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The Cause of Freedom: A Concise History of African Americans
What does it mean to be an American? The story of the African American past demonstrates the difficulty of answering this seemingly simple question.
What does it mean to be an American? The story of the African American past demonstrates the difficulty of answering this seemingly simple question. If being "American" means living in a land of freedom and opportunity, what are we to make of those Americans who were enslaved and who have suffered from the limitations of second-class citizenship throughout their lives? African American history illuminates the United States' core paradoxes, inviting profound questions about what it means to be an American, a citizen, and a human being.
This book considers how, for centuries, African Americans have fought for what the black feminist intellectual Anna Julia Cooper called "the cause of freedom." It begins in Jamestown in 1619, when the first shipment of enslaved Africans arrived in that settlement. It narrates the creation of a system of racialized chattel slavery, the eventual dismantling of that system in the national bloodletting of the Civil War, and the ways that civil rights disputes have continued to erupt in the more than 150 years since Emancipation. The Cause of Freedom carries forward to the Black Lives Matter movement, a grass-roots activist convulsion that declared that African Americans' present and past have value and meaning. At a moment when political debates grapple with the nation's obligation to acknowledge and perhaps even repair its original sin of racialized slavery, The Cause of Freedom tells a story about our capacity and willingness to realize the ideal articulated in the country's founding
document, namely, that all people were created equal.
What does it mean to be an American? The story of the African American past demonstrates the difficulty of answering this seemingly simple question. If being "American" means living in a land of freedom and opportunity, what are we to make of those Americans who were enslaved and who have suffered from the limitations of second-class citizenship throughout their lives? African American history illuminates the United States' core paradoxes, inviting profound questions about what it means to be an American, a citizen, and a human being.
This book considers how, for centuries, African Americans have fought for what the black feminist intellectual Anna Julia Cooper called "the cause of freedom." It begins in Jamestown in 1619, when the first shipment of enslaved Africans arrived in that settlement. It narrates the creation of a system of racialized chattel slavery, the eventual dismantling of that system in the national bloodletting of the Civil War, and the ways that civil rights disputes have continued to erupt in the more than 150 years since Emancipation. The Cause of Freedom carries forward to the Black Lives Matter movement, a grass-roots activist convulsion that declared that African Americans' present and past have value and meaning. At a moment when political debates grapple with the nation's obligation to acknowledge and perhaps even repair its original sin of racialized slavery, The Cause of Freedom tells a story about our capacity and willingness to realize the ideal articulated in the country's founding
document, namely, that all people were created equal.
- GenresNonfictionHistory
160 pages, Hardcover
Published February 4, 2021
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85 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 15, 2021
"Being American is, in part, an act of declaration, rooted in the principles that guided the establishment of this country and that have been rearticulated at different moments in its history: a faith in the idea of freedom and a pledge to respect liberty and justice for all. Relatedly, being American means, for many, membership in a community of citizens who believe in the rights of assembly, speech, and unfettered access to the ballot box. With an unsettling consistency, however, being American has also been defined in a negative way: not being black."
Dr Jonathan Scott Holloway, the current president of Rutgers University, my undergraduate alma mater, and the first African American to serve in that capacity in the school's 255 year history, is a U.S. historian and university administrator who was educated at Stanford and Yale, and taught and served as dean of Yale College and provost of Northwestern University before being chosen to lead Rutgers last summer.
in The Cause of Freedom, Dr Holloway provides a compelling and very readable account of the story of this country's Black residents, dating from the first known arrival of a Black man to this country in 1528, when Estevanico, a Moroccan member of the Spanish Narváez expedition, was one of four survivors who landed on the west coast of Florida, to the initial importation of slaves to Jamestown in August 1619, through to the Black Lives Matter movement. His primary aim is to determine what it means to be an American, a question that can have different answers depending on the respondent's ethnic and religious background and personal and family history in this country.
The book highlights the historical moments, themes and individuals, White and Black, who played major roles in the history of people of African descent in this country, with a particular focus on the Civil Rights Movement and the post-Civil Rights era, along with the Harlem Renaissance and the two most important public intellectuals in early 20th century America, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. From my past reading I was familiar with most of the information in this book, but there was also plenty that I didn't know, both about the people within it and information about those who I thought I knew.
The Cause of Freedom is an absolutely superb and essential addition to the written history of African Americans, which has 150 pages of text and can easily be read in one day. It would be an outstanding book for high school and college students to read, along with anyone else within and outside of the United States who desires a primer and a start off point to learn more about this perpetually timely and important topic.
