African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals

by David Hackett Fischer

In this sweeping, foundational work, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian David Hackett Fischer draws on extensive research to show how enslaved Africans and their descendants enlarged American ideas of freedom in varying ways in different regions of the early United States.

African Founders explores the little-known history of how enslaved people from different regions of Africa interacted with colonists of European origins to create new regional cultures in the colonial United States. The Africans brought with them linguistic skills, novel techniques of animal husbandry and farming, and generations-old ethical principles, among other attributes. This startling history reveals how much our country was shaped by these African influences in its early years, producing a new, distinctly American culture.

Drawing on decades of research, some of it in western Africa, Fischer recreates the diverse regional life that shaped the early American republic. He shows that there were varieties of slavery in America and varieties of new American culture, from Puritan New England to Dutch New York, Quaker Pennsylvania, cavalier Virginia, coastal Carolina, and Louisiana and Texas.

This landmark work of history will transform our understanding of America’s origins.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Africa, Race, American, African American

960 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2022

About the author

David Hackett Fischer is University Professor of History Emeritus at Brandeis University and one of America’s most influential historians. His work spans cultural history, economics, and narrative nonfiction, with major titles including Albion’s Seed, The Great Wave, Paul Revere’s Ride, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington’s Crossing. Educated at Princeton and Johns Hopkins, Fischer has combined scholarly depth with accessible storytelling throughout his career. His Champlain’s Dream further showcased his skill for biographical history, earning international recognition. Honored with the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing, he is celebrated for both his groundbreaking research and his dedication to teaching.

Reviews

[Jo]

This book is not for the anti-racist.

While the author seems to highlight the ways America benefited from the influences of its enslaved population (which I do believe is true), I do not trust his base ideals - that American values of liberty and freedom have triumphed over tyranny and slavery. It would be disingenuous at best to study slavery in America without connecting slavery and white supremacy to the continual oppression of minorities by white Americans, and that’s what this book does. The author gives a timeline that would seem to eradicate slavery and the oppression of black Americans from the prohibition of the foreign slave trade in 1808 to the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 which grants all citizens “equal protections of the laws” with no distinctions of race.

What is not mentioned is how the years after slavery was abolished in 1865 saw many institutions and laws established to perpetuate oppression or how black people in this country are still subjected to different treatment under the law, despite the inclusive wording of those amendments. Let no one forget that it’s still legal to use prisoners for slave labor, and the system is set up to disproportionately incarcerate people of color. Liberty and freedom are nominal values at best for minorities in this country, and the author is openly critical of any attempt to view American history in a way that he calls “deeply negative” - giving more attention to slavery, racism, inequality, injustice, and corruption. He also calls the demand for political correctness a “hostile assault” on the ideas of open inquiry and empirical truth previously used in historical research and says that not only has public discourse in the twenty-first century seen a growing disregard for truth but that the new rhetoric is suffering from deliberate falsehoods. Ironically, I agree with that somewhat, but in literally the opposite way than what he meant.

Calling out America’s history of institutionalized racism and white supremacy is not a disregard for truth. It is a call for previously hidden or ignored truths to be brought into the open.

I am just perplexed by this book. It openly admits that most of America’s enslaved people were taken directly from their own homeland and acknowledges that those enslaved people suffered extreme cruelty and abuse that, thanks to more research and empirical evidence, was even worse than many historians previously thought. And yet the overall tone of the work is positive towards America as an institution. He proves that white slave owners were horrifically savage, admits to the atrocities forced upon black people both born in Africa and born in America, and then speaks derisively of the way many Americans view our history negatively in the twenty-first century, particularly in the years he wrote this book (2020 and 2021). Hmm…what movements around that time could possibly have contributed to the author’s disdain of “political correctness” and “negative” views on American history? This guy praises empirical evidence in historical research and then acts like we should ignore all the ways in which America has never really been about liberty and freedom for ALL.

My initial reaction to the book was full of red flags. White author 🚩. Three reviews on the back, all white men 🚩🚩. As a member of the un-melanated myself, it might seem hypocritical to immediately judge four white men for saying things like this book “transcends all our current historiographical debates over slavery” and “reframes the current debate over the role of slavery and race in American history” 🚩🚩🚩 ... but I wasn't wrong. I started reading it so I could make an informed decision, and my instincts were spot on.

[Just Reading · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely not! I love reading and learning about Black American history. I picked this one up hoping to learn some new information. Nope! Just a white washed version of Black Americans.

