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Many books, both popular and scholarly, have examined racism in the United States, but this unique volume is the first to examine the existence of anti-racism in the first two hundred years of U.S. history. Herbert Aptheker challenges the view that racism was universally accepted by whites. His book thoroughly debunks the myth that white people never cared about the plight of African-Americans until just before the outbreak of the Civil War.
Covering the period from the 1600s through the 1860s, Aptheker begins with a short introduction and a questioning of racism's pervasiveness, taking examples of anti-racism from the literature. He then devotes sections to sexual relations, racism and anti-racism, to joint struggles to reject racism, and to a discussion of Gregoire, Banneker, and Jeffersonianism. Next he considers inferiority as viewed by poets, preachers, and teachers and by entrepreneuers, seamen, and cowboys. After a consideration of the Quakers, he turns his attention to the American and French revolutions and racism and to the Republic's early years and racism. Aptheker then devotes several sections to Abolitionism and concludes the work with the the Crisis Decade, the Civil War, Emancipation, and anti-racism. This book by a well-known scholar in the field will be of interest to all concerned with U.S. history and African American history.
List of contents
Introduction
Anti-Racism: Denial and Distortion
Questioning Racism's Pervasiveness
Anti-Racism's Presence: Examples from the Literature
Sexual Relations
Rejecting Racism by Joint Struggle
Grégoire, Banneker, and Jeffersonianism
"Inferiority" and Poets, Preachers, and Teachers
"Inferiority" and Entrepreneurs, Seamen, and Cowboys
From Egypt to Philosophes to Quakers
The American and French Revolutions
The Republic's Early Years
The New Century's Youth
Lane Rebels and Black Rebels
Abolitionism and Racism
Immortals of Literature and Martyrs for Freedom
From Liberty Party to Republican Party
The Crisis Decade
The Civil War and Emancipation
Bibliographic Comment
Index
About the author
HERBERT APTHEKER has taught at many leading institutions, including Bryn Mawr College and Yale University. He has just retired from his post at the University of California (Berkeley). The author of over eighty volumes, his best known works include American Negro Slave Revolts (1943), A Documentary History of Negro People (4 vols., to 1945), Abolitionism (1989), and Literary Legacy of Du Bois (1989). He is the editor of the Du Bois Correspondence (3 vols.), Du Bois' Complete Published Writings (37 vols.), and four volumes of his previously unpublished writings.
Summary
Many books, both popular and scholarly, have examined racism in the United States, but this unique volume is the first to examine the existence of anti-racism in the first two hundred years of U.S. history.