Dr Jonathan Scott Holloway, the current president of Rutgers University, my undergraduate alma mater, and the first African American to serve in that capacity in the school's 255 year history, is a U.S. historian and university administrator who was educated at Stanford and Yale, and taught and served as dean of Yale College and provost of Northwestern University before being chosen to lead Rutgers last summer.
in The Cause of Freedom, Dr Holloway provides a compelling and very readable account of the story of this country's Black residents, dating from the first known arrival of a Black man to this country in 1528, when Estevanico, a Moroccan member of the Spanish Narváez expedition, was one of four survivors who landed on the west coast of Florida, to the initial importation of slaves to Jamestown in August 1619, through to the Black Lives Matter movement. His primary aim is to determine what it means to be an American, a question that can have different answers depending on the respondent's ethnic and religious background and personal and family history in this country.
The book highlights the historical moments, themes and individuals, White and Black, who played major roles in the history of people of African descent in this country, with a particular focus on the Civil Rights Movement and the post-Civil Rights era, along with the Harlem Renaissance and the two most important public intellectuals in early 20th century America, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois. From my past reading I was familiar with most of the information in this book, but there was also plenty that I didn't know, both about the people within it and information about those who I thought I knew.
The Cause of Freedom is an absolutely superb and essential addition to the written history of African Americans, which has 150 pages of text and can easily be read in one day. It would be an outstanding book for high school and college students to read, along with anyone else within and outside of the United States who desires a primer and a start off point to learn more about this perpetually timely and important topic.
May 1, 2021
As is always ideally the case, the subtitle for this book encapsulates its contents completely and succinctly: this is a history of the African American experience in the United States, from the beginnings until the present day, and it is done successfully in a short, concise 150 pages. Much of the same territory has been covered in other volumes by other authors, to be sure, but I appreciate Holloway's skill at distilling the facts of the sprawling centuries into this publication. Along the way, I learned a number of things I had not previously known (or had forgotten): for one, that chattel slavery began in New England, not in the South (although, for a variety of reasons, it did not take as deep a root there). For another, Sojourner Truth's famous 'Ain't I A Woman' speech is largely a fabrication, as she spoke excellent English; her first language, in fact, was Dutch (not Danish, as the author suggests). -- I recommend this book to the casual reader, who may not have the time or inclination for the larger tomes that exist on this subject, as well as to the lover of American history who wants a quick overview/review.
February 5, 2024
This is a phenomenally well done, and truly "concise" history of African Americans. Holloway has done a masterful job of conveying a unified narrative, brining both important detail and helpful context, but always in the form of a compelling narrative. In some ways it's not as pointed, and of course not as in depth, as Isabelle Wilkerson's Caste or Ibraham X. Kendi's Stamped from the Beginning, but that's by design. And this makes an outstanding starting point (and also a really useful reminder) of some of the key moments and movements in our nation's history. I encountered a number of key people or events for the first time here, but the main value was seeing how some things I already knew about fit together. And Holloway likewise is always ready to deconstruct and reconstruct received or popular versions of key people or events (from how MLK was/is inderstood to the significance of Obama's election). I read this in a day and a half. And I highly recommend it.
June 27, 2024
I studied history in college, and later, I took a black history course and discovered an entirely new river within US History, that had been neglected before. Since that time, I have read several books dealing with aspects of black history, but this is the first complete history I have read in 50 years. It is short, but hits the important points and covers that which has occurred since my last full history read. The underlying question the book asks is “What is an American?” I recommend this book to everyone, even those who really dislike history.
March 28, 2021
Exactly what it says on the package. Concise, easy to read, and pretty informative. I knew a lot of this, but some of the civil rights events after WWI I hadn't heard of. This is great as a super quick overview for someone who doesn't know the history.
June 29, 2021
Perfect subtitle - it is a well done, concise history. I took many bookmarks for things to follow up on separately as he points out tidbits of information that spawn the vast diaspora. Good starting point for those who want a digestible introduction to African American history.
December 12, 2023
A short and comprehensive account of African American history, from the landing of the first blacks in 1600 to the Black Lives Matter movement. A question runs implicitly throughout the text, what does it mean to be an American citizen?
May 11, 2021
There is a lot of history packed into just 120 pages, and Holloway offers 10 pages of Further Reading. This could serve as a strong lead into Ibrahim X. Kendi’s “Stamped From the Beginning.”
non-fiction-to-read
July 5, 2021Current Pres of RU
September 6, 2021
Must read if we want to understand race and long undying struggle for equality
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews