Strange New Land: Africans in Colonial America
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Book Overview
Engaging and accessibly written, Strange New Land explores the history of slavery and the struggle for freedom before the United States became a nation. Beginning with the colonization of North America, Peter Wood documents the transformation of slavery from a brutal form of indentured servitude to a full-blown system of racial domination. Strange New Land focuses on how Africans survived this brutal process--and ultimately shaped the contours of American racial slavery through numerous means, including:
- Mastering English and making it their own
- Converting to Christianity and transforming the religion
- Holding fast to Islam or combining their spiritual beliefs with the faith of their masters
- Recalling skills and beliefs, dances and stories from the Old World, which provided a key element in their triumphant story of survival
- Listening to talk of liberty and freedom, of the rights of man and embracing it as a fundamental right--even petitioning colonial administrators and insisting on that right. Against the troubling backdrop of American slavery, Strange New Land surveys black social and cultural life, superbly illustrating how such a diverse group of people from the shores of West and Central Africa became a community in North America.
- Mastering English and making it their own
- Converting to Christianity and transforming the religion
- Holding fast to Islam or combining their spiritual beliefs with the faith of their masters
- Recalling skills and beliefs, dances and stories from the Old World, which provided a key element in their triumphant story of survival
- Listening to talk of liberty and freedom, of the rights of man and embracing it as a fundamental right--even petitioning colonial administrators and insisting on that right. Against the troubling backdrop of American slavery, Strange New Land surveys black social and cultural life, superbly illustrating how such a diverse group of people from the shores of West and Central Africa became a community in North America.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0195158237
ISBN13:9780195158236
Release Date:January 2003
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Length:112 Pages
Weight:0.44 lbs.
Dimensions:0.4" x 5.6" x 8.3"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
A Quck and Basic Read
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
I recommend this book if you have little or no knowledge. It is a quick introduction. He also includes a wonderful bibliography, if you wish to read more. I will vouch for the majority of the sources, in that I have already read many of them and give them high marks. If you are the type of reader who is not too keen on burdensome scholoarly works, these sources are a good bet. The average reader will enjoy.
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