Summary
Praise for the previous edition:
"Typical for Facts On File publications, this is a well-researched volume that will find users from middle school and up...No other single work is quite comparable..." —Booklist
"Informative and detailed, this reference work cover[s] many essential aspects of slavery...One of the most readable and comprehensive guides to slavery available; highly recommended for public and academic libraries."—Choice
"...will be a frequently consulted reference tool in both public and academic libraries."—Library Journal
The history of the enslavement of African Americans in North America stretches from the beginning of European colonization to the end of the Civil War. Slavery in America recounts this history, as well as the Reconstruction period that followed, by examining, chapter by chapter, many of its aspects: the slave catchers and their coffles in Africa, the crowded slave ships, slave auctions, life and labor on plantations, escape attempts and insurrections, and the Civil War and eventual emancipation.
This edition also features a new chapter that extends coverage through Reconstruction to 1877 when the last Union troops withdrew from the South, addressing topics such as the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments; the struggle between President Andrew Johnson and the Radical Republicans over the terms of the readmission of the seceding states to the Union and the protection of the freedpeople; the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1875; and the ensuing disappointment in the hopes of the freedpeople. New photographs and maps also enhance this new edition. Hundreds of firsthand accounts—from diary entries, letters, speeches, and newspaper reports—illustrate how historical events appeared to those who lived through them. New eyewitness testimonies include John Brown, Frederick Douglass, and many more.
In addition, each chapter provides an introductory essay and a chronology of events. The book also includes such critical documents as President Lincoln's Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, the American Freedmen's Inquiry Commission Final Report, the Ku Klux Klan Organization and Principles, and the Civil Rights Act of March 1, 1875, as well as 98 black-and-white photographs; capsule biographies of more than 150 key figures; 16 maps, graphs, and tables; notes; an updated bibliography; a new appendix of charts and tables; a glossary; and an index.