Crosscurrents in the Black Atlantic, 1770-1965 : A Brief History with Documents

Africans' influence in the Atlantic world before 1960 was not confined to their roles as victims in the one-way forced migration of the Atlantic slave trade and their labor on New World plantations. From the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, black people in the divided communities of the four Atlantic continents struggled to overcome geographical and cultural separations and build a broad coalition against discrimination and exploitation. David Northrup offers a collection of primary sources that presents the social, political, and intellectual interactions of black people around the Atlantic in their quests for advancement, liberation, and emancipation. His thoughtful introduction explores the themes woven through the history of the black Atlantic, in particular black people's search for security and self-fulfillment and their effort to find their place in a common humanity. Document headnotes, a chronology of key events, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography offer additional pedagogical support.

DAVID NORTHRUP (Ph.D, University of California, Los Angels) is professor of history at Boston College, where he teaches courses on the history of sub-Saharan Africa, international migrations, and world history. His research has dealt with pre-colonial Nigeria, early colonial Congo, the Atlantic slave trade, Asian and African indentured labor migration, and African encounters with Europe in the pre-colonial era. His publications include Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 1450–1850 (2002), The Atlantic Slave Trade (2002), and Indentured Labor in the Age of Imperialism, 1834–1922 (1995). Professor Northrup served as president of the World History Association in 2004–2005.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

List of Illustrations

PART ONE INTRODUCTION: RECONNECTING AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA

Seeking New Homes in Europe and Africa, 1773–1859

Missions to Redeem Africa, 1853–1891

The Quest for Unity, Liberation, and Advancement, 1897–1958

Black Cultural Unity and Global Agendas, 1904–1966

Transatlantic Voyagers, 1914–1963

Concluding Observations

PART TWO
THE DOCUMENTS

1. Seeking New Homes in Europe and Africa, 1773–1859

1. Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America, 1773

2. Olaudah Equiano, Going Back to Africa as a Missionary or Settler, 1779 and 1786

3. Ottobah Cugoano, An Account of the First Black Emigration from Britain to Sierra Leone, 1787

4. Thomas Peters, A Black Loyalist Petitions for a Better Place of Settlement, 1790

5. Nancy Gardner Prince, Visits to the Russian Court in St. Petersburg and to Jamaica, 1824 and 1840

6. Frederick Douglass, A Black Man in England Reflects on Racist America, 1846

7. American Colonization Society, Annual Report, 1850

8. Martin R. Delany, Changing Views of the Wisdom of African American Emigration, 1859

2. Missions to Redeem Africa, 1853–1891

9. Alexander Crummell, Hope for Africa, 1853

10. Edward Wilmot Blyden, An Appeal for Black Emigration to Liberia, 1887

11. Henry McNeal Turner, An African American Bishop’s Views of the Evangelization of Africa, 1891

12. Samuel Ajayi Crowther, An African Bishop Directs Christian Evangelization in Africa, 1869

13. George Washington Williams, A Report on the Congo Free State to President Benjamin Harrison, 1890

3. The Quest for Unity, Liberation, and Advancement, 1897–1958

14. Joseph Booth and John Chilembwe, A Plan for African and African American Cooperation, 1897

15. Pambani Jeremiah Mzimba, An African Appeal for African American Help,1901

16. W. E. B. Du Bois, A Critical Assessment of Booker T. Washington, 1901

17. Pixley ka Isaka Seme, An African Lawyer Urges Black South Africans to Unite, 1911

18. Marcus Garvey, Speech in Philadelphia, 1919

19. Universal Negro Improvement Association, Declaration of the Rights of the Negro People of the World, 1920

20. C. L. R. James, The West Indian Contribution to Pan–Africanism, 1921–1959

21. Kwame Nkrumah, Pan-Africanism and African Nationalism, 1937–1958

4. Black Cultural Unity and Global Agendas, 1904–1966

22. Haile Selassie I, An Appeal to the League of Nations, 1936

23. Ralph J. Bunche, Peace and a Better Life for All Men, 1950

24. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Booker T. Washington, An Assessment of African and African American Music, 1904

25. Paul Robeson, An African American Appreciation of African Music, 1935

26. W. E. B. Du Bois, What Is Africa to Me?, 1940 and 1923

27. Aimé Césaire, French West Indian Perspectives on Black Cultural Connections, 1953

28. Léopold Sédar Senghor, A Defense of Négritude, 1966

5. Transatlantic Voyagers, 1914–1963

29. James E. Kwegyir Aggrey, A Gold Coast African in America, 1914

30. Nnamdi Azikiwe, A Nigerian in America, 1925–1933

31. Constance Horton Cummings-John, A Sierra Leonean in America, 1936, 1945–1951

32. Eslanda Goode Robeson, We Go to Africa, 1936

33. Era Bell Thompson, An African American in Africa, 1953

34. Maya Angelou, An African American in Ghana, 1963

Appendixes

A Chronology of Events in the Black Atlantic (1770–1965)

Questions for Consideration

Selected Bibliography

Index