THE BASIC AFRO-AMERICAN REPRINT LIBRARY

Books on the history, culture, and

social environment of Afro-Americans

Selected by Clarence L. Holte

Copyright, 1914, by

JOHN W. CROMWELL

First reprinting, 1968, Johnson Reprint Corporation

Printed in the United States of America

E185
C92
1968

DEDICATION

Oh! Sing it in the light of freedom's morn,
Tho' tyrant wars have made the earth a grave;
The good, the great, and true, are, if so, born,
And so with slaves, chains do not make the slave!
If high-souled birth be what the mother gave,—
If manly birth, and manly to the core,—
Whate'er the test, the man will he behave!

Crush him to earth, and crush him o'er and o'er,
A MAN he'll rise at last and meet you as before.

-A. A. WHITMAN.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I DISCOVERY, COLONIZATION, SLAVERY

II THE SLAVE CODE .

III

NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE AND EMANCIPATION

IV SLAVE INSURRECTIONS

V SOME EARLY STRIVINGS

BENJAMIN BANNEKER

XX PAUL CUFFÈ, NAVIGATOR AND PHILANTHROPIST

XXXIV JOHN F. COOK AND SONS, JOHN F., JR., AND

APPENDIX B-AN EARLY INCIDENT OF THE CIVIL WAR

APPENDIX C-THE SOMERSET CASE