It might as well be a school history book with the way it glosses over the struggles after slavery and so much more.

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your money on a white man's POV of Black Americans. This one is going back to the bookstore and I've NEVER returned a book but I can't support this BS.

[Carol Kean · Rating 5 out of 5]

The "invention of racism" was something new in the 1700s, spreading rapidly in Europe and North America to justify stealing people from one land (namely, Africa) and selling them into slavery in the New World, to be treated worse than cattle, to be bred and sold like livestock. In 1776, when the Land of Liberty was launched, a German scholar was dividing humanity into five races. In the 1800s, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's "taxonomy of race" grew into a "full-blown ideology of racism."

Here's the part you may not have heard before: while they condemned (and composed haunting spirituals about) the human trafficking that brought them out of Africa, many African slaves embraced American liberty and opportunity. Some paid for their freedom, learned to read and write, built schools, became Freemasons, bought land, petitioned state legislatures for reform, and contributed a vast set of skills and talents to the budding United States of America. Even if you have a general knowledge of such things, you likely do not know the specifics. Who was Kofi? Why are Coffe Slocum's writings a national treasure, preserved in a Connecticut library to this day? How did "Akan Ethics," deeply rooted in West Africa, inform Protestant beliefs in America? If Boston was the most racially segregated city in America, how did it come about that African slaves in Massachusetts were allowed to intermarry with Europeans and American Indians? Many did just that, and the "melting pot" that was America allowed for a mingling of culture, knowledge, talents, traditions, religion, and the political foundations of a new nation.

I wish more high school history teachers had even a fraction of the knowledge and passion this professor, David Hackett Fischer, brings to his latest book, "African Founders." The concept seems audacious: slaves were able to expand American ideals? How did they manage that?

Because out of Africa came the greatest talent pool to set foot in the New World.

Animal husbandry - not brute force, as Europeans were known for, especially in the Old West - was one of the extraordinary skill sets brought from people who'd learned the finer arts of gentle persusasion when dealing with animals. Don't miss Chapter 7,"Western Frontiers," or the section on "Singing the Herd," or the way Methodist hymns and "Negro spirituals" morphed into many of the cowboy songs we know today. The legendary horse whisperer Robert Lemmons, despite hostility and racism, managed to buy land and tame some white racists as well as a lot of horses. To this day, his descendants own land and businesses in Texas. "Only in America!"as Larry the Cable Guy might say.

Line after quotable line is highlighted in my Kindle. E.g. , "To travel in Africa is to discover again and yet again the enormous scale and unimaginable beauty of this great continent. It is also to observe its vast abundance, teeming diversity, deep dynamics, and inexhaustible creativity."

And this:

"African slaves were not passive victims of their bondage. They responded by actively supporting each other, and by creating systems of mutual support."

They had a system of drumming messages far and wide, said to be faster than the telegraph.

They brought us the banjo.

African gifts of language and speech (they were multi-lingual, quick with rhyme and rhythm, easily able to learn new languages) made them in demand as interpreters when colonists found themselves unable to converse with Native Americans, slaves, and settlers from Spain, Germany, or other neighboring countries of Europe. The slaves were just as quick to create new languages in America.

Some of the most famous horse gentlers of Texas were African American women. Again I say: do not skim or skip Chapter 7.

Chapter 8, Maritime Frontiers, is full of fantastic stories and evidence of the ingenuity of African ship builders. A boat almost 8,000 years old, found in Nigeria in 1987, sheds new light on a lost "aquatic civilization" in the middle of West Africa, going back to the Pleistocene Era.

Many centuries before the navigators of Europe, Africans were building boats, perfecting them, and accumulating knowledge of the rivers and coasts of their vast continent. In what is now Liberia and Sierra Leone, Kru seamen were in great demand. Highly skilled boatbilders carefully preserved time-honored techniques, and their knowledge was imported to America via skilled craftsmen who were captured and enslaved.

Even if you know nothing about sailing, page after page will enthrall you. Europeans, so proud of their own vessels, were humbled and amazed by West African builders, saying "the speed with which these people make these boats travel is beyond belief."

Another awesome aspect of African mariners is their spiritual outlook. The Congo people, e.g., cultivated the idea of the sea as the realm of many spirits, where magical things happen in ways that are in the control of higher powers. Those in touch with water spirits would be able to conciliate them, wearing fetishes and speaking words of thanks to their patron-spirits of the sea. While Euro-Americans might flatter themselves that Western ways of thinking are superior, in many cases, the Africans' animalist beliefs in the sea as a world of spirits set them in a league above the Western mariners. So did their swimming skills. While many Africans and Native Americans were superb swimmers, most white men had never learned to swim, even if they were sailors. Many drowned within swimming distance of shores.

