You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
While much is known about the white men and women who were involved in the anti-slavery movement, the black abolitionists have been largely ignored. This book, written by one of America's leading black historians, sets the record straight. As Benjamin Quarles shows, blacks were anything but passive in the abolitionist movement. Many of the pioneers of abolition were black; dozens of black preachers and writers actively promoted the cause; black organizations were founded to support their brothers; black ambassadors for freedom crossed the Atlantic; blacks were instrumental in the operation of the Underground Railroad. Quarles puts it eloquently: ”To the extent that America had a revolutionary tradition [the black American] was its protagonist no less than its symbol.”
Many black soldiers serving in the U.S. Army during World War II hoped that they might make permanent gains as a result of their military service and their willingness to defend their country. They were soon disabused of such illusions. Taps for a Jim Crow Army is a powerful collection of letters written by black soldiers in the 1940s to various government and nongovernment officials. The soldiers expressed their disillusionment, rage, and anguish over the discrimination and segregation they experienced in the Army. Most black troops were denied entry into army specialist schools; black officers were not allowed to command white officers; black soldiers were served poorer food and were forced to ride Jim Crow military buses into town and to sit in Jim Crow base movie theaters. In the South, German POWs could use the same latrines as white American soldiers, but blacks could not. The original foreword by Benjamin Quarles, professor emeritus of history at Morgan State University, and a new foreword by Bernard C. Nalty, the chief historian in the Office of Air Force History, offer rich insights into the world of these soldiers.
Benjamin Quarles brings together for the first time a broad range of statements by blacks on Brown from his day to the present -- from William Wells Brown and Frederick Douglass (who explains why he did not join the raid) to Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Lerone Bennett. The twenty-four selections include personal letters, eulogies, resolutions, reminiscences, sermons, poems, essays, newspaper editorials, and assessments by historians. The heroic image of Brown that they project was a factor in creating the legend of an immortal John Brown, a continuing source of inspiration for black leaders. The selections reveal much about America, black protest, and the relationship between blacks and whites over the past century. -- From publisher's description.
"Benjamin Quarles researches the life of Frederick Douglass and explores his three autobiographies to examine Douglass's impact on the anti-slavery movement, the Civil War, Reconstruction, women's suffrage, and the Republican Party during its first forty years. Quarles delves into Douglass's personal and family life, including his then-controversial second marriage to Helen Pitts. This book is a vivid account of the man and the time in which he lived"--
John Brown is an endlessly fascinating historical figure. Here are two classic studies by a pioneer in African American studies, one about the place of John Brown in African American history, the other about the reasons for the unique esteem in which he has been held by successive generations of blacks.This two-in-one edition features a new introduction by William S. McFeely, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Grant: A Biography.
Historical account of the origins of racial discrimination against Blacks in the USA - covers political party activity, social behaviour, leadership and public opinion of White supremacists in a 19th century campaign against the government policy of social integration. Bibliography pp. 193 to 210.
A compelling examination of the ways enslaved women fought for their freedom during and after the Revolutionary War.