What do you think?
Rate this book
From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans, 9th Edition
From Slavery to Freedom remains the most revered, respected, and honored text on the market. The preeminent history of African Americans, this best-selling text charts the journey of African Americans from their origins in Africa, through slavery in the Western Hemisphere, struggles for freedom in the West Indies, Latin America, and the United States, various migrations, and the continuing quest for racial equality. Building on John Hope Franklin's classic work, the ninth edition has been thoroughly rewritten by the award-winning scholar Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. It includes new chapters and updated information based on the most current scholarship. With a new narrative that brings intellectual depth and fresh insight to a rich array of topics, the text features greater coverage of ancestral Africa, African American women, differing expressions of protest, local community activism, black internationalism, civil rights and black power, as well as the election of our first African American president in 2008. The text also has a fresh new 4-color design with new charts, maps, photographs, paintings, and illustrations.
736 pages, Paperback
Published January 15, 2010
14 people are currently reading
251 people want to read
About the author
John Hope Franklin
131 books77 followersJohn Hope Franklin, Ph.D. (History, Harvard University, 1941; M.A., History, Harvard U., 1936; B.A., Fisk University, 1935), was the James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University. He also had served as President of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 3, 2015
One of the best historians I've read in a while. He tells the story of the African American in America better than anyone I've read so far. Franklin's research is top notch. I recommend this book to anyone interested in America as we know it today.
August 31, 2014
A. Overview
1. Moss comes on board to offer a younger perspective for the 40th anniversary of Franklin’s work. This book attempts to “bring together the essential facts in the history of the American Negro from his ancient African beginnings down tot he present time. (Xi)” This history is the story of “the strivings of the nameless millions who have sought adjustment in a new and sometimes hostile world.”
B. Land of their fathers
1. In the last 1/3 of the 20th century blacks have written fondly of their African heritage, and the land of their fathers. We learn of these lands though travelers accounts and oral history. This chapter looks at the main African political units including Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and some other lesser states.
C. The African way of life
1. It is hard to generalize about an African way of life on a continent so large. This chapter focuses on West Africa because the bulk of the slaves came from this area.
2. Politics: All areas had a basic desire to form a government to help solve the needs of the community.
3. Economics: An agricultural people. The land belonged not to individuals but to the collective community. The “master of the ground” administered the soil and led the religion. There was sophisticated artisanry in the tribes (basketry, textile weaving, pottery, woodworking, and metallurgy.
4. Society: The family was the basis of social organization. The eldest male led the family, yet families were linked through the mother. Matrilineal lineage. Polygamy existed everywhere yet was not a universal practice.
5. Religion: Ancestor worship. The spirit of the forefathers had unlimited power over their lives.
6. Arts: Carvings, wood, stone, and ivory sculptures. Almost all tribes expressed their artistic aesthetics. Music is one example of this.
7. Lack of written language is partly explained by the heterogeneous language. There were so many regional dialects that no written language was ever adopted.
8. Transplantation of African culture: How much was brought over to America? As Africans from different tribes lived together in America there was an interaction among different African cultures. In places like the Sea Islands much of the African culture remained in place. Thus, African culture was brought over in the boat and was modified in America
D. The slave trade and the New World
E. Colonial slavery
1. Virginia and Maryland: Began with 20 slaves in 1619 at Jamestown. They were listed as indentured servants. As the Virginians required more labor they made the blacks status into “perpetual servitude.” Slavery came to Maryland in 1634.
2. Carolina and Georgia; the Middle colonies; Colonial New England
F. That all men may be free
1. By the middle 18th, slavery was an integral part of the economy. The Declaration of Independence remained silent on the issue of slavery. Blacks were not permitted to enlist to fight for independence. But, when men were needed G. Washington began to allow all indentured servants and slaves fight. Eventually a black regiment was set up. There was a fight after the war to manumit the slaves. The antislavery movement was so strongly resisted in the South that the movement died.
G. The turn of the 19th century
1. Trouble in the Caribbean. 1807 US and England outlaw the slave trade.
II.
A. The effort to attain peace
1. Reconstruction and the nation: This period is not just Southern history. It is an integral part of national history. This was a crisis that demanded action. The central problem was how to move the nation towards greater economic and political democracy.
2. Conflicting policies: Lincoln, Presidential Reconstruction, Congressional Reconstruction
3. Relief and rehabilitation: Relief was led by agencies like the Freedman’s Bureau, church, Northern teachers.
4. Economic adjustment: Black Codes initially made blacks return to work for the Southern planters. “Perhaps the greatest failure of Reconstruction was economic. (216)”
5. Blacks in politics: Constitutional conventions, blacks in public office. “At no time was there Negro rule anywhere in the South. (221)”
B. Losing the peace
1. Republicans and Democrats struggle for domination. This struggle shaped Reconstruction and led to the final defeat by both in attaining peace between he races.
