Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005

by James T. Campbell

A three-century history of African-American journeys back to Africa from an America where depicted travelers or their ancestors were slaves traces the experiences of such people as W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the founders of Liberia. 30,000 first printing.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, Race, American History, The United States Of America, African American

544 pages, Hardcover

First published May 4, 2006

Reviews

[JRT · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Middle Passages” is a captivating analysis of African “American” interactions with their ancestral home of Africa. It traces a little over 200 years of thoughts, believes, attitudes, ideologies, and actions of African “Americans”—both free and enslaved—toward the continent of Africa. It discusses repatriation in great detail, examining the histories of the development of Sierra Leone and Liberia. Author and historian James Campbell details how Africa has always been present in the consciousness of African “Americans”—and historically has been foregrounded following intensifications of racial strife, terror, oppression in America. Campbell details this history through the individual stories of numerous African Americans over this 200 year period—some more famous and recognizable than tigers.

The underlying theme of this book is about identity. Not just African American identity, but African identity. Slavery, the slave trade, colonization, Jim Crow, decolonization, Civil Rights, and post-independence have all had profound impacts on how African Americans and Africans see themselves and one another. Campbell highlights these transformations in great detail.

[MacKenzie Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely believe in the intentions behind repartition, but I can’t see it being a true solution. There is no solution. Throughout the book I’ve been questioning what home means for a group of people several generations removed from their home, and sending them back with the wrong narrative or foreign culture was never on the drawing block. Home is within and individually conceptualized. #AfricanAMERICAN😒… However, if someone had the means to directly link me to an African ancestor or tribe like Priscilla, I’m paying for sure!!!

[Vicky Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Panoramic Survey of the Past 220 Years of African American History

Quote: "...for generations of African American intellectuals, the bond with Africa was a product not of memory or direct experience but of 'later learning and reaction.'"

Campbell created a pivotal historical work that briefly encapsulates African American history. Without going into too many details, he places the reader in a theater of the past; and recounts the saga of a search for identity and place that has been central to the African American experience over the last two centuries. Not only will it fill in the gaps to what should have been taught in American schools; but it ties it altogether in a cohesive way to make sense of the past. Our past. The author does this by focusing on the many African Americans who have crossed the Middle Passage in reverse... back to Africa... over the years.

The author tells the story through the introduction of a wide cast of African American emigrants and exiles. You are introduced immediately to the first character in the Prologue, Ayuba, better known as Job. The following nine chapters function as acts in a play, where new people are introduced in each chapter, generally in a chronological manner. This creates a smooth story effect, as in a narrative rather than a history. But, it is well researched, factual, and provides footnotes. It avoids opinion, and sticks with the facts. There is no real summary at the end of each chapter, so I will list a few topics below that appear in each chapter, to provide a general outline. Many historians do usually summarize the key points of a chapter at the end in at least a sentence, because it helps to organize their ideas for the reader's benefit. While that is not required, I thought it might help prospective readers to have a general outline.

Chapter 1 Windward Coast: The Civil War and Beyond

- Sierra Leone colony, and Paul Cuffe's ship Traveler.
- Robert Finley a Presbyterian minister, Daniel Coker.
- Monrovia, Liberia.
- Newport Gardner/ Occramoor Marycoo
- General Andrew Jackson was part of the committee on emmigration.
- Henry Clay's racist inaugural speech angered freed Africans.
- In 1816, The AME African Methodist Episcopal Church was the country's first independent black
denomination.

Chapter 2 Representing the Race: The Years Before the Great War

- Martin Delany 1859 colony, Afrocentrism, Frederick Douglass,
- The ill-fated Niger expedition, and Samuel Crowther.
- Early black periodicals in the US
- The Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott Decision
- Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin
- Livingstone and 'the dark continent'

Chapter 3 Emigration or Extermination: The Post War Years

-1870s Back to Africa movement
- Henry Turner, Jim Crow, Black Nationalism, Darwinian racism, Black Pride
- Edward and Fannie Worthington Ridgel

Chapter 4 Mundele Ndom: Colonialism and the Scramble for Africa

- 1890s, Charles Spencer Smith and the Congo River
- Congo Free State, Leopold and the butchered Human hands
- Queen Victoria, Mark Twain, Henry Morton Stanley
- WEB DuBois, William Henry Sheppard, Booker T. Washington, Samuel Lapsley
- Joseph Conrad and the Heart of Darkness
- National Geographic's 1st issue 1888,
- Metropolitan audiences traced the progress of expeditions in newspapers, magazines, and in the signature literary genre of the era, the “Dark Continent” travelogues appeared.
- 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago,
- Showcasing of the 'African Savages' around Europe. The practice reached a climax of sorts at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, which included an entire anthropological hall, a veritable parliament of primitives.