Chapter 8 is brimming with stories and names we should celebrate and remember. If nothing else, this much is worth committing to memory: African boatbuilders, Europeans, and American Indians all learned from each other in the New World.

In a similar way, music and religion were shaped by contributions from Africans in the New World. Jazz, rap, hip hop, spirituals, hymns, and cowboy songs emerged from a mingling of different cultures. I was glad to see that the term "cultural appropriation" is not mentioned in this book. We have all influenced one another, and to get territorial about it would leave me asking why Americans don't accuse anyone of "cultural appropriation" when people of other cultures wear Levi jeans, sneakers, baseball caps, and T-shirts, to name just a few ways that American culture has been adopted by others. But I digress.

One bit of American history is missing from this book: the way President Monroe in the early 1800s sent several ships to Sierra Leone, looking to build a new nation for freed slaves to return to Africa, but Sierra Leone turned them away, and many perished after the long voyage from New England to Africa. Liberia did become a new nation, with its capital city named Monrovia, for Monroe, but not all that many freed or escaped slaves left the U.S. to return to Africa. A hundred years later, Marcus Garvey tried to send ships to Liberia, to build a new nation modeled after the economic freedom and prosperity of the U.S., but the FBI got him imprisoned and exiled, and the nation of free blacks as envisioned by Garvey did not come to pass, except perhaps as the fictional Wakonda in comic books.

Hackett Fischer does mention "New Liberia" in New Haven, CT, but if he explained the Monroe administration's efforts to return African slaves to their homeland, to a land of THEIR OWN, I missed it. Garvey envisoned a new nation with Africans returning to their homeland from America, a free people, governed by themselves, not by descendants of white colonists. History books seem to erase him, and Garvey's grandson was turned down when he petitioned President Obama to issue him a posthumous pardon (for crimes Garvey didn't even commit, but he served time in prison and was exiled from America for the rest of his life). Hacket Fischer's focal point is more on how Africans in America came to embrace the concept of liberty and equality and opportunity, even though barriers of racism and injustice made it much harder for them to succeed than for other Americans. "Inequality" is another issue, and I wrote a long paragraph about that this morning, only to have my entire original review VANISH, and I have just spent my afternoon rewriting the review from memory, minus the excerpts and quotes I took time to type earlier.

Given the horror of writing a long review and having it disappear beyond all salvage after hitting the SEND button, I may make this my last book review for NetGalley. Thank you for the ARC, but what happened today is ludicrious, and hardly anyone reads my reviews anyway, so my career as a book critic may be winding down after I've sung the praises of "African Founders." This is a must-read, a worthwhile, well-written, engaging, and illuminating saga, packed full of historical documents and stories that really happened. If you prefer to get your history in fictional form, you might want to learn about "Fort Negro" via the novel "Down Freedom River" by Joseph Green.

So many, many great stories in this book - I will not rewrite from scratch all my comments on the Black Seminoles, or the Comanches who fought them, or the many groups who would offer the Black Seminoles a chance to buy land and settle nearby, on the condition that they defend their neighbors from enemy invaders, so great was the military prowess of the African Americans who married Native Americans and became the most accomplished of warriors.

Rather than read my long review, just get the book and see for yourself: the skill set, knowledge, aptitude, attributes, intelligence, athletic ability, linguistics and musical talents, and more, all show that African Americans are far from the dark stereotype of an "inferior" race and are, indeed, in so many ways, the "superior" beings. Not that I'm arguing for a reverse form of racism here, but "African Founders" shows us how our Founding Fathers were influenced by other cultures. Hackett Fischer does not mention the contributions of Native Americans to Thomas Jefferson's vision of a free republic (Ian Frazier makes that case quite eloquently in "On the Rez"), but he does a splendid job of showing how African Americans have helped to make America a land of opportunity, even as racism and injsutice set back so many of them.

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the positive side, this book enlarged my knowledge and understanding of the ways Africans participated in, grew, and shaped various aspects of what we call America. There were many people and stories I hadn’t heard.

However. The book seemed poorly organized - jumping all over the place (time, place, topic). The fact that it was published in 2022 but refers to trips the author made in the 1990s gives me pause. (The audiobook was rough; I’m not sure if it was the narrator or failure in editing, but the cadence felt like boating in choppy water.) Throughout the book, I felt it didn’t adequately address its subtitle.