2. Reconstruction ended gradually as restraints were slowly relaxed.
3. Disenfranchisement movements: The Democrats returned to power in the South and sought ways to reduce the power of blacks. When the Populist revolt failed (in which the black and white farmers joined together) total disenfranchisement occurred..
4. White supremacy triumphs: This occurred because whites were fighting each other. This gave the black voter the balance of power. Thus, the vote was taken away to remove this power from blacks. Plessy v. Ferguson.
C. Philanthropy and self-help
1. The only area in which blacks could improve their status was in education. Education became the great preoccupation of blacks. Northern philanthropers aid this quest.
2. Booker T. Washington: His ascendance was one of the most significant episodes in race relations after 1877. Great proponent of vocational education. Conflict with Du Bois.
3. Economic struggles: Difficulty in purchasing farmlands. Blacks were unaware of modern agricultural methods. B.T. Washington wanted to stimulate black business somehow.
4. It was more important for blacks to maintain a separate social and cultural existence than it was for them to do it economically. This was done through fraternal organizations. One of the results was a growing number of black intellectuals. By the end of the century blacks realized that the brunt of the burden of black development would have to be carried by blacks themselves.
D. Race and the nation
1. The new imperialistic strivings of America. Blacks and their involvement in the Spanish American War. The Spaniards called them “Smoked Yankees.” Americans did not unanimously favor the arming of blacks.
2. Spain secedes their West Indies holdings and Puerto Rico. Also Cuba.
3. Urban problems. Employment difficulties. Violence against blacks.
4. Blacks organize to try to end these problems. Du Bois and the Niagara Movement. NAACP forms
E. In pursuit of democracy
1. World War I. 20,000 blacks fought. Many went to the recruiting stations but were not accepted. Black regiments. There was general disregard for the safety of the black regiments like the 92nd. They had the highest casualty rates. But generally the blacks in combat were very enthusiastic.
2. At home blacks were also enthusiastic about the war. They purchased tremendous amounts of war bonds. Migration of hundreds of blacks to Northern industrial cities. The fundamental cause of the migration was economic.
3. The black press supported the war enthusiastically also.
F. Democracy escapes
1. The black soldiers returned initially to jubilation, but this did not last long. KKK and violence, race riots. Blacks were being discriminated against at the workplace and they generally believed that “democracy had escaped them.”
2. Protest rise: NAACP fights for an anti-lynching law. Marcus Garvey appeals for race pride.
G. The Harlem Renaissance
1. Socioeconomic problems in black literature: Literature, poetry, skilled dramatic actors, light comedy with Vaudeville. Jazz Age.
H. The New Deal
1. Depression: Black cabinet.
I. Two worlds of race
1. Tremendous interest in education in the 20th century. This interest did not decline since Reconstruction. Founding of black colleges.
2. There was a distinctly separate black world within America. Thus they developed institutions of their own to establish their own identity. But blacks did participate in the affairs of the larger community.
J. Fighting for the 4 freedoms
1. Blacks go to World War II. Discrimination existed but the had the greatest opportunity in this war than any previous one.
2. On the home front they benefited from the war with new job opportunities. But there were race riots
3. Much interest was given to the role that the UN might play in ending discrimination in America.
K. The Postwar years
1. The main adjustment for the American people at this time was the adjustment to the new position of the black.
2. The most dramatic facts of life for postwar blacks was their increasing urbanization. Whites moved out and took the better jobs with them as new industrial parks opened outside the city. The black ghetto formed. This is one of the major factors that led to the deterioration of the black family
3. Poets and writers in postwar years. Blacks in TV (Cosby, Gumbal).
L. The Black Revolution
1. The main stimulus to direct black action was the opposition by whites to their cause.
2. Bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom marches.
3. Civil Rights acts were the “illusion of fulfillment.” Blacks did not register to vote. Only 58% were registered in 1976.
M. New Forms of Activism
1. Reagan years: Unemployment concerns
2. Jesse Jackson’s political career
3. The war in Vietnam and war protests. Fights against Apartheid
1. Moss comes on board to offer a younger perspective for the 40th anniversary of Franklin’s work. This book attempts to “bring together the essential facts in the history of the American Negro from his ancient African beginnings down tot he present time. (Xi)” This history is the story of “the strivings of the nameless millions who have sought adjustment in a new and sometimes hostile world.”