Chapter 5 So Long, So Far Away: 1st Half of the 20th Century

-1920s-1960. Langston Hughes, Harlem Renaissance
- Anthropologist Franz Boas, the New Negro movement
- Charlotte Osgood Mason, Zora Neale Hurston

Chapter 6 The Spell of Africa: A Continuation of the Early 20th Century Pre Civil Rights Movement

- George Schuyler & The Messenger, N.A.A.C.P., Marcus Garvey,
- Liberia, Du Bois and the Pan-African Conference, Versailles Peace Conference, Liberia,
- domestic slavery, Firestone, Fernando Po,
- L'Alelia Walker daughter of Madame C.J. Walker, H.L. Mencken

Chapter 7 Native Son, American Daughter: Focus on Richard Wright as a Pivotal Writer/ Figure

- Richard Wright and Era Bell Thompson.
- Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft (Community and society,) Pan-Africanism

Chapter 8 Black Star: The Rise of Modern African States (or Return)

- Dr. King, Robert E. Lee, Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, Ralph Bunche, Preston King
- Thoreau's Essay on Civil Disobedience,
- Malcom (Little) X, Rosa Parks, The Civil Rights Movement, Exiles, Emigrants, Louis Armstrong, - - Maya Angelou, William Gardner Smith, The National Liberation Council

Chapter 9 Counting the Bodies: Civil Wars and Genocides in Africa

- Rwandan Genocide, Nelson Mandela, AIDS, Kwanzaa
- Alex Haley, Roots retelling of American History
- Liberal programs from the 60's, such as Affirmative Action, Job Corps, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Equal Opportunity Employment, and Welfare came under attack in the US.

The epilogue is quite stirring, and I will leave that for the readers to discover. You will not want to miss it. There is a nice photo section in the middle of this hardback edition. It is a book that will be turned to again and again. Actually it was a finalist for a Pulitzer in 2007, along with another great history, written by Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. I think this book, Middle Passages, is one that everyone will find to be a voyage of discovery, regardless of prior knowledge or cultural background.

[Brian Bergen-Aurand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rarely do I feel a 500+ book ends too soon. This one does. From the first page to the last, it is an outstanding read and a marvelous work of historical analysis. Outstanding!

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many different journeys, some new insights into people I knew about and introductions to people I had not yet learned about. Lots of insight into connections btw the US and Africa in different periods, etc. Favorite part: that George Schuyler's DuBois character was named Agamemnon Shakespeare Beard.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, multidimensional history of the complex,convoluted relationship between African Americans,from the time of initial enslavement to the present, with the "homeland" Africa;a crash course in the insanity of colonialism and its pernicious effects on the continent, as well as in the grievous injury still ongoing in many countries in Africa as a result of recent civil wars and the many failed/foiled self-governments.Campbell's approach is steadfast,clear-headed and free of cant.He manages in 500 pages to give us compelling, refreshing and meaningful glimpses into the lives of both ordinary folk and legendary personalities(Langston Hughes,Richard Wright, W.E.B. duBois,and MayaAngelou et alia),whose journeys intersect in fascinating and surprising ways,as well as telling the "tale of Africa"(with especial focus on Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Ghana,places of origin and re-emigration for many African Americans).The entire book is a jewel..at a rich 300 years of history, an insightful travel guide to a complex world,a meditation on the nature of race and culture, a political discourse and roadmap to political follies, and much more. How did Africa find itself in the bedeviled position it is now? What part of black Americans' search for identity can be gleaned from a place as diverse as modern Africa? What do we need to know about our history,black and white, to understand ourselves as Americans? What can we do to make peace with the past, and how do we stop closing our eyes to the effects of racism at home and genocide abroad? Strongly recommended and essential reading for a complicated world.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only got 2/3 through it before I had to return it to the library the day I left town, but this is an interesting, if overly anecdotal, account of why and how African Americans set their sights on Africa. The fumbling foundings of Sierra Leone and Liberia was especially amazing. Campbell is convincing in how the expectations, presumptions, and purposes that Americans of all races put upon Africa says more about their expectations, presumptions, and purposes for America. But at least in what I read, Campbell doesn't explore this overmuch. Instead, he simply shares stories of people with interesting and often hugely influential journeys to Africa. I was especially excited about the accounts of twentieth century writers who set off, such as Langston Hughes and WEB DuBois--but, alas, alack,it was here where I had to return the book.

[P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle tells it all. This book chronicles the return to Africa by various African-Americans, Blacks, Negroes, Coloreds, Afro-Americans, from 1787-2005. Many of the famous are included (duBois, Angelou, etc.), but the obscure and forgotten are also described to make a point.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very readable for a substantial, academic piece of non-fiction. A sweeping history of slave trade, slavery and African-American migration back to Africa movements. A very Hunan treatment of lots of historical figures.

[Christina Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is almost TOO readable. It kind of kills me. There is some great stuff here but I didn't latch onto it much. Great discussion of black missionaries.

[Amil Cook]

Great historical overview of Pan-Africanism in action throughout the African Diaspora.