And then this bit from the concluding summary caught my attention:

“Racism in its infinite variations will always exist in America and elsewhere but to condemn the United States as a racist society is fundamentally false. It misses the successful efforts of twelve generations of Americans and especially the roles of Africans born in slavery and the children of slaves, in enlarging fundamental American rights in New England and through the United States during the 18 and 19 century. To overstate the negatives in American history is to miss its positive achievements and central dynamics.”

🤔 so, you’re saying this book is a response to the 1619 Project? And overstate the negatives?! I mean, chattel slavery? Selling human beings? The middle passage? Separating husbands and wives, parents and children? Raping women and enslaving your own children? I don’t think these things can be overstated. We *have* missed the positive achievements of Africans who were brought to this country; however, this is NOT because we have overstated the negatives. It is because those who perpetrated and benefited from the institution of slavery told the story. And they sure didn’t overstate the negatives (see the Lost Cause myth).

I liked the new information; I like the emphasis on contributions of African Americans and ways they persevered and thrived. We should hear more about these things and integrate them into our cultural story. But at the end of the book, if your takeaway is that because African Americans were so great, the story can’t be that bad? No way.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating, incredibly thorough history of regional cultures & modes of resistance. Certainly not on board with the central framing re: "American ideals", and it kind of felt forced in the book itself; none of the stories, sources, or histories are consistent with this vague and unsupportable idea of American ideals triumphing over the evils of slavery. Like, come on. And I'm not even gonna address his painfully out-of-touch take on historical writing--for someone who thinks modern history is too argument-driven and politically correct, he sure does insist on a framing unsupported by the actual content of his own book 🙄. But I am glad I read this, and I learned a lot about the diversity and resistance of early Black American cultures. 30 years ago this would have landed a lot better than it does today. Tentatively recommend, but a critical eye is essential.

[Lillian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Elegantly written but with a hidden, perhaps unconscious agenda to once again elevate the white man on the shoulders of Afro-Americans.

[Erika · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I appreciate Fisher's stated goals --- to demonstrate the myriad ways that stolen Africans contributed to the development of American democracy, culture, and community ---his failure to contextualize his research within the larger economic, political and cultural realities of both the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the interstate slave trade create two very real problems with both his argument and the language he uses to support that thesis.

First, it takes what could be a very powerful story about rebellion of all sorts (cultural, interpersonal, legal, ect. ect.) and minimizes it by taking away the very structures that required that rebellion in the first place. And secondly, and perhaps more importantly in this reader's mind, he creates a rhetorical quagmire ripe for misinterpretation by those who would suggest that slavery was not as bad as it really was. Fischer attempts throughout the book to remind readers that slavery was oppressive and not beneficent in any way shape or form, but by avoiding concrete examples of the realities of slave life, his reminders feel both limited and fragmentary.

While I want to give Fischer credit for the rich research available in this book --- for those wanting to find examples of some of the lesser-known contributions of African and African Americans, this book is useful --- I cannot approve of his thesis because it is incomplete. It does not consider the larger cultural, economic, and legal realities that make African and African American contributions so powerful. For a similar project, though potentially more localized in time and space, with a completer and more compelling thesis, I would recommend The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist. And I would certainly not recommend this book to anyone that doesn't already have a firm understanding of the horrors of the Transatlantic and interstate slave trades.

Ultimately, I was disappointed in this book. It is a worthy project that should be taken up by a more adept writer.

[Stetson · Rating 5 out of 5]

African Founders may be one of the most robust works on the history of American slavery and its people published for popular audiences. David Hackett Fischer has nearly repeated the feat of accomplished by his magisterial book on the British folkways of America, Albion Seed. In the case of African Founders is a bit more challenging to trace the long-run effects of the culture influences of enslaved peoples. There are a number of reasons for this which include the fact of bondage itself of course but also the sheer diversity of enslaved peoples and their cultures. It is difficult to summarize the salient points in short so I will try to return to this later with detailed notes. Nonetheless, I want to emphasize that this is an excellent work of history that I hope is leverage as an instructional text in many American history courses.

[Katricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed feelings on this one.

Parts were good, parts were bad, parts had me like "this is definitely the third time I've read this sentence in different sections of the book, clearly you're not meant to actually straight read through this book."

