on a classic topic utilized within captivity narratives. A captivity narrative is a variation of narrative that addresses the life of a person held in captivity who manages to find his or her way to liberation. The captivity narratives I have selected to review and compare are those of: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass which was published in 1845, and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, written by Himself released in 1789.

This gives the reader a first hand look into what it was like to be an African American during the Revolutionary era. These people were viewed as a lesser race only because of the color of their skin, or as Wheatley states, the speaker’s “diabolic

Over the course of many years, African Americans have influenced communities in many ways. African Americans have been used as slaves and segregated. After overcoming these struggles, they later were granted freedoms and rights. Many African American individuals have overcome these hard times and worked hard to achieve their dreams. Misty Copeland, Patricia Bath, and Madam C.J. Walker are courageous African-American women who have overcome racial stereotypes because of their determination to pursue what they love; Misty Copeland’s determination led her to pursue dance, and Patricia Bath and Madam C.J. Walker were strong, African American entrepreneurs.

In Basil Davidson’s video, “Different but Equal”, Davidson examines ancient Africa, and how Africans were perceived in ancient and modern times. Davidson discusses pre-colonized Africa and its history, and how racism prevailed in the past and in modern day. By discussing early civilizations, as well as modern day perspectives, Davidson allows the viewer to have expansive information on how individuals view Africans and their culture. In Davidson’s video, he discusses how people in the past have viewed Africa and African culture, and how that relates to our perception of Africa in modern times.

Instead of focusing on the topic of African American plantation slavery, Ira Berlin decides to focus on an earlier time period, starting as early as the fourteen hundreds, and to look at a broader geography, looking at Africa as well as America. He discusses the development and the success of the Atlantic creoles, or “the charter generation,” by looking at the place and time of the societies as well as the creoles’ history. Because of their knowledge and skill set and due to the frontier societies of the New World, these pre-plantation slaves managed to prosper and assimilate. Ira Berlin is a history professor and a dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland.[1] He has written numerous books which have won many

Raj Patel, a professor at the UC Berkeley Center for African Studies, brings forth both personal experience and recollection of

During the African diaspora, Europeans exemplified their superiority over Africans on two distinct levels – individual and institutional. While individual oppression inflicts superiority over one individual, in the case of a slave and their owner, institutional embodies a race and their culture. Due to its capacity, “Institutional impression impacts millions of people and limits their opportunities in ways that individual acts cannot” (Beckham, 2001). Institutional impression entails the elimination of humanity from a group of individuals, degrading them to human slaves. Irate by their repulsive treatment, Africans brought about resistance that challenged white supremacy and maintained the racial hierarchies.

Black skin, black culture, and black people are perceived as some earth-shattering exhibition. Whether the instance be discharged of fascination: “All of the physical characteristics of the Negro…were nothing less than miraculous… in the eyes of the village people,” or maliciousness: “…which had caused me, in America, a very different and almost forgotten pain…” the very