Building a New Land: African Americans in Colonial America

by James Haskins, Kathleen Benson, James Ransome (Illustrator)

This third volume of the critically acclaimed From African Beginnings series explores the tumultuous colonial period in African-American history. Powerfully written text by James Haskins and Kathleen Benson and evocative illustrations by award-winning artist James Ransome bring to life the time when America became dependent on slave labor and slaves struggled to maintain the traditions of their rich African culture and resist oppression in the new world.

Genres: African American

Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Haskins, James (1941–2005), author of nonfiction books for juveniles and adults, biographer, educator, critic, editor, and educational consultant. Born into a large family in a racially segregated middle-class section of Demopolis, Alabama, where he was not allowed to visit the town's public library, James S. Haskins was deeply affected by the swirl of events related to the mid-century civil rights movement. He received his bachelor's degree in history at Alabama State College, but limited career opportunities in the South in the early 1960s led him to seek employment in New York City. Two years of selling newspaper advertisements and working as a Wall Street stockbroker brought him to the realization that he was better suited for a career in education and thus he applied for a position in the New York City public school system. After teaching music at several locations, he found a job teaching a special education class at P.S. 92. Obsessed with the plight of his inner-city pupils, he was glad to discuss their problems with anyone who would listen, including a social worker who encouraged him to write his thoughts and experiences in a diary. This resulted in the publication of his first book, Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher (1969), which was widely acclaimed. This initial success attracted the attention of major publishers who approached him to write books for children and adolescents.

An admitted need to reconcile social disparities and a desire to interpret events to young people and to motivate them to read and be influenced by accomplished individuals—particularly deprived youth whom he felt had far too few role models to read about—led him to author more than one hundred books on a diverse array of topics. Written for a general audience of juveniles, his titles include The War and the Protest: Viet Nam (1971), Religions (1973), Jobs in Business and Office (1974), The Consumer Movement (1975), Your Rights, Past and Present: A Guide for Young People (1975), Teen-age Alcoholism (1976), The Long Struggle: The Story of American Labor (1976), Who Are the Handicapped (1978), Gambling—Who Really Wins (1978), Werewolves (1981), and The New Americans: Cuban Boat People (1982).

Haskins launched his college teaching career in 1970 and continued lecturing on psychology, folklore, children's and young adult literature, and urban education at schools in New York and Indiana before landing a full-time professorship in the English department at the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1977. That same year he authored The Cotton Club, a pictorial and social history of the notorious Harlem night club, which seven years later was transformed into a motion picture of the same name directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Among his books intended for adults or college-level readers are The Psychology of Black Language (1973) with Dr. Hugh Butts; Black Manifesto for Education (1973), which he edited; Snow Sculpture and Ice Carving (1974); Scott Joplin: The Man Who Made Rag-time (1978); Voodoo and Hoodoo: Their Tradition and Craft as Revealed by Actual Practitioners (1978); Richard Pryor, A Man and His Madness (1984); and Mabel Mercer: A Life (1988). He has contributed numerous critical essays and reviews to periodicals. Still, he is best known for his biographies, tailored for elementary and high school students. Most of these recount the triumphs of well-known contemporary African Americans, with whom many young people readily identify. The long list of persons he has profiled (often using the pen name Jim Haskins) include Colin Powell, Barbara Jordon, Thurgood Marshall, Sugar Ray Leonard, Magic Johnson, Diana Ross, Katherine Dunham, Guion Bluford, Andrew Young, Bill Cosby, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, Shirley Chisholm, Lena Horne, and Rosa Parks. Biographies of prominent individuals who are not African American include Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, Shirley Temple Black, Corazón Aquino, Winnie Mandela, and Christopher Columbus.

Reviews

[Vannessa Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was so much to learn in Building A New Land.

What I learned

1. Europeans were people of a cutthroat cultural nature, in fact, they were monsters who enjoyed taking advantage of others.
2. Virginia was and still is a state who manages to hold on to its colonial ways.
3. We learn how it was not the choice of a slave to become religious because their masters deemed they would be.
4. Why slaves ran to Florida.
5. Slaves introduced the
a. Banjo
b. Tambourine
c. Three-stringed fiddle

For people who don’t like to read but would like to learn about slavery this is the perfect read. It is short (41 pages) and concise and the illustrations were some of the best illustrations I’ve seen.

[Jessica Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to my son at bedtime to help him understand and expand on his social studies homework. I believe that Southern public schools are lacking in black history. I learned several things from it myself.

[Raven]

Short and sweet history great for elementary level research.

[Amy Bodkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the perfect edition to our homeschool studies on Colonial America!

[Yarrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned that blacks had a role in colonial America (1619 on) prior to widespread slavery. Initially, some of them were free,some were indentured servants, and some were slaves. Those that were slaves had greater freedom than slaves would have in later years. Unfortunately their freedoms quickly eroded as the thirst for cheap labor swept the nation.

I was pleased to learn about this, but saddened to see how quickly our rights as a people were squelched and that our early contributions to the founding of this nation were silenced into the history that I grew up knowing about.

I would like to learn more about these early black pioneers!

[Kaylan Nurse · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was very great in giving details to the readers about the slave trade and things that happened during those trying times. I really loved this for students that are in the upper grade levels such as 4th and 5th. The book can most definitely be used in a social studies lesson about race. It is more of a research book students can pull information from.