The author found a lot of things "surprising" that weren't, referred to several figures or events as "famous" I'd only heard of in passing.

Also, proposal to never refer to slave owners by name unless who they were is actually directly relevant to whatever point you're trying to make.

It's kinda weird to introduce historical figures as "such-and-such, owned by Mr. Generic White Guy" when, y'know. You're ostensibly trying to discuss the unique contributions of slaves asserting their agency independent of and in spite of their master's best efforts...

[W M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complete schooling in historical scholarship and proper research methods, we are given a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stodgy smoke filled modern bias framework historical environment. In what will surely become an American History classic, DHF once again manages to elicit the essence of American’s colonial development and founding generation through a myriad of different POVs. This time he picks up the story of our nation’s deep African roots and links. Without any whiff of bias politically driven ideology, the reader is given the entire story of Slavery in America’s founding period, through multiple points along the Atlantic basin. The honor, heartache, perseverance, creativity and leadership of the African community is on full display and it’s contributing factors are left without a doubt.

[Mary M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this ambitious work because I enjoyed the author's Albion's Seed about the cultural differences found in the English colonization of North America. This book is quite textbook-like & is often repetitious, but for me highlighted the sheer numbers of Africans enslaved & the psychopathic cruelties inflicted including some we think of as medieval practices. Difficult to read but an important documentation of our history.

[JS · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a doorstop of a book. I do not usually like long books, but this was better than most. It was an interesting take on African-American history in the US. I would qualify it as empowering, while maintaining a healthy dose of reality about horrible treatment. I still think he could have cut it down by 1/3 or written a few volumes rather than putting it all in one huge book

[Sparrow Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF. I thought it would be more narrative than it was. Serial accounts of how enslaved and free Blacks responded to oppression in the colonies. Some are quite inspirational, but often too dry, too much like a register of incidents. And the ‘good white folk’ intruded a bit too much.

[Scott Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

African-American contributions to American history are often pushed to the side and either given a lower priority when presented or segregated into its own area. These stories are often discussed during Black History Month, but then forgotten in the remaining eleven months of the year. In this book, a (white) Pulitzer Prize-winning author seeks to make a comprehensive, foundational case that enslaved people significantly enriched the cultural course of America – all before the Civil War. He does so in just under 1,000 pages with meticulous research and engaging prose.

Fischer admits that the story of African contributions varies regionally. Thus, he divides his narrative into nine regions, each with its own story, cultural influences, and main actors. Intellectual and spiritual New England fares differently than French/Spanish Louisiana, and Charleston’s Gullah culture varies from Pennsylvania’s Quakers. Organizing this story into regions allows Fischer to describe America in all its diversity. Then he describes how each region was made vitally better by African contributions, in a way that you could not imagine the history existing without these contributions.

Importantly, Fischer traces African-American cultural history back to Africa. Into the historical narrative, he integrates information about the names of enslaved people along with where boats transported from. Then he reconstructs the culture of the tribes and countries that these people came from. Thus, the prior lives of enslaved African are respected as they use these skills in a new setting. For example, African boat-making skills, formed especially by one African tribe, added to European boats in the Chesapeake Bay region of America. This technological innovation allowed the region to better conduct commerce among dispersed towns.

The tales of individual African-Americans are told here. Some were names I knew, but Fischer still introduced me to so many characters. Even though many whites sought to oppress blacks, enslaved Africans persisted to contribute their knowledge to construct America. Fischer proves that thesis exhaustively, with detail after detail, as he makes the case that American history and American ideals simply could not be without their African roots.

I’m not a historian, only a fan of history, so I cannot critically judge the quality of historiography in this book. I trust Fischer’s Pulitzer and distinguished academic credentials (a university professor at Brandeis) are fairly earned. Nonetheless, this book is one of the best histories I have ever read (and I’ve read hundreds). It breaks down an important, complex issue in detailed fashion, and then rebuilds it in a new way that advances the conversation. Words like brilliant and ingenious come to mind. I sincerely hope that Fischer’s take on race in America will achieve its potential in bringing a richer, more diverse, and more honest discussion of who we Americans are.

[Stephen Kramar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book that I would recommend everyone in the US read. It covers the early history of the Africans who came to America (usually against their will) and how they contributed to the societies within which they found themselves.

I was again surprised by how different the various colonies were and how they governed based on the purposes of the people who established them. How this played into the laws and treatment of African-Americans over time was enlightening.

The comprehensive nature of the book is impressive.
I did struggle with the amount of tedious detail. I also struggled with the narration.

