
The Trouble They Seen
The Story Of Reconstruction In The Words Of African Americans
Dorothy Sterling(Author)
Da Capo Press Inc
Published on 22. March 1994
Book
Paperback/Softback
492 pages
978-0-306-80548-6 (ISBN)
Description
Most histories of Reconstruction deal primarily with political issues and the larger conflicts between Democrats and Republicans, notherners and southerners. The Trouble They Seen departs from this approach to examine in their own words the lives of ordinary ex-slaves who had few skills and fewer opportunities. People are by now familiar with names like Frederick Douglass, Martin R. Delany, and Robert Smalls, but they know little of the men and women of more modest distinction, less still of the anonymous millions whose lives have been recorded in letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, and official documents. Editor Dorothy Sterling has drawn on these primary sources and with cogent commentary depicts the African American experience during Reconstruction, from 1865 to 1877. The period unfolds with immediacy and drama in the voices of African Americans: the problems and promise of the first year the role of the Freedmen's Bureau anti-black violence the initiation of political participation the development of black colleges the renaissance in the African American community, a time of unprecedented progress in the fields of politics, education, economics, and culture and the inevitable tragic struggle by African Americans against southern white efforts to resume political power and to fetter black freedom with a thousand chains more durable than slavery.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Hachette Books
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
721 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-306-80548-6 (9780306805486)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Year One * Sweet Freedom's Song * Ambrose, You Must Be Dreaming * The Promised Land * Dont I Know That Aint Justice? * We Simply Ask That We Be Recognized as Men We Are Laying the Foundations of a New Structure * The Bureau * I Saw People Fall Like Flies * We Are Entering a New Era The Spokesmen * The Grass-roots Politicians * Group Portrait The People * A Way to Live * We Need This Land * All That We Want is the Greenback There Is A Bright Future * Send Us Teachers * We Were Devoured with Ambition to Do Our Best The Government of the United States Abandons You * Will It Be I? * I Must Fight * We Submit These Facts for Your Impartial Judgment * It Was the Most Violent Time That Ever We Have Seen * We Lost All Hopes