I don't know about the book, but the author brings an entire new meaning to the term, "head up".

Call me Ishmal......

Simply put, I love this book. I like the fact that it summarizes the lives of so many African Americans including the famous and the still unknown. I highly recommend this book to any reader seeking information about the lives and consequent impact of some of our heroes.

kareem is not only one of the greatest players of all-time but a very intelligent man.this book is a must for all.it's history that needed to be told.and i couldn't and wouldn't put it down.i recommend it for all.

The practice of enslavement in the Americas is a phenomenon of staggering proportions. It is also one of the most thoroughly documented systems of human rights abuse in history. "The Classic Slave Narratives" brings together four powerful testaments of individuals who survived enslavement in the Americas. The book also contains an insightful introduction by scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

As Gates notes in the introduction, it has been estimated that more than 6,000 ex-slaves left some form of written testament between 1703 and 1944--an amazing body of literature. "The Classic Slave Narratives" is thus just a tiny part of a vast genre. Specifically, this anthology contains "the Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano," "The History of Mary Prince," "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," and Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl."

Each of the four powerful texts offers an effective complement to the others in the collection. In other words, each narrative illuminates at least one unique and important aspect of the American slave experience. Olaudah Equiano, for example, tells what it was like for a native African to be enslaved and transported across the Atlantic in a slave ship. Prince illuminates the life of a slave woman on the Caribbean islands. Douglass, born to a slave mother and a white father, describes in detail his quest for literacy. And Jacobs offers an incisive window into the sexual pathology of the slaveowning society.

These four texts are both valuable historical documents and fascinating works of literature. Much American literature--autobiography, poetry, novels, essays, and other genres--demonstrates the influence of, or parallels to, these pivotal texts. "The Classic Slave Narratives" is a necessary text for those interested in United States and Caribbean history, in American literature, in literacy, or in human rights.

This book contains first hand accounts acounts of slaves during there life in Africa and how it felt to be stuffed into a slave ship and go across the see for days and days to escape slaves to slavery as it was right before the Civil War.

These are stories of courage against great odds, first-hand accounts of an incredible institutionalized holocaust that was standard operating procedure in this country for hundreds of years. Some of these writings were best sellers of their time, but today they are too much an ill-kept secret. Yet I bet the average person living in the U.S. today only knows the name of one of the authors of these narratives. Read a first-hand account of the middle passage. Learn about the woman who spent almost a decade in a crawl space to escape the life of a slave. Find out the story of a man who risked life and limb to give public lectures against slavery, while he himself was still not legally free. You will never know what has been hidden from you, you owe it to yourself, your mother, and your child to read these stories told by Black people who lived through, and fought against, slavery. I also highly recommend Beloved, both the movie and the book, as well as the recent PBS series on slavery.

This book is a great reference book to get the basic idea of an important person, place, or philosophy. It really is a book of global culture. It has many important western references as well as non-western or non eurocentric references. I like to just open the book for a few minutes whenever I am sitting near the bookshelf and learn something new. Each entry is about a half a page on average. Some are less some are more. There is really so much to learn about the world that our western education dosn't teach us. For example you can get a consice description of the French Revolution, or learn about Kuukai (774-835), a Japanese religious leader, or read about Macumba, an Afro-Brazilian religion. It's all here.

This is my first time recommending a book and I couldn't have chose a better reference tool! As an American living in Europe, having never been intrigued by history, I often refer to this book during or after discussions as a fact checker. Highly recommended!

I read this book this summer and the insight I gained cannot be paralleled. This book gives detailed accounts of people, places, and events of major influence in our time and in history. No one should be allowed to call himself/herself "educated" until she/he has read this book. What a wonderful resource!

If you read only one edition of this work, this is the edition you should choose. The preface is outstanding, and the "Contexts" and "Criticsm" sections (which comprise half of this volume) are extraordinarily helpful to the nonspecialist reader. Please note, however, that there is a serious error in at least one of the footnotes. On the last page of "The Niagara Movement" essay DuBois refers to Robert Gould Shaw, whom the editors describe (in footnote #4) as an African American Union Army Civil War hero. Not so! Shaw was white; there were no African American officers during the Civil War. (I contacted Henry Lewis Gates Jr. about this, and he confirmed that this was an error in editing.)

The Souls of Black Folk has become a staple of courses in American literature and culture, and it is a must read for anyone generally interested in the world we share. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Terri Oliver have done us all a great service by putting together what is easily the best edition of this twentieth-century classic: their preface alone is a valuable contribution to scholarship, and the contexts and criticism sections are a rich lode of information. I look forward to assigning this edition in a number of the college courses I teach.

