Crossing the Danger Water

Table Of Contents

Introduction
 
THE FIRST AFRICANS IN NORTH AMERICA 
            from They Came Before Columbus
 
OLAUDAH EQUIANO 
             from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah 
                 Equiano or Gustarus Vassa, the African (1789)
 
EARLY SLAVE REVOLTS
            Report of Governor Hunter on the New York Slave Conspiracy 
               (1712)
 
LUCY TERRY 
               Bars Fight (1761)
 
JUPITER HAMMON
            An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penitential 
               Cries (1761)
 
AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
            Petition of the Africans, Living in Boston (1773)
            The Declaration of Independence (1776)
            Emancipation of Slaves for Military Service During the American 
               Revolution (1783)
 
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
            On Being Brought from AFRICA to AMERICA (1773)
            On Imagination (1773)
            To the Right Honourable WILLIAM, Earl of DARTMOUTH, His 
               Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for North America (1773)
            Letter to Samson Occom (1774)
 
BENJAMIN BANNEKER
            Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1791)
 
SLAVE REVOLTS
            Testimony on Gabriel’s Revolt (1800)
            Testimony on the Vesey Conspiracy (1822)
            Letter from a Slave Rebel (1793)
            Letter from a Slave Rebel in Georgia (1810)
 
THE FOUNDING OF THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN PRESS
            Editorial from the First Edition of Freedom’s Journal (1827)
 
THE COLONIZATION DEBATE
            The Argument For (1829)
            The Argument Against (1827)
 
DAVID WALKER
            from Walker’s Appeal in Four Articles . . . (1829)
 
NAT TURNER
            from The Confessions of Nat Turner (1831)
 
GEORGE MOSES HORTON
             The Slave’s Complaint (1829)
 
THE AMISTAD CASE (1839)
            United States Appallants v. the Libellants and Claimants of the 
               Schooner Amistad (1841)
 
THE CONVENTION MOVEMENT, 1830–1864
            An Address to the Colored People of the United States, from the
                Colored National Convention of 1848
 
HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET
            An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America (1843)
 
MARTIN DELANY
            from The Condition, Elevation, and Destiny of the Colored 
               People of the United States, Politically Considered (1852) 
            Declaration of the Principles of the National Emigration 
               Convention (1854)
 
THE CASE OF DRED SCOTT
            Dred Scott’s Petition for Freedom (1847)
            Reaction of the Dred Scott Decision (1857)
 
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
            from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
            Letter to Thomas Auld (1848)
            What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852)
 
HARRIET JACOBS
            The Jealous Mistress 
            from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
 
WILLIAM WELLS BROWN
            From Clotel: or, The President’s Daughter: A Narrative of 
               Slave Life in the United States (1853)
 
HARRIET E. WILSON
            from Our Nig (1859)
 
SOJOURNER TRUTH
            Address to the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention (1851)
            Address to the First Annual Meeting of the American Equal Rights 
               Association (1867)
 
HARRIET TUBMAN
            from Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People (1886)
 
FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER
            Bury Me in a Free Land (1854)
            The Slave Mother (1854)
            A Double Standard
 
JOHN BROWN’S RAID AT HARPERS FERRY
            Letter from John A. Copeland (1859)
            Letter to John Brown for Frances Harper (1860)
            On John Browns’s Raid (1859)
 
EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION
 
THE NEW YORK DRAFT RIOTS
            An Eyewitness Account (1863)
 
HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET
            A Memorial Discourage Delivered in the Hall of the House of 
               Representatives (1865)
 
AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE CIVIL WAR
            Men of Color, to the Arms! (1863)
            Camp Diary (1863)
            The Struggle for Pay (1864)
            Farewell Address to the Troops (1866)
 
FOLK CULTURE AND LITERATURE
            Slave Song
            Promises of Freedom 
            Slave Marriage Ceremony Supplement 
            Plantation Proverbs 
            Aphorisms 
            All God’s Chillen Had Wings 
            John Henry 
            The Signifying Monkey 
            Stackalace 
            Shine and the Titanic 
            Easy Rider 
            Joe Turner 
            St. Louis Blues 
            Joe Turner Blues 
            Beale Street Blues
 
SPIRITUALS
            Go Down, Moses
            Who’ll Be a Witness for My Lord?
            Joshua Fit de Battle ob Jerico
            I Got a Home in Dat Rock
            Roll Jordan, Roll
            My Way’s Cloudy
            Steal Away to Jesus
            I Know Moon-Rise
            Deep River
            Down in the Valley
            Swing Low Sweet Chariot
            Ride In, Kind Savior
            My Army Cross Over
            Many Thousand Gone
            We’ll Soon Be Free
            I Thank God I’m Free at Las’
 
THE CIVIL WAR AMENDENTS
            The Thirteenth Amendment (1865)
            The Fourteenth Amendment (1868)
            The Fifteenth Amendment (1870)
 
