Rating: 
Summary: The power of denial.
Review: Wow, this book was informative and yet extremely hard to put down, this is combination i very seldomly come across. There is so much to say about this book. Although it's not exaustive by any means, it pretty much gives you that complete sequential view that you find yourself saying "oohhhh" to. What struck me most about this book was the denial and the need for white christian men to feel less guilty about their exploitation and how, many of the "moral men" including a few of our founding fathers, found themselves often contradicting themselves on the issue of slavery. On the one side they would say and admit that slavery was wrong but then justify their actions by claiming that they (the slaves) were better off that way, being that according to the whites, slaves were incapable of taking care of themselves.
I enjoyed this book so much that i went ahead and bought the dvd as well to get a visisual of what i read.
bottom line,
if you want a straight foward book on slavery in america, look no further.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: "Africans in America" is a great book that vitalizes the Black American's history, and paints a perspective on slavery as an economic horror, not a moral evil. I HIGHLY recommend to all.
Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: "Africans in America" is a great book that vitalizes the Black American's history, and paints a perspective on slavery as an economic horror, not a moral evil. I HIGHLY recommend to all.
Rating: 
Summary: Endorsement
Review: AFRICANS IN AMERICA is a magnificent achievement, history at its superb best, brilliantly researched, poetically written, brimming over with original documents that cannot help but move the reader. It is a perfect example of history as a work of art. --Howard Zinn, Author of "A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES"
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I am a Nigerian born American, and have lived in the US for 40-years. This is the first book I have ever read from the SLAVES point of view. I have been married for 30-years to an American born African American, and this book, for the first time, explains to me why my 91-year old mother-in-law who lives with us could not watch the movie "Color Purple" or the PBS broadcast of Africans in America. I can now associate the Black American in the street as someone from my village in Nigeria. I am humbled by the humiliation and suffering which was perpetrated on my people for no other reason than the color of their skin. This book must be read by all recent African immigrtants to the US, all heads of African Governments, as well as all editors of African news organizations, in the hope that the respective African country shall adopt this book as a required reading in African schools. I make this recommendation because any history of slavery, whatsoever, as taught in the African schools today, was written in the last 100-years, with the point of view of the SLAVEMASTER. The respective modern day African country has no record of Slavery in America from 1450 to 1900. Worse yet, all the conditions that lead to tribal conflict and genocide exist today in many parts of Africa. Those who have no sense of history will repeat the mistakes of yester-years. This should be the beginning of a new dialogue among Africans and African Americans.
Rating:
Summary: THIS IS A "MUST" READING FOR ALL AFRICANS
Review: I am a Nigerian born American, and have lived in the US for 40-years. This is the first book I have ever read from the SLAVES point of view. I have been married for 30-years to an American born African American, and this book, for the first time, explains to me why my 91-year old mother-in-law who lives with us could not watch the movie "Color Purple" or the PBS broadcast of Africans in America. I can now associate the Black American in the street as someone from my village in Nigeria. I am humbled by the humiliation and suffering which was perpetrated on my people for no other reason than the color of their skin. This book must be read by all recent African immigrtants to the US, all heads of African Governments, as well as all editors of African news organizations, in the hope that the respective African country shall adopt this book as a required reading in African schools. I make this recommendation because any history of slavery, whatsoever, as taught in the African schools today, was written in the last 100-years, with the point of view of the SLAVEMASTER. The respective modern day African country has no record of Slavery in America from 1450 to 1900. Worse yet, all the conditions that lead to tribal conflict and genocide exist today in many parts of Africa. Those who have no sense of history will repeat the mistakes of yester-years. This should be the beginning of a new dialogue among Africans and African Americans.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely fantastic! chock full of facts and images.
Review: I got this before the series has been shown and I can tell the series will be great. It's wonderful to have all this information and the images in one handy book. It's well worth the price and I'm even going to use it for a class. A definitely necessity for anyone interested in US history, black history, slave history, human history. Kudos to the team!
Rating:
Summary: A good buy.
Review: I happen to have not only learned from this book but also enjoyed reading it. There's a lot of detail and even some inconsistencies but I've yet to come across a completely perfect representation of history. As far as inconsistencies noted by a fellow reviewer, there is no one official count of slaves...there are only estimates, and those estimates are also broken down into several sub-categories. You will find a variety of statistics on the slave trade but that should be expected by now...especially given the cruelty and inhuman conditions that existed. Who's to say how many slaves were killed that were never reported?
Point blank...this book is worth the money. It's a nice mix of fact that ties in your emotions with mini-storylines based on real occurrences.
Rating: 
Summary: More content, less style
Review: I have started reading Charles Johnson, Patricia Smith, and the WGBH Series Research Team, "African in American: America's Journey through Slavery" (New York: Harcourt Brace & Co., 1998), and so far I am shocked and disappointed. While the book has a lot of good information, it contains inconsistencies, fictional material not marked a such. The only citation thus far has been to quotes from primary sources; all other material, including a long quote from historian David Northrup, whom I have used in my research on slavery, is not cited. Perhaps this is because Johnson and Smith are fictional writers and journalist, not historians. The result is a well-written, engaging book that omits important facts, is inconsistent, and glosses over debated subjects with no evidence or citation.For example, the authors state at one point that 20 million Africans were captured, then states the more recent and widely accepted figure of 10 to 12 million, and then states 20 million again. They also state that the Portuguese dominated the trade at one point, then the Spainish without explaining the change. What really got my goat was that first thing, they try to dismiss Africans enslaving Africans as benign, using broad statements, without any critical examiniation, no examples to back it up, and not a single citation! They admit that Whites did not originally get Africans slaves out of racism, and hint at some similarities between White and Black experiences in how they came to the Americas, but they needed to explore that more thoroughly and directly. More effort could have been put into the facts and the analysis, and less into creative writing and style.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely The Best!
Review: Simply, the research team covers everything from much needed basic history to indepth discussion in a conversational tone. Great attention is given to documentation of facts. Written for all to enjoy, from the novice to the advanced scholar. A literary masterpiece. MUST read!!
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