The Struggle for Freedom, a narrative of the black experience in America, uses a distinctive biographical approach to guide the story and animate the history. In each chapter, individual African Americans are the pivot points on which historical changes of the era turn. Life stories capture the rush of events that envelop individuals and illuminate the momentous decisions that, collectively, frame the American past and present. Inasmuch as that history is grounded in struggle--in the consistent and insistent call to the United States to deliver on the constitutional promises made to all its citizens--this book is also an American history text, weaving into the narrative the milestones of mainstream American history, economy, politics, arts and letters.

Preface
Meet the Authors
Chapter 1
Ancient Africa
Chapter 2
Africa and the Atlantic World
Chapter 3
Africans in Early North America, 1619--1726
Chapter 4
Africans in Bondage: Early Eighteenth Century to the American Revolution
Chapter 5
The Revolutionary Era: Crossroads of Freedom
Chapter 6
After the Revolution: Constructing Free Life and Combating Slavery, 1787--1816
Chapter 7
African Americans in the Antebellum Era
Chapter 8
African Americans in the Reform Era, 1831--1850
Chapter 9
A Prelude to War: The 1850s
Chapter 10
Civil War and the Promises of Freedom: The Turbulent 1860s
Chapter 11
Post Civil War Reconstruction: A New National Era
Appendix
Credits
Index