RECONSTRUCTION
            Freedman’s Bureau (1865)
            South Carolina Black Code (1864-1865)
            Frederick Douglass’s Speech to the Thirty-second Annual 
               Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society (1865)
            Blanche K. Bruce’s Speech to the United States Senate (1876)
            Henry M. Turner’s Speech to the Georgia Legislature (1868)
            Petition from Kentucky Citizens of Ku Klux Klan (1871)
 
THE EXODUSTERS
            News Accounts from the Black Press (1879–1886)
 
CHARLES W. CHESNUTT
            Po’ Sandy       
            The Wife of His Youth
 
PAUL LAURANCE DUNBAR
            We Wear the Mask
            Sympathy
            A Negro Love Song
            The Poet
 
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON
            from Up from Slavery (1901)
            The Atlanta Exposition Address (1895)
 
W. E. B Du BOIS
            from The Souls of Black Folk (1903) 
            The Talented Tenth (1903)
 
IDA WELLS-BARNETT
            from A Red Record (1895)
 
MARY CHURCH TERRELL
            What Role Is the Educated Negro Women to Play in the Uplifting
                of Her Race? (1902)
 
ANNA JULIA COPPER
             from A Voice in the South (1892)
 
PLESSY V. FERGUSON (1896)
 
THE NIAGARA MOVEMENT (1905)
 
THE FOUNDING OF THE NAACP
            Principles of the NAACP (1911)
            The Crisis (1910)
            Agitation (1910)
 
JACK JOHNSON    
            The Prize Fighter (1941)
 
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
            Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing (1900)
            from The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man (1912)
            O Black and Unknown Bards (1917)
 
THE GREAT MIGRATION, 1910–1920
            Letters and Articles from The Chicago Defender
 
RED SUMMER OF 1919
            A Directive of French Troops (1918)
            Returning Soldiers (1919)
            Three Hundred Years (1919)
            Claude McKay, If We Must Die! (1919)
 
MARCUS GARVEY
            Declaration of the Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World 
               (1920)
 
ALAIN LOCKE
            The New Negro (1925)
 
CLAUDE McKAY
            The Harlem Dancer
            Spring in New Hampshire
            The Lynching
            Tiger
            The White City
            The Tropics in New York
 
LANGSTON HUGHES
            I, Too (1925)
            The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1926)
            The Negro Artists and the Racial Mountain (1926)
            Harlem (1951)
 
JEAN TOOMER
            from Cane
 
COUNTEE CULLEN
            Yet Do I Marvel (1925)
            Heritage ( 1925)
            From the Dark Tower (1925)
 
ZORA NEALE HURSTON
            Sweat (1926)
 
THE SCOTTSBORO CASES
            Appeal of the Scottsboro Boys (1932)
 
JOE LOUIS
            Joe Louis Uncovers Dynamite (1935)
 
STERLING BROWN
            Strong Men (1932)
 
ROBERT HAYDEN
            Frederick Douglass
            Middle Passage
 
RICHARD WRIGHT
            The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch 
               (1937)
 
PHILLIP RANDOLPH AND THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON MOVEMENT
            Program of the March on Washington Movement (1942)
            Executive Order 8802 (1941)
 
TRUMAN INTEGRATES THE MILITARY
            Executive Order 9981 (1948)
 
PAUL ROBESON
            Statement to the House Un-American Activities Committee (1956)
 
GWENDOLYN BROOKS
            The Mother
            We Real Cool
            The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock
 
RALPH ELLISON
            from Invisible Man (1952)
 
JAMES BALDWIN
            Notes of a Native Son (1955)
 
BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TOPEKA
            NAACP Brief (1953)
            Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
 
MARTIN LUTHER KING. JR
            Letter from Birmingham City Jail (1963)
            I Have a Dream (1963)
           
SONGS OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
            We Shall Overcome
            O Freedom
            Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
            Ain’t Gonna let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round
 
KWANZAA
           
MALCOLM X
            from The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)
 
ELDRIDGE CLEAVER
            from Soul on Ice
 
THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY
            Black Panther Party Platform (1966)
 
AMIRI BARAKA
            Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note
            State/ment
            Ka ’Ba
 
THE KERNER COMMISSION
            from The Kerner Commission Report (1968)
 
AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE VIETNAM WAR
            Selections from Bloods
 
MAYA ANGELOU
            from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970)
 
ALICE WALKER
            from In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose 
               (1974)
 
JESSE JACKSON
            Address to the Democratic National Convention (1984)
 
RAP MUSIC
 
THE CLARENCE THOMAS CONFIRMATION HEARING
            Clarence Thomas’s Second Statement to the Senate Judiciary 
               Committee (1991)
 
THE L.A. RIOTS
            Congresswomen Maxine Waters’s Testimony Before the Senate 
               Banking Committee (1992)
 
Selected Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Selected Index