B. Land of their fathers
1. In the last 1/3 of the 20th century blacks have written fondly of their African heritage, and the land of their fathers. We learn of these lands though travelers accounts and oral history. This chapter looks at the main African political units including Ghana, Mali, Songhay, and some other lesser states.
C. The African way of life
1. It is hard to generalize about an African way of life on a continent so large. This chapter focuses on West Africa because the bulk of the slaves came from this area.
2. Politics: All areas had a basic desire to form a government to help solve the needs of the community.
3. Economics: An agricultural people. The land belonged not to individuals but to the collective community. The “master of the ground” administered the soil and led the religion. There was sophisticated artisanry in the tribes (basketry, textile weaving, pottery, woodworking, and metallurgy.
4. Society: The family was the basis of social organization. The eldest male led the family, yet families were linked through the mother. Matrilineal lineage. Polygamy existed everywhere yet was not a universal practice.
5. Religion: Ancestor worship. The spirit of the forefathers had unlimited power over their lives.
6. Arts: Carvings, wood, stone, and ivory sculptures. Almost all tribes expressed their artistic aesthetics. Music is one example of this.
7. Lack of written language is partly explained by the heterogeneous language. There were so many regional dialects that no written language was ever adopted.
8. Transplantation of African culture: How much was brought over to America? As Africans from different tribes lived together in America there was an interaction among different African cultures. In places like the Sea Islands much of the African culture remained in place. Thus, African culture was brought over in the boat and was modified in America
D. The slave trade and the New World
E. Colonial slavery
1. Virginia and Maryland: Began with 20 slaves in 1619 at Jamestown. They were listed as indentured servants. As the Virginians required more labor they made the blacks status into “perpetual servitude.” Slavery came to Maryland in 1634.
2. Carolina and Georgia; the Middle colonies; Colonial New England
F. That all men may be free
1. By the middle 18th, slavery was an integral part of the economy. The Declaration of Independence remained silent on the issue of slavery. Blacks were not permitted to enlist to fight for independence. But, when men were needed G. Washington began to allow all indentured servants and slaves fight. Eventually a black regiment was set up. There was a fight after the war to manumit the slaves. The antislavery movement was so strongly resisted in the South that the movement died.
G. The turn of the 19th century
1. Trouble in the Caribbean. 1807 US and England outlaw the slave trade.
II.
A. The effort to attain peace
1. Reconstruction and the nation: This period is not just Southern history. It is an integral part of national history. This was a crisis that demanded action. The central problem was how to move the nation towards greater economic and political democracy.
2. Conflicting policies: Lincoln, Presidential Reconstruction, Congressional Reconstruction
3. Relief and rehabilitation: Relief was led by agencies like the Freedman’s Bureau, church, Northern teachers.
4. Economic adjustment: Black Codes initially made blacks return to work for the Southern planters. “Perhaps the greatest failure of Reconstruction was economic. (216)”
5. Blacks in politics: Constitutional conventions, blacks in public office. “At no time was there Negro rule anywhere in the South. (221)”
B. Losing the peace
1. Republicans and Democrats struggle for domination. This struggle shaped Reconstruction and led to the final defeat by both in attaining peace between he races.
2. Reconstruction ended gradually as restraints were slowly relaxed.
3. Disenfranchisement movements: The Democrats returned to power in the South and sought ways to reduce the power of blacks. When the Populist revolt failed (in which the black and white farmers joined together) total disenfranchisement occurred..
4. White supremacy triumphs: This occurred because whites were fighting each other. This gave the black voter the balance of power. Thus, the vote was taken away to remove this power from blacks. Plessy v. Ferguson.
C. Philanthropy and self-help
1. The only area in which blacks could improve their status was in education. Education became the great preoccupation of blacks. Northern philanthropers aid this quest.
2. Booker T. Washington: His ascendance was one of the most significant episodes in race relations after 1877. Great proponent of vocational education. Conflict with Du Bois.
3. Economic struggles: Difficulty in purchasing farmlands. Blacks were unaware of modern agricultural methods. B.T. Washington wanted to stimulate black business somehow.
4. It was more important for blacks to maintain a separate social and cultural existence than it was for them to do it economically. This was done through fraternal organizations. One of the results was a growing number of black intellectuals. By the end of the century blacks realized that the brunt of the burden of black development would have to be carried by blacks themselves.
D. Race and the nation
1. The new imperialistic strivings of America. Blacks and their involvement in the Spanish American War. The Spaniards called them “Smoked Yankees.” Americans did not unanimously favor the arming of blacks.
