Customer Reviews

Black Trials: Citizenship from the Beginnings of Slavery to the End of Caste

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What a fascinating book which at its heart attempts to answer the question "what does it mean to belong?" Not only is that a question of actual acceptance by one group, but one of perceived acceptance by another. The book is extremely well structured. The author, in examining, what it means, specifically, to be American, takes us seemlessly through the history of the Afro-American in the US through poignant discriptives of key black trials. Each story is told with meticulous, at times excruciating, detail down to the color of Indian cloth for which young African boys were traded. Every sight, smell, and stutter of speech noted to present the reader with an immaculate image of the moment.

I am sure that Prof. Weiner's conclusion that the Afro-American now "belongs" (i.e. is not an outcaste in American society) is debatable by both liberals and conservatives, but the history and the final arguments are well stated and worth the time to read.