[Porter Broyles · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars is for the Audio Book...

This is one of those books that is good enough that I'm going to go out and pick up the printed book, but couldn't stand the narrator.

The narrator enunciated every syllable with perfect pronunciation obtained only through meticulous study and practice. It reminded me of when one speaks with a pretentious voice mocking the upper class---but I don't think that was the intent.

I listened to the first two chapters and found the story to be fascinating and well done. The book presents early black history in the colonies and Revolution in an informational manner.

It does not feel like a polemic about the evils of white America, but a very informative book about the forgotten role of black America.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was well intentioned but really missed the mark. Fischer claims to be asserting the importance of the different regional African origins of enslaved people in America, as a sort of parallel to what he did with different English folkways in "Albion's Seed," and exploring how enslaved people shaped American culture. The title implies that the book will discuss African American understandings, interpretations of, and challenges to, American ideals. But what the book winds up being is a disjointed collection of details about slavery that is superficial and inadvertently kind of smug and even racist.

Albion's Seed was criticized for overstating and oversimplifying things, which in my opinion is even more egregious in this book because Fischer's intermittent characterizations of different African cultures are more vague and often rely on insufficient evidence like quantitative data about peoples' names, white enslavers' written impressions of the people they enslaved as variously "hardworking," "docile," etc. and really superficial impressions he formed based on a trip he and his wife took to a few places in Africa in the 1990s (his quotes about Africa could really use some self-reflection: he writes "We remember the support of African 'Big Men' and 'Mercedes Mamas.' One Mercedes Mama rescued us single-handed from a sticky situation with a street gang in the Cote d'Ivoire. And we especially recall conversations with bright and lively African children and spirited teenagers who shared the creativity of their music and speech.") He winds frequently espousing a weird essentialism, with a brief offhand section about Michelle Obama's Gullah roots, the idea that people enslaved in Maryland (like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, etc.) were natural leaders based on their likely Asante ancestry and being "close and keen observers of Virginia and Maryland masters who excelled as American leaders in the early republic", and the claim that "[Africans'] talents as linguists and intermediaries were among the first of Africa's many gifts to the New World. That same flair for languages has continued to flourish in the linguistic creativity of rap and hip hop to our time." He also says some off-putting and smug things in the beginning about how he will not be partisan or stoop to "political correctness," but instead will rely on the objectivity of empirical information. That's a questionable strategy all the time, but *especially* when you're dealing with the uneven archive as it pertains to slavery. In the end this book doesn't really have a thesis, it's just a very long, loose collection of some interesting information, a lot of relying on other historians, and for me, a pervasive feeling of unintentional but persistent racism and a misguided confidence that his methods are somehow the truest and most accurate.

[Mystic Miraflores · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a well-researched and extensively-documented history book. As an immigrant who came to the US as a baby, everything I learned in the US school system was about how the White People did this and that, established this and that, won this and that, etc. Now I am more conscious about the indigenous people who used to "own" the area that is now the US. For example, my husband and I just took an RV trip to the West Virginia mountains. I was wondering which tribes used to live in these lands, now called "The George Washington Forest" system. Similarly, after reading Prof. Fischer's book, I'll try to find the footprints and influence of the African-American founders of the US.

[Patrick Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conquest, colonialism, enslavement, subjugation and oppression of indigenous people, racism, and racist policies are all great evils and the besetting sins of the West, and of the United States in particular.

Enslaved people from Africa brought to the United States their considerable skill, entrepreneurial spirit, courage, faith, and commitment to family and comity.

African Founders exists at the intersection of these two propositions. David Hackett Fischer keeps them both in focus through 750 pages of wide-ranging historical and social narrative. He speaks with admiration and affection for his African subjects and with scorn for the Europeans who wanted only to break the spirits of enslaved people, use them until they wore out like clothing and shoes, and toss them aside when that happened.

The author spends considerable time on the skills that enslaved Africans brought with them, sharpened, and employed in the service of their masters, employers, and their own business enterprises. Language skills, “speechways” in the author’s parlance, receive particular attention. Many Africans could speak several languages when they arrived in the colonies and could learn new languages quickly. Africans also brought their talents for making nourishing and appealing meals from simple ingredients, and those the fruits of those talents can still be seen in regional cuisines, especially in Southern and Gulf states.

Africans who worked along the Atlantic coast, especially on Chesapeake Bay, employed their ship-building, seamanship, and navigation skills to great benefit. Those who worked in the western frontiers used their skills in animal husbandry and horsemanship. More of the legendary cowboys of the American West looked like Cleavon Little than like Slim Pickens.

