Summary
The history of slavery is central to understanding the history of the United States. Slavery and the Making of America offers a richly illustrated, vividly written history that illuminates the human side of this inhumane institution, presenting it largely through stories of the slaves themselves.
Readers will discover a wide ranging and sharply nuanced look at American slavery, from the first Africans brought to British colonies in the early seventeenth century to the end of Reconstruction. The authors document the horrors of slavery, particularly in the deep South, and describe the slaves' valiant struggles to free themselves from bondage. There are dramatic tales of escape by slaves such as William and Ellen Craft and Dred Scott's doomed attempt to win his freedom through the Supreme Court. We see how slavery engendered violence in our nation, from bloody confrontations that broke out in American cities over fugitive slaves, to the cataclysm of the Civil War. The book is also filled with stories of remarkable African Americans like Sergeant William H. Carney, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at the crucial assault on Fort Wagner during the Civil War, and Benjamin "Pap" Singleton, a former slave who led freed African Americans to a new life on the American frontier. Filled with absorbing and inspirational accounts highlighted by more than one hundred pictures and illustrations, Slavery and the Making of America is a gripping account of the struggles of African Americans against the iniquity of slavery.
Author Notes
James Oliver Horton, the Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University, directs the African American Communities Project at the Smithsonian Institution. He is a regular panelist on The History Channel's The History Center.
(Bowker Author Biography)
School Library Journal Review
Adult/High School-This outstanding resource humanizes the tragedy of slavery and shows its legacy as it continues to shape American culture today. Through both paraphrased and quoted primary sources, the Hortons discuss the issues, relate events, and tell the stories of named slaves from the early 1700s to the end of Reconstruction. By bringing individuals to life, the inhumanity is made more real and vivid. Readers meet 13-year-old Anta Njaay, who was plucked from Africa in 1806, and the Ball family, who were slaves in South Carolina, as well as people such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. Much research has gone into this work, but the writing is accessible. Black-and-white photographs and period reproductions are liberally sprinkled throughout. Although they are a bit dark due to age, they make the text more interesting and lifelike.-Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this compact and lucid account of how "[t]he history of slavery is central to the history of the United States," the Hortons (Hard Road to Freedom, etc.) demonstrate the vital role that blacks played in landmarks of the American record (colonial settlement, the Revolution, westward expansion, the Civil War, Reconstruction). Africans and African-Americans appear not just as "passive laborers" but as shapers of American culture, from colonial politics to Southern cuisine. The authors reveal the myriad experiences of free and enslaved blacks and devote particular attention to the lives of women, both white and black. The oft-told tale is made fresh through up-to-date slavery scholarship, the extensive use of slave narratives and archival photos and, especially, a focus on individual experience. The well-known players (Attucks, Vesey, Tubman, Douglass) appear, but so do the more anonymous ones-the planter's wife and the slave driver share space with the abolitionist and the Confederate soldier, and all are skillfully etched. As the Hortons chronicle lives from freedom in Africa to slavery in America and beyond, they tell an integral American story, a tale not of juxtaposition but of edgy oneness. (Oct.) Forecast: A dense but highly readable volume, this may see solid sales in 2005, when the PBS special of the same name airs in February. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
The Hortons, both history professors, offer a view of American history from the perspective of the contributions of slavery and black American slaves. They explore the economic, social, and cultural implications of the enslavement of Africans in America, from the selection of slaves from certain regions of Africa to harvest the newly introduced rice crops of the Carolinas to the incentive of freedom offered on both sides of the American Revolution and Civil War to induce the assistance of slaves. Along with well-known historical figures, the Hortons detail the contributions of lesser-known people, including Black Sam Fraunces, owner of a tavern that served as the meeting place for revolutionaries in the 1760s, and John Roy Lynch, a former slave who was elected to the House of Representatives in 1872. This absorbing book reflects how the history of African Americans is tied into the warp and weave of American history. This companion volume to the PBS series on American slavery offers a comprehensive look at its broad and deep impact on American history. --Vanessa Bush Copyright 2004 Booklist
Choice Review
This companion volume to the recent PBS documentary series provides a chronological overview of slavery in the US from its beginnings through the Civil War and Reconstruction. James Oliver Horton (Smithsonian Institution) and Lois E. Horton (George Mason Univ.) emphasize the centrality of slavery and the efforts of slaves to endure and resist enslavement. Intended for a general audience, the volume has two main strengths. First, the authors ably synthesize the vast literature on slavery in the US; second, they weave the stories of myriad individuals to craft a dramatic, accessible narrative allowing readers to encounter the institution from the perspective of the enslaved. General readers will also benefit from the numerous illustrations and primary source excerpts, the time line, and suggestions for further reading. In places, the work seems to overemphasize the ability of slaves to resist. For example, the authors include three pages on Denmark Vesey's plan to lead a slave rebellion in Charleston without mentioning recent research that persuasively argues that much of the testimony against Vesey was likely coerced. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Public, general, and undergraduate collections. S. Condon Merrimack College
Library Journal Review
Bailey (history, Spelman) spent several years studying local communities in an area of Ghana known as the Old Slave Coast, hoping to bring to light the African perspective on the Atlantic slave trade. Finding the oral record essentially mute, she speculates that the shame associated with slavery has led to this silence. She notes that domestic slavery in Africa, which predated the Atlantic slave trade, played a role similar to prisons in Western countries so that it was already taboo-a fact compounded by the active role African nations took in trading with Europeans. The book describes and analyzes the few stories that have been remembered and looks at the social, political, and spiritual ramifications of the slave trade for the African coast. She further attempts to validate this oral history by comparing it with known historical records. Though well written and intriguing, this is a speculative and highly personal account (Bailey's Jamaican ancestors were most likely slaves). Recommended for academic and larger public libraries. How could a country founded on the principles of freedom, independence, and equality for all condone slavery? Horton's very readable account examines this contradiction largely from the perspective of the enslaved. Relying heavily on slave narratives and primary documents from the era, Horton (history, George Washington Univ.) brings to life the horror of American slavery. He skillfully weaves the tales of individual slaves into the narrative, which looks at the institution from its beginnings in 1619 through its end in the 19th century. The book shows the heroic efforts made by generations of slaves to free themselves using whatever tools they had, from persuasion to violence, and also examines the often misguided efforts made by whites to help slaves (e.g., 19th-century colonization efforts). He challenges many widely held beliefs about slavery (e.g., that it was only a Southern institution) and shows how it evolved from a few slaves in Virginia to a labor system integral to the development of the United States. Accompanying a four-part PBS documentary series narrated by Morgan Freeman, this book is highly recommended for all libraries.-Robert Flatley, Kutztown Univ., PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.