2. Spain secedes their West Indies holdings and Puerto Rico. Also Cuba.
3. Urban problems. Employment difficulties. Violence against blacks.
4. Blacks organize to try to end these problems. Du Bois and the Niagara Movement. NAACP forms
E. In pursuit of democracy
1. World War I. 20,000 blacks fought. Many went to the recruiting stations but were not accepted. Black regiments. There was general disregard for the safety of the black regiments like the 92nd. They had the highest casualty rates. But generally the blacks in combat were very enthusiastic.
2. At home blacks were also enthusiastic about the war. They purchased tremendous amounts of war bonds. Migration of hundreds of blacks to Northern industrial cities. The fundamental cause of the migration was economic.
3. The black press supported the war enthusiastically also.
F. Democracy escapes
1. The black soldiers returned initially to jubilation, but this did not last long. KKK and violence, race riots. Blacks were being discriminated against at the workplace and they generally believed that “democracy had escaped them.”
2. Protest rise: NAACP fights for an anti-lynching law. Marcus Garvey appeals for race pride.
G. The Harlem Renaissance
1. Socioeconomic problems in black literature: Literature, poetry, skilled dramatic actors, light comedy with Vaudeville. Jazz Age.
H. The New Deal
1. Depression: Black cabinet.
I. Two worlds of race
1. Tremendous interest in education in the 20th century. This interest did not decline since Reconstruction. Founding of black colleges.
2. There was a distinctly separate black world within America. Thus they developed institutions of their own to establish their own identity. But blacks did participate in the affairs of the larger community.
J. Fighting for the 4 freedoms
1. Blacks go to World War II. Discrimination existed but the had the greatest opportunity in this war than any previous one.
2. On the home front they benefited from the war with new job opportunities. But there were race riots
3. Much interest was given to the role that the UN might play in ending discrimination in America.
K. The Postwar years
1. The main adjustment for the American people at this time was the adjustment to the new position of the black.
2. The most dramatic facts of life for postwar blacks was their increasing urbanization. Whites moved out and took the better jobs with them as new industrial parks opened outside the city. The black ghetto formed. This is one of the major factors that led to the deterioration of the black family
3. Poets and writers in postwar years. Blacks in TV (Cosby, Gumbal).
L. The Black Revolution
1. The main stimulus to direct black action was the opposition by whites to their cause.
2. Bus boycotts, sit-ins, freedom marches.
3. Civil Rights acts were the “illusion of fulfillment.” Blacks did not register to vote. Only 58% were registered in 1976.
M. New Forms of Activism
1. Reagan years: Unemployment concerns
2. Jesse Jackson’s political career
3. The war in Vietnam and war protests. Fights against Apartheid
August 28, 2025
Excellent Book for Studying African American History!
December 30, 2020
This was a beast to read because history books can be dry. And it’s big. As a white woman it was good to read African American history told by black historians rather than old white men. It gave me a different perspective on events I had learned in school and I learned about other historical figures and events that I had never heard about. The book is well organized and I am glad I made it through.
June 4, 2021
this amazing book guided me through my coursework at school on whether Black people or the government contributed the most towards legal change for Black Americans from 1865 to 1964. without this book i would never have done my coursework on such a high level. it covers everything from ancient times to Obama’s presidency, is very academic, has lots of additional resources and references and is reliable. if i could, i would give this book 6 out of 5 stars for how helpful and accessible it is.
September 8, 2019
Chock full of really good information. I am not an expert in African American History so I can't speak to the integrity there, but I did find this to be a great resource to guide a class. I wouldn't expect to be able to teach solely from this, I have yet to find a textbook that doesn't need supplemental materials, but this is a great start.
Read
January 19, 2016change of pace of literature for the summer...always wanted to take a class on african-american history in the US.
history up to 1990's and Clinton's inauguration. chronicles the development, struggles, challenges, successes...you name it, of African Americans in the U.S.
history up to 1990's and Clinton's inauguration. chronicles the development, struggles, challenges, successes...you name it, of African Americans in the U.S.
August 29, 2016
I'm going to read it again. I learned a lot. History is amazing. Somethings that I read really upset me but I learned the truth. It's not pretty. It's rooted in history deep deep rooted evil..it's all black and white.
September 14, 2008
Black history
November 7, 2019
You can read my 5 star review at...
http://amwerner.com/2019/11/07/book-r...
http://amwerner.com/2019/11/07/book-r...
June 23, 2020
I read this while taking a class called “African American Experience”. Dense amount of information to read in a few weeks but informative and interesting.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews