Reference Reviews

Lawrence Looks at Books

Voices of the African American Experience, edited by Lionel C. Bascom. 3 vols. 717p. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2009. 978-0-313-34347-6; 2008-56155. $275.

This documentary survey of African American history provides excerpts from 145 primary sources ranging in time from the 1760 narrative of the travails of Briton Hammond to Barack Obama’s presidential election night speech. As one would expect, the selections outline seminal features of the African American experience: the ordeal of slavery, abolitionism, emancipation, the struggle for education, the rise of Jim Crow, the Great Migration, integration and the reclamation of civil rights. From the Fugitive Slave Act to Jesse Jackson’s addresses to Democratic conventions, relevant legislation and political speeches are liberally quoted. So too are numerous social critics, from Frederick Douglass to James Baldwin. However, a significant number of entries also reflect more than issues of public discourse. Hence, Gullah proverbs, sermons, poetry, field hollers, musician’s memoirs and literary excerpts also make their appearance. Each entry is introduced with a historical note and references provide sources for the original, if the reader needs something more than the substantial quotations provided. The selection provides insights into both familiar and forgotten events. For example, a selection of abolitionist Lydia Maria Child’s correspondence includes letters sent and received by both John Brown and Virginia governor Henry Wise. Charles Waddell Chesnutt comments on the 1898 race riots in Wilmington, North Carolina. Journalist Vivian Morris describes factory conditions for women workers in Depression era New York. This wide-ranging survey will