African Americans in American History, 1526-Present

Slavery existed in all 13 colonies.

This book is an augmented, comprehensive study of African Americans’ accomplishments since arriving with the Spanish in North America in 1526—nearly a century before the first Anglo-Saxons landed near Jamestown. The book documents their perseverance despite a saga of racism and white supremacy seldom taught in American schools at any level. Seventy-eight photographs, maps, charts, and tables make the study easy to read, at the same time providing documentation and sources for further reading. The book demonstrates that “white supremacy” rests on shaky ground due to the class of people England sent to the colonies, DNA, and genealogy.

Rick Reeves’ portrayal of 26th USCT Attacking

Chapters cover white supremacy and racism, slavery, US Colored Troops’ major contribution to ending the Civil War, and the Confederacy’s abortive attempt to counter this massive addition to Northern armies by arming slaves and freedmen. Other topics are the devastation of the South, the evolution of Emancipation, Reconstruction, the Freedmen’s Bureau, “Redemption,” the “Lost Cause,” and Jim Crow. The study stresses blacks’ significant military contributions in the Revolutionary War, the Indian Wars, Spanish American War, and both world wars. A “Great Migration” of blacks from the South to the North and West occurred during both wars; the book covers the civil rights movement, the backlash that continues today, and a prognosis for the future.

The book addresses contemporary issues, including white supremacy, Confederate statuary, and the status of blacks compared to other groups in society. Note is taken of Professor James Whitman’s observation that Hitler adapted our Jim Crow and anti-miscegenation laws as a basis for the Holocaust, and of Richard Rothstein’s study of federal and local housing law which documents whites’ responsibility for creating inner-city ghettos.

General Robert E. Lee’s statue is removed from Lee Circle Friday, May 19, 2017, in New Orleans. Lee’s was the last of four monuments to Confederate-era figures to be removed under a 2015 City Council vote on a proposal by Mayor Mitch Landrieu. (AP Photo/Scott Threlkeld)

The fifteen chapters are chronological but stand alone, making the 621-page study a compelling read. The text consists of 398 pages, supported by 83 pages of endnotes, 116 pages in five appendices, and 24 pages of bibliography, sorted by chapter.


Status:
Not published; an easy-to-read book desperately needed to promote understanding in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. Only two comparable studies exist, both extremely expensive history textbooks. I’m still looking for a publisher…

Contents

Preface

Graphics                                                                          

Chapter One                 Race, White Supremacy and Racism: America’s “Original Sins?”

Chapter Two                Slavery: America’s “Peculiar Institution”

Chapter Three              United States Colored Troops

Chapter Four                Black Soldiers in Gray and Butternut

Chapter Five                 The Devastation of the Confederacy     

Chapter Six                  Emancipation and Reconstruction         

Chapter Seven             The Freedmen’s Bureau           

Chapter Eight               “Redemption” and “The Lost Cause”     

Chapter Nine                Buffalo Soldiers, 1866 – 1953

Chapter Ten                 Jim Crow: Race Laws, Segregation and Miscegenation

Chapter Eleven             World War I and the Great Migration   

Chapter Twelve             World War II

Chapter Thirteen           The Civil Rights Era (1954 – 1980): Redeeming the Soul of America

Chapter Fourteen          Make America Hate Again       

Chapter Fifteen             Conclusions: Whither America?           

Appendix One:             UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent

Appendix Two:             Lynching Shadrack Thompson, 1932

Appendix Three           Distinguished African Americans (plus a link to approximately 5,500 entries in Oxford’s African American National Biography)

That’s Oxford’s compendium

Appendix Four             Black General and Flag-Rank Officers

Appendix Five             Police and Vigilante Shootings Involving Unarmed Black Youth

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Gene Betit

Retired intel analyst with Ph. D. in Soviet Area Studies from Georgetown, love to write. Two Defense Intelligence Agency studies, over ten magazine articles on Soviet military and strategic capabilities. Current publications include War's Cost: The Hites' Civil War, Manhattan's Walloon Settlers, Collective Amnesia: American Apartheid, and Forbidden, Forgotten, Formidable: Blacks in America's Wars.

7 Comments

  1. Reuben Keith Green on September 26, 2020 at 6:09 am

    Great book that should be published any used to teach history. Easy read and full on concise information and stories. Highly recommend.

    • Gene Betit on September 26, 2020 at 11:01 am

      Good to hear from you, Rueben! What have you been up to? You can see that I have kept my nose to the grindstone.

      Looking for a “traditional” publisher… not holding my breath!!

      But this crap has to change!

      Gene

      • Gene Betit on September 26, 2020 at 11:40 am

        Meaning the unending George Floyd/Breanna Taylor incidents.

        • Gene Betit on October 30, 2020 at 11:13 am

          Tom, you may call them as you see them, but that does not mean that your perception is perfect.

          First, a major point that I attempted to make is that white privilege has NOTHING to do with economic success. It is about color as a prism categorizing people of color in society. Please tell me that you recognize this is a fact. Blacks and people of color have been stigmatized from the start. In fact, it was part of the torturous thought process that justified the enslavement of an entire race. After the ACW, former slaveowners were infuriated at the loss of their most valuable property. Some ex-slaves were murdered (read Carl Schurz’s report to President Johnson), and in general blacks’ lives were not valued. Eventually, the myth of the brutish black man emerged, a threat to all whites, and even the most ridiculous pretense “justified” lynching, even of innocent blacks.

          Deny it all you want, but there is an inherent advantage to having light skin (most of us do not actually have “white” skin) over darker skin. It is not operative in every case and every time because some beholders are more enlightened than others. Conversely, being born into a caste with dark skin stigmatizes that child, giving them subliminal messages of being of lesser import.

  2. Reuben Keith Green on September 26, 2020 at 6:10 am

    Easy read and full on concise information and stories. Highly recommend.

    • Gene Betit on September 26, 2020 at 11:02 am

      Tell your buddies, please!

      Gene

    • Gene Betit on January 26, 2022 at 9:39 am

      Great news!! Not one but two “traditional” publishers have offered a contract on my latest, “Forbidden, Forgotten, Formidable: Blacks in America’s Military! I’m going with Rowman Littlefield; the book should be out in about a year.

      Even better, I’ve found an agent for the other two books I’ve written and need a publisher.

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