African Americans in the Colonial Era: From African Origins through the American Revolution

What are the origins of slavery and race-based prejudice in the mainland American colonies? How did the Atlantic slave trade operate to supply African labor to colonial America? How did African-American culture form and evolve? How did the American Revolution affect men and women of African descent?

Previous editions of this work depicted African-Americans in the American mainland colonies as their contemporaries saw them: as persons from one of the four continents who interacted economically, socially, and politically in a vast, complex Atlantic world. It showed how the society that resulted in colonial America reflected the mix of Atlantic cultures and that a group of these people eventually used European ideas to support creation of a favorable situation for those largely of European descent, omitting Africans, who constituted their primary labor force.

In this fourth edition of African Americans in the Colonial Era: From African Origins through the American Revolution, acclaimed scholar Donald R. Wright offers new interpretations to provide a clear understanding of the Atlantic slave trade and the nature of the early African-American experience. This revised edition incorporates the latest data, a fresh Atlantic perspective, and an updated bibliographical essay to thoroughly explore African-Americans’ African origins, their experience crossing the Atlantic, and their existence in colonial America in a broadened, more nuanced way.

Avainsanat: African Americans in colonial times; history of African Americans; history of Atlantic African Americans; American Revolution and African Americans; early African American and economics; early African Americans society; early African Americans culture; Origins of slavery in Atlantic states; race-based prejudice in Atlantic states; mix of Atlantic states cultures; African Americans and politics in Colonial times; effects of slavery in Atlantic states; slavery in colonial times;? Atlantic slave trade; the slaving voyage; Africans in America; Religion of African Americans in Colonial times; Folk culture and African Americans; African Americans in the Colonial Era: ?Changing African-American Society; Liberty and African Americans; From African Origins through the American; Donald Wright, African / African-American Studies, American Social & Cultural History, African/African-American Studies, American Social & Cultural History