Book
American founders : how people of African descent established freedom in the new world
Publication Information
Montgomery, AL : NewSouth Books, [2019]
Physical Description
xxxiii, 362 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm
Summary
"American Founders reveals men and women of African descent as key protagonists in the story of American democracy. It chronicles how black people developed and defended New World settlements, undermined slavery, and championed freedom throughout the hemisphere from the sixteenth thorough the twentieth centuries. While conventional history tends to reduce the roles of African Americans to antebellum slavery and the civil rights movement, in reality African residents preceded the English by a century and arrived in the Americas in numbers that far exceeded European migrants up until 1820. Afro-Americans were omnipresent in the founding and advancement of the Americas, and recurrently outnumbered Europeans at many times and places, from colonial Peru to antebellum Virginia. African-descended people contributed to every facet of American history as explorers, conquistadores, settlers, soldiers, sailors, servants, slaves, rebels, leaders, lawyers, litigants, laborers, artisans, artists, activists, translators, teachers, doctors, nurses, inventors, investors, merchants, mathematicians, scientists, scholars, engineers, entrepreneurs, generals, cowboys, pirates, professors, politicians, priests, poets, and presidents. The multitude of events and mixed-race individuals included in the book underscores that black and white Americans share the same history, and in many cases, the same ancestry. American Founders is meant to celebrate this shared heritage and strengthen these bonds."--Amazon.com.
Contents
- The rise of Atlantic slavery in a world historical context
- Sixteenth-century Afro-American conquistadores
- Seventeenth-century Afro-American colonials
- Eighteenth-century Afro-American revolutionaries
- Nineteenth-century Afro-American patriots and liberators
- Nineteenth-century Afro-American nationals
- Twentieth-century Afro-American freedom fighters-- Conclusion : new world history.