Slavery and the Making of America [Paperback]

James Oliver Horton (Author), Lois E. Horton (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195304519 | ISBN-13: 978-0195304510 | Publication Date: February 16, 2006

The history of slavery is central to understanding the history of the United States. Slavery and the Making of America offers a richly illustrated, vividly written history that illuminates the human side of this inhumane institution, presenting it largely through stories of the slaves themselves.
Readers will discover a wide ranging and sharply nuanced look at American slavery, from the first Africans brought to British colonies in the early seventeenth century to the end of Reconstruction. The authors document the horrors of slavery, particularly in the deep South, and describe the slaves' valiant struggles to free themselves from bondage. There are dramatic tales of escape by slaves such as William and Ellen Craft and Dred Scott's doomed attempt to win his freedom through the Supreme Court. We see how slavery engendered violence in our nation, from bloody confrontations that broke out in American cities over fugitive slaves, to the cataclysm of the Civil War. The book is also filled with stories of remarkable African Americans like Sergeant William H. Carney, who won the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at the crucial assault on Fort Wagner during the Civil War, and Benjamin "Pap" Singleton, a former slave who led freed African Americans to a new life on the American frontier. Filled with absorbing and inspirational accounts highlighted by more than one hundred pictures and illustrations, Slavery and the Making of America is a gripping account of the struggles of African Americans against the iniquity of slavery.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this compact and lucid account of how "[t]he history of slavery is central to the history of the United States," the Hortons (Hard Road to Freedom, etc.) demonstrate the vital role that blacks played in landmarks of the American record (colonial settlement, the Revolution, westward expansion, the Civil War, Reconstruction). Africans and African-Americans appear not just as "passive laborers" but as shapers of American culture, from colonial politics to Southern cuisine. The authors reveal the myriad experiences of free and enslaved blacks and devote particular attention to the lives of women, both white and black. The oft-told tale is made fresh through up-to-date slavery scholarship, the extensive use of slave narratives and archival photos and, especially, a focus on individual experience. The well-known players (Attucks, Vesey, Tubman, Douglass) appear, but so do the more anonymous ones—the planter's wife and the slave driver share space with the abolitionist and the Confederate soldier, and all are skillfully etched. As the Hortons chronicle lives from freedom in Africa to slavery in America and beyond, they tell an integral American story, a tale not of juxtaposition but of edgy oneness.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School - This outstanding resource humanizes the tragedy of slavery and shows its legacy as it continues to shape American culture today. Through both paraphrased and quoted primary sources, the Hortons discuss the issues, relate events, and tell the stories of named slaves from the early 1700s to the end of Reconstruction. By bringing individuals to life, the inhumanity is made more real and vivid. Readers meet 13-year-old Anta Njaay, who was plucked from Africa in 1806, and the Ball family, who were slaves in South Carolina, as well as people such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. Much research has gone into this work, but the writing is accessible. Black-and-white photographs and period reproductions are liberally sprinkled throughout. Although they are a bit dark due to age, they make the text more interesting and lifelike. - Claudia Moore, W. T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (February 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195304519
• ISBN-13: 978-0195304510
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #78,376 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete History of America's Peculiar Institution, March 8, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Slavery and the Making of America (Hardcover)

Slavery began in the United States in 1619, before the Pilgrims landed. It lasted until 1865, almost 250 years. Originally not just a southern institution, New York City had as many as 10,000 slaves at the end of the 1700's.

The stories of slave holding has been told many times, from the movies like Uncle Tom's Cabin, to Roots, to Ken Burns series The Civil War. This book brings a concise overall view to slavery and seems to draw on a wealth of original schlorship. The photographs are not those commonly seen in such histories.

This book covers more of the slave rebellions than most. The famous incidents like the Dred Scott case, the Harpers Ferry raid of John Brown and so on are covered, but so are rebellions of a smaller and much less well known nature. Some of the slaves brought to the US had been military leaders in Africa. They had the martial thoughts and training to forment true rebellion of a type that absolutely terrified the Southern slave owners.

The book basically ends at the end of the Civil War when slavery as a legal institution ended. The story of the continuing African American struggles to find equality belong in other books.

One final thought. Slavery existed in the South because of cotton, and particularily the difficulty of separating the cotton seed from the fiber. By the mid 1800's slavery was still in power, but the impact of the cotton gin was beginning to make slavery uneconomical. An interesting what if -- would slavery have ended within a few years even if the Civil War had not been fought.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific insightful look at early American History, October 30, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Slavery and the Making of America (Hardcover)

SLAVERY AND THE MAKING OF AMERICA is a terrific historical account of the roles and influence that the black slaves made on the United States. The Hortons provide an insightful look on how the slaves impacted all aspects of culture from the first arrivals during the colonial period through the Revolution, the early nineteenth century fulfillment of Manifest Destiny, and finally the Civil War and post Reconstruction. The authors pull no punches while making a solid logical argument with strong supporting evidence that blacks were major players in the colonial and birth of a nation America. Especially interesting is the deep look at various roles and of unknown people. Anecdotal reciting and photographs augment this superb account of how much the black slaves influenced America. Easy to read but difficult to put down because the book is so engrossing, this is a fabulous tome that history buffs will take immense delight in as the Hortons make their case quite interesting as they shatter preconceptions of early American History with insightfulness.

Harriet Klausner

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Companion to a television documentary on PBS, March 27, 2007

By 

Bruce Bain "Romans 9:33/Remember Jackie Robinson" (Englewood, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Slavery and the Making of America (Paperback)

"Slavery and the Making of America" by James Oliver Horton and Lois E. Horton

This companion text to the PBS television documentary is a riveting account of the taking of African slaves for trade in the Americas. This is a historical account of human suffering and exploitation, and the social impact of slavery upon the Americas.

I have three criticisms of the text concerning its accounts.

First, the text does not elaborate upon the Abolitionist movement as a fundamental religious movement.

Second, the book does not elaborate enough on the role of religion in elevating former slaves.

Third, the book gives no account of early voices in America protesting the practices of slavery. Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams were all opposed to slavery and attempted to abolish its practice in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence. For lack of sufficient votes from the southern colonies, the clause was stricken from the Declaration.

Notwithstanding, the text is higly informative and thorough. It does enter into detail concerning the nature of slavery and the economoic and social forces which drove it, and it is an excellent resource.