Book Reviews

New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth

October 5, 2008

Author: Alan J. Singer Publisher: SUNY Press (2008) As some southern legislatures, prodded by African American representatives, expressed regret over their states’ role in slave trading and exploiting slave labor, a kind of “truth and reconciliation” movement has stirred educators. So far the focus has been on the southern states where African people were brutally [...]

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The Legacy of Vicente Guerrero, Mexico’s First Black Indian President

January 21, 2006

Author: Theodore G. Vincent Publisher: University of Florida Press, 2001 Vicente Guerrero has been a towering figure in the Americas, masterfully commanding Mexico’s liberation army during much of its independence movement in the early 19th century, and in 1829 assuming his country’s presidency where he again fought off foreign invaders. Born poor to a Black [...]

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Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson

January 21, 2001

Author: Professor Paul Finkelman Publisher: M.E. Sharpe Inc., 2001 In the 1830s William Lloyd Garrison, a fiery anti-slavery polemicist, infuriated citizens of Boston by publicly threatening to burn a copy of the US Constitution which he excoriated as a “covenant with death” and “an agreement with Hell.” People were shocked and even among his band [...]

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