African-Americans:  A Concise History  is a compelling story of survival, struggle, and triumph over adversity. Readers will learn an appreciation of the central place of black people and black culture in this country, and a better understanding of both African-American and American history.

This book presents a compelling story of survival, struggle, and triumph over adversity–leaving readers with an appreciation of the central place of black people and culture in this country and a better understanding of both African-American and American history. The third edition presents a broadened international perspective, offers expanded coverage of interaction among African-Americans and other ethnic groups, and includes additional material on African-Americans in the western portion of the United States, as well as a new chapter on the evolution of black politics since the 1980s. It describes African-American history from the struggle of black people to maintrain their humanity during the slave trade and as slaves in North America continuing through the Civil War and the beginning of Reconstruction, and through the Civil Rights movement to discussions of black life at the dawn of the 21^st century.

PART I  Becoming African American

1       Africa, ca. 6000 c.e-ca. 1600 c.e.

2       Middle Passage, ca. 1450-1809  

3       Black People in Colonial North America, 1526–1763  

4       Rising Expectations: African Americans and the Struggle for Independence, 1763–1783  

5       African Americans in the New Nation, 1783–1820  

PART II  Slavery, Abolition, and the Quest for Freedom: The Coming of the Civil War 

6       Life in the Cotton Kingdom, 1703-1861  

7       Free Black People in Antebellum America, 1820-1861 

8       Opposition to Slavery, 1800–1833  

9       Let Your Motto Be Resistance, 1833–1850  

10     “And Black People Were at the Heart of It”: The United States Disunites over Slavery, 1846-1861

PART III  The Civil War, Emancipation, and Black Reconstruction:

              The Second American Revolution  

11     Liberation: African Americans and the Civil War, 1861-1865  

12     The Meaning of Freedom: The Promise of Reconstruction, 1865–1868  

13     The Meaning of Freedom: The Failure of Reconstruction, 1868-1877

PART IV  Searching for Safe Spaces

14     White Supremacy Triumphant: African Americans in the South in the Late Nineteenth Century, 1875-1900

15     Black Southerners Challenge White Supremacy, 1867-1917

16     Conciliation, Agitation, and Migration: African Americans in the Early Twentieth Century, 1895-1928

17     African Americans and the 1920s, 1915-1928 

PART V  The Great Depression and World War II

18     The Great Depression and The New Deal, 1929-1941  

19     Black Culture and Society in the 1930s and 1940s, 1930-1949  

20     The World War II Era and Seeds of a Revolution, 1936-1948

PART VI  The Black Revolution

21     The Freedom Movement, 1954—1965  

22     The Struggle Continues, 1965—1980 

23     Black Politics, White Backlash, 1980 to Present  

24     African Americans at the Dawn of a New Millenium

Epilogue: “A Nation Within a Nation”  

Appendixes.

Additional Bibliography.

Index.