American Founders deserves a place alongside The Warmth of Other Suns: the Epic Story of America's Great Migration and The Souls of Black Folks, among others as essential reading in African-American history.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This “doorstop of a book,” as one reviewer called it, took me four weeks to process! I found the journey very worthwhile, though I knocked off a star for the repetition of some stories and themes. But this represents a life work for Fischer, and I can see how difficult it would be to be both thorough and concise.

The central premise, as I understand it, is that though they were kidnapped and shipped from their African homelands by Europeans and white Americans, though they were abused in horrible cruelty by many (perhaps most?) masters, the African people who came to colonial America were NOT passive, but active, creative, generous in sharing skills and teaching others—of all races—, talented in many ways, and main contributors to the development of American culture. Some of the ways they contributed (music, plant cultivation, and foods) were familiar to me, other ways were totally new. I did not know how often Africans served as translators, since they were adept at learning multiple languages and well accepted by some indigenous peoples. I did not know that becoming freed from slavery was easier in some colonies than others and hence there are African Americans who can trace their freedom and ancestry in this country back to the 1600s. I did not know (nor do I think I was ever taught in school) that the very first census in the U.S. was conducted in 1790, and it counted black slaves and free blacks in separate categories.

I enjoyed reading GR reviews of this book, and I understand the POVs of some readers who were not impressed, or very resistant, to Fischer’s work. But for me, I found it fascinating, fair, and very well documented and full of references to other scholars’ (including many African and African American scholars) works. Two aspects struck me as particularly original:

1. The division of the colonies into regions composed of unique patterns of immigration from the Old World and how different European traditions of religion and government made a difference in the lives of the enslaved people in those regions, and

2. The research conducted by other scholars into what regions of Africa and which indigenous groups/nations the enslaved came from, and how their indigenous languages, values, religions, and knowledge impacted their lives in America.

[Molly HIll · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m currently halfway through this book and it’s hard for me to retain much of it with how it’s written (Chapters are written like a collection of short stories) It is organized believe it or not each chapter focusing on a different region and somewhat of a chronology from the founding of that area up to the civil war.. Although interesting to find out about these people’s homeland and customs, and how they integrated those into their forcibly transplanted existence.. it’s vague at times. One example in specific in the Gulla and Geechee (Carolina and Georgia sea coast region) It’s touched on how their english reflects African language. Historically sourced examples of the “African english” is presented but what was the language structure of their native tongue that made it that way? No examples or translations of that. Reading the other comments ranges from truthfully brutal to whitewashed. The author IMO really stuck his neck out not being of African origin himself and writing about a sordid chapter in American history. Either telling it in honest terms to how it was or with a more eloquent touch was going to spark some backlash. I found the book to be bi polar in that sense.. At times the great strides the Africans where making didn’t make their oppression matter and then it would swing the other direction (momentarily) with the physical abuse they endured. Not changing the subject (and it didn’t help with the reading of this book) but before this I finished the memoirs of General Sherman. It gave a better insight to how the world was then, than anything I’ve read via any historian, even if it was via Sherman’s perception of the world. I’m going to finish this book but will be looking to see if any “African Founders” had written any memoirs of their own!

[Vonnie Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was well researched and I learned a lot. Yet, I agree with the consensus that the author calls out racism, but he tends to consistently try to humanize slavery and attempt to show that slavery was not all bad. Black folks did amazing feats and showed that though oppression existed not all slave masters “liked it.” It was disingenuous throughout the book at times, and failed to really note the outright evils of men due to their personal struggle with immorality. It seems to note that the oppressors tried to be fair but it was “just business.” The consistent “oh look this group of blacks made it” or “this small group didn’t riot but they peacefully resisted” is very symbolic of today’s message that we should simply move on and be proud of the history and forget the past. That message was sickening. And appeared to be a rebuttal to the 1619 project and abolitionist activists. I did appreciate his fairness of truth telling of American founders that America holds in high regard, but he still tried to find the good in them when you simply shouldn’t. A “kind or reasonable slave master, stillcondomed slavery. Just because some freed them after death does not mean they get a pass when they should’ve freed them while they were alive. They didn’t because they didn’t want to give up the business and privileges of free labor and wealth. I didn’t appreciate the sugar coating, but did appreciate the plethora of knowledge and facts.

