The Black Holocaust for Beginners

Writers & Readers Documentary Comic Book #48

by Sam E. Anderson, Vanessa Holley (Illustrator)

An introduction to the horrors endured by African Americans between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries provides information that reveals how some one hundred million Africans died as a direct result of the slave trade and slavery. Original. IP.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, American History, Comics

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Anderson was a founding member of Harlem’s Black Panther Party, which prioritized the struggle for community control over schools. He was the founding chair of Sarah Lawrence College’s Black studies department in 1969; worked with other progressive educators to design the formation of SUNY Old Westbury in 1970; and has taught at Brooklyn College, City College of New York, New York University, and Rutgers University.

He was a founding member of the Coalition for Public Education and the National Black Education Agenda, and remains active with the NYC Coalition to Finally End Mayoral Control of Schools.

Reviews

[* · Rating 5 out of 5]

No longer using this website, but I'm leaving up old reviews. Fuck Jeff Bezos. Find me on LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/profile/...

This book manages to outline the enormity of the "black holocaust" (in quotes here not in mockery, but because this term may be new to many readers), and its profound impact on the descendents of slaves and the descendents of those left behind in Africa. Like an illuminated manuscript, beautiful and haunting drawings, paintings, and photographs pepper every page. You really get a lot for what you pay for with this book.

One of the most enduring and vicious acts in all of history, almost every other atrocity pales in comparison. This is the story of the depopulation of an entire continent of nations to feed the bloodthirsty rise of industrialism and capitalism (which could never have existed were it not for the surplus created by slaves).

[Africanpersonalities2000 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great one to have in your archive because it takes you back in time to visit the treatment and views the physical enslavement of afrikan as it should be viewed as a holocaust. It also supports all claims with factual data that give great insight into the current condition of the Afrikan in America.

Very insightful

[Ragne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: I've read the audiobook, not the graphic.

Holy hell, I feel sick. This should be much more widely read. It's a horrific book, but it's the absolutely least we can do.
Give this to your friends and family who don't understand the reason for advocating for reperations. Together with books about how Black people have systematically been held back and still are to show that it's still economically relevant today, of course.

[Ceylontjaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is about elimination of 60 million Africans from their motherland.

[Elianah Chioma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I did not think this book would evoke as much emotion as it did in me. Based on the adolescent drawings, I thought this book was a brief summary. WRONG! Page after page I was transported into the narrative of the slave trade. I learned of the horrible atrocities and also about the involvement of the Arabs, which I never knew. I cried. I got angry and I definitely saw the world differently after reading this book. I appreciate that the authors did not baby their audience. The descriptions were raw and gut turning.

[Arnold hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book needs to be read more and shows us the history of slavery. It is a book that makes you see how they were taken from their homeland and forced to march to the ships and then without much food if any and very little water. The torture, the beatings, the rape, that went on and it didn't matter if you were male or female or young or old. The deaths that happened along the way.

If more people would read this book and see what happened throughout history would make you think. Some of the atrocities just made you sick.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 4 out of 5]

AMAZING book, except i think as one book it either doesn’t go into enough detail to be satisfactory for me, or, it goes into too much detail that it becomes overwhelming and not much ends up actually being said. if that makes sense. this would be an amazing series, im going to have to find some books talking about the things that are mentioned in this book to learn more about them. still, i think you should read this

[John Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Important topic that resonates today. Highly recommend. Most interesting part was the origins of the slave trade with the Arabs and Portuguese.

[Shellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This information is critical to know. Why isn’t this book mor popular ! :-(

[Cory Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was informative about our history

[Bruce Cline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but, as the cover suggests, very basic.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's shocking how much the majority of humanity doesn't know the truth about Africa and the slave system. This book is a very good way to get introduced.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Virtually anyone anywhere knows that 6 million Jewish human beings were killed in the Jewish Holocaust. But how many African human beings were killed in the black Holocaust-from the start of the European Slave Trade (c.1500) to the Civil War (1865)? And how many were enslaved? The Black Holocaust, a travesty that killed millions of African human beings, is the most underreported major event in the world history. A major economic event for Europe and Asia, a near fatal event for Africa, the seminal event in the history of every African-American--if not every American!--and most of us cannot answer the simplest questions about... probably every slave imported represented, on average, 5 corpses in Africa or on the high seas. The American Slave Trade therefore meant the elimination of at least 60 million Africans from their fatherland. Documented chronicle and engaging narrative. Long overdue."

As the truth of history slowly sank in, I was saddened and deeply moved by the reality of this Holocaust. This should be common knowledge. There are so many things that have been kept from us or twisted in their presentation to us. This truth should be widely broadcast. We Caucasians should be ashamed of our history and do what we can to rectify our past atrocities.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow.....an intense awakening to the history of slavery of the African people. I knew it pre-dated North America, but had no idea of how much the Chinese were involved, and so on.

I would have given it five stars, but while I feel the illustrations were emotional, some, I felt, actually hindered the emotions the words evoked because they were just *too* much.

It is NOT for the child under 16. The subject matter, while historical, is just too intense. It may say for beginners, but it doesn't mean for the beginning adolescent.

[Jacqui · Rating 5 out of 5]

History focusses on, and rightly so, on the tragedy of the Jewish Holocaust. However, another holocaust occurred centuries earlier. Yet this holocaust has gone virtually unrecognised.

The African holocaust lasted over four centuries. This book takes you through the history of slavery and what slavery actually involved.
I think the reason why this holocaust has not had the recognition in history is because, it is not who was involved in slavery, but who wasn’t involved in slavery.

No blame, just facts about a trade that caused mass devastation.

[Camilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be read by all people. I feel it should be apart of the school archives.

[Under_rubble · Rating 2 out of 5]

good introductory history but too much a product of 90s cultural studies. Would push people towards Lose Your Mother instead.

[Jerome · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must read to understand the foundation of black angst.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a very interesting book