The rediscovery and use of the National Portrait Gallery picture provide the crowning touch to this superb edition.

This excellent text is a wonderful resource for college teachers in American Culture, American Art, or American Humanities. It brings together in one place dozens of images of African Americans as seen in American Art. Beautiful color plates with excellent text. The introductory essays are especially useful. Images include both negative stereotypes and positive images.

Guy C. McElroy's work should be a standard text in all High School History classes. Through the careful selection of art, from various periods in American history, McElroy skillfully demonstrates the use of caricature and placement in determining social vilification, acceptance, and strength in Black Americans. This volume is a MUST for anyone trying to understand the development and maintenance of racial stereotypes and how attitudes can be influenced by works of art.

Everything that you wanted to know or needed to know about African American Literature is contained in this eight hundred page volume. This comprehensive volume covers the historical and cultural contexts of African American literature that has been too long neglected.

Oxford's Companion encompasses the traditional genres of poetry, fiction and drama but goes beyond them. It gives the same analysis to special genres such as Slave Narratives, Oratory, Folk Literature, etc. that you don't normally find in reference works of this kind. These special features and others give this book a unique spot in reference works of literature.

From the moment I got this volume in my hands, I couldn't put it down. Its numerous essays, brief biographies and analysis of the various hues of African American Literature was overwhelming and enjoyable. A referance guide such as this should be in every home. It is user friendly, informative and entertaining. Most of all it will give you a deeper appreciation of the vast types of African American literature produced throughout the years.

I purchased this anthology to assist me in my African-American literature class. This book has given me great insight about the literature of African-Americans. Not only does it give great details about the many authors, but it also explains the nature of their many works. I strongly recommend this book to anyone taking an African-American literature course - regardless of the time period.

There are a number of reference guides to African-American newspapers and peridocials. From the first known publication, _Freedom's Journal_, published in New York City starting in 1827 to the present, there have been more than 3,500 African-American newspapers and peridocials. Preserving the record of these presses is crucial. Not only did these presses serve as a protest organ, but also documented normal black life, especially as it existed under segregation and Jim Crow laws. In many cases, these papers provide the only extant record of African American life in forgotten and remote towns. Unfortunately, only a small percentage are preserved on microfilm or in other formats. The record of these periodicals is the next most important level of information. _African-American Newspapers and Periodicals_ does an excellent job of documenting these newsapers and magazines. Given the dominance of majority points of view in mainstream publications and the low number of black journalists, the African American press is an essential voice for the black community. If African Americans do not tell their story, no one will. This reference work is the best starting point for learning more about these publications.

American popular culture is really explored in this book of essays. I especially liked the way the status of Black women, was covered by the selected writers. A good sociological study

The Bondwoman's Narrative, by Hannah Crafts, a fugitive slave, escaped from North Carolina was a unpublished, cloth manuscript that a Harvard professor of African American studies, Henry Louis Gates, came across in an auction. He wondered if this manuscript could be for real? Could it really be written by a fugitive slave? Could it possibly be the first novel known to have been written by a black woman in America? Could it be the first novel to be written by a fugitive slave? Mr. Gates made it his mission to find out the truth about this mysterious manuscript. Throughout his many hours and months of research, which are chronicled in the opening chapters of the book, Mr. Gates has come to the conclusion that, YES, this manuscript is most likely genuine and the first novel written by a black female slave.

It was such a joy and wonder to be able to read this manuscript unedited. This novel is pure in the author's thoughts and feelings, thus a very accurate look into the life of a slave. What a treasure Mr. Gates has found!

This was the most fascinating book that I've read in ... well, I don't know how long! THE BONDWOMAN'S NARRATIVE is a fictionalized yet seemingly autobiographical slave narrative written by Hannah Crafts somewhere between 1856-1860. Hannah delves into the the mind and heart of a slave by telling the story of a young woman's personal experiences.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who chairs the Department of African American Studies at Harvard University, came across this hand-written manuscript at an auction for African American artifacts. He then embarked upon an amazing research project which explored the author's identity. From scientific analysis of the manuscript (handwriting, ink, paper quality, etc) to actual genealogical research (census reports, etc.), Professor Gates attempts to prove that Hannah Crafts was indeed the first African-American woman to write such a narrative. ...This is part of the book is intriguing although I do have one word of advice here - READ THE NARRATIVE FIRST! If you read the Introduction first, you will know much of the story before actually reading it (in his discussion, he gives away the ending!). By reading the narrative first, I found that I was able to reach some of my own conclusions before reading those of Professor Gates and I better understood the informative analysis!

I usually don't read books more than once but I would read this one again!

In THE BONDWOMAN'S NARRATIVE Hannah Crafts eloquently details the experiences of a light skinned female slave in the South in the decades preceding the Civil War. Discovered in the form as an unpublished manuscript by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. it is believed that this is the first slave narrative written by an African-American woman from only her perspective. Gates provides thorough scientific and literary evidence in both the forward and appendix proving its authenticity. I give Gates the benefit of the doubt that this manuscript is authentic as I am not an expert to judge otherwise. Regardless, THE BONDWOMAN'S NARRATIVE is a thoroughly enjoyable book that kept me reading far beyond my original intentions. I especially enjoyed the sections describing her accounts of running away from her master and mistress to freedom. Also admirable are her depictions of the evil slave speculator Mr. Trappe. What a hateful man he was to totally disregard the well being of slave for the sheer enjoyment of monetary profit. Hannah has the ability to make these characters come alive and does a good job at representing this painful time in American history. I applaud Gates for publishing the manuscript therefore enabling others to enjoy and sympathize with the life journey of Hannah. Enjoy!

This volume includes ten narratives, but no general introduction, and no introductions to the narratives themselves. A better value for your money is I WAS BORN A SLAVE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CLASSIC SLAVE NARRATIVES, two volumes of twenty narratives (including nine of the narratives in this volume), for just about the same price. The introductory material in that anthology is far more extensive, and fills in the historical and literary background that will help the reader fully contextualize these masterworks. In addition, it includes significant and astonishing narratives such as those of Josiah Henson (the best-selling slave narrative of all, and one of the main sources for UNCLE TOM'S CABIN), Solomon Northup (a free-born black man who was kidnapped and held as a slave for twelve years), William Parker (who led an 1851 rebellion that some scholars consider the first blow of the Civil War), and Moses Roper and John Brown (the most graphic and horrifying of the slave narratives).

This book is a collection of ten narratives that document the nature of American slavery from colonial times to the eve of the Civil War. There are some familar narratives, particularly that of Frederick Douglass (who has a volume of his own in the Library of America series) as well as many writings that were new to me.

There are two writers from the colonial period,a short account by James Gronniosaw and a loner narrative by Olaudiah Equiano. The latter book has a first-hand description of the notorious "middle passage" -- the transatlantic journey by which Africans were transported to a life of bondage in the New World. This book also features accounts of life at sea during the mid-18th century that reminded me of Patrick O'Brian's novels of sea life during the Napoleonic era.

There are two narratives in the book by women. Sojourner Truth's narrative, as told to a woman named Olive Gilbert, appeared in 1850. It tells the story of slavery in New York State (where it was not abolished until 1827) and introduced me to a strong-willed woman who combined abolitionism with strong religous passion and a commitment to woman's rights. Harriet Jacobs's account, "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" appeared in 1861. Written in a Victorian style, it still tells the story of the trials of a young woman who resisted her master's advances and hid for seven years in a narrow attic before escaping to freedom.

"The Confessions of Nat Turner" became the basis of a controversial novel by William Styron. It is an account recorded by a local attorney, Thomas Gray, of Turner's description, while in jail waiting execution, of the slave rebellion he led in Virginia in 1831. This is a spare account but to me much more impressive than what I remember of Styron's novel.

There is a lengthy account by a slave named Henry Bibb written in 1849. This book describes several escapes, and a slave prison of almost unbelievable cruelty in Louisvill, Kentucky. I found this perhaps the most riveting narrative in the collection.

Jacob Green's narrative appeared in 1864. This is a short tough-minded book by a person who was not afraid to fight back.

The narrative by William and Ellen Craft (1860) describes how a husband and wife disguised themselves to make a 1000 mile journey from Georgia to freedom. (Most escapes occured from the border states, which were themselves extraordinarily difficult.)

William Wells Brown, like Douglass, went on to a literary career after his escape from slavery. He was the author of the first published African-Novel. His narrative (1847) is short but documents convincingly his escappe from slavery in Missouri.

This collection will help the reader understand the nature of slavery in the United States from its beginning to its end. The volume is part of the Library of America's admirable attempt to produce uniform series of the best in American literature, thouught and history. The narratives of American slaves included in this book amply deserve their place in a series that documents the American experience, both for good and for ill.

Ten original slave narratives provide important testimony to the slavery experience and the longing for freedom and provide insights into how a diverse group of writers challenged literary traditions by expressing their pain and anger. From 18th century slaves abducted in Africa to later activists, this provides a fine cross-section of experiences.