[Zack Whitley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! Fischer is always scholarly, always accessible and this book is just amazing. A word of warning: it's long and it's dense and often dry. It's not for everyone! The weird critical reviews I see on goodreads seem mostly to be from people who didn't actually read the book, because to read this book is to love it, if you can handle 800 pages. Fischer uses tables and charts and maps and lots of subheadings to bring the story to life. It's very readable and engaging. He doesn't shy away from describing the brutality slaves were subjected to, but he also shows Africans overcoming racism and slavery to prosper in America.

Fischer focuses on cultural history: what parts of Africa did people come from? when? and how were experiences in Africa and in America different on a region by region basis? Yes, Fisher makes generalizations, but he is quick to point out exceptions and explain how broadly his generalizations apply. Fischer makes a good case for the central role Africans have played in American history: Africans were brought to the colonies at a very early date and it's important to appreciate their contributions to America. The portrayal of slavery in Louisiana is particularly grim (the Chesapeake and the Carolinas don't come across much better). As usual when reading about this period in American history, Pennsylvania and New England come across the best as it is in these regions that the abolition movement begins and eventually leads to the end of slavery.

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A first-rate analysis of the interactions between African Americans and their white oppressors. Fischer provides an amazing amount of African background for those men, women, and children forced into slavery in the colonies and the later United States. He divides the land mass into various regions and describes the interactions and contributions of both parties in each region. His discussions of New England and the Delaware Valley are by far the most detailed and analytical. Unfortunately, his analysis of the heart of America is missing. He provides very little analysis of that region. This book is, however, a must-read for anyone interested in the roles and contributions of African Americans to the cultural and political fabric of the United States of America.

[Dan Towner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book holds massive amounts of information about the first Africans in America and what they contributed to a young country. However the writing is all over the place, I also took issue with some of the ideas of the author. He referred to one man who was staunchly pro-slavery, but claimed that this man wasn't a racist. He also goes into detail about how the systems of government work and how working within the systems were the best way for enslaved and formerly enslaved people to earn their rights and privileges already enjoyed by white people. those aren't systems that should be praised for working correctly! All in all I'm glad I finished this book, but I wouldn't recommend it to my friends.

[Brent Brown]

This is a book that no White people should read and all Black people should read so they understand what gaslighting really looks like and how subtleties turn truth into fiction. Some of it is actually laughable because it’s so crazy, but mostly it’s maddening and disturbing. I can’t believe this guy is a Pulitzer Prize winning historian. Obviously, physical violence based on racism is the worst, but this is 1A. It’s so destructive because it gives the White people and the people who want to be White ammunition for slavery and racism and could shake those riding the fence causing doubt and confusion. Not that any should be riding the fence at this point… This book gets zero (0) stars from me. This is the face of White Supremacy. It’s dangerous!

[Kiki · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth examination of African-American history, focusing on the foundational contributions that enslaved Africans, freedmen, and their descendants made to the creation of the U.S.— thus, the title. It is very comprehensive.

I listened to the audiobook. The narrator has a style of reading which emphasizes about every third word, whether that word needs emphasis or not. It often distracted from the meaning of the sentence.

That was a bit frustrating.

But when he read dialogue, he did a lovely job.

Overall, I’d say it was a great book. I recommend it. And I even recommend the audiobook, if you can get past the reading style. He has a lovely voice.

[Douglas Pierre · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for those wanting knowledge about how African slaves dealt with slavery. The foregoing is only a small part of this book. It provides information about importation of Africans from sub-S toahara to the Congo as well as Madagascar and the East Coast of Africa. The most comprehensive treatment of the slave experience I have seen. Experience is detailed from New England to Florida to Louisiana and Texas. Treatment of slaves by Puritans, Qua
kers, English, French, Spanish, and native Americans are detailed.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read on how the Africans helped shape the United States both before and after the Revolution in spite of being enslaved. I feel that Mr. Fischer does a worthy job of staying in the middle without minimizing the inhumanity of slavery, and by referencing newer studies and past research, documents not only the areas in Africa where the slaves came from but also the skills, talents and intelligence they brought with them.

[Rebecca Brenner Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

historian David Hackett Fischer explores what he calls nine Afro-European regional cultures in the early U.S., divided into northern regions, southern regions, and frontier regions. Fischer bypasses the popular question of rather the American founding was negative, focusing instead on how African people who arrived via the trans-Atlantic slave trade shaped early American history. emphasizes, therefore, Black people and communities’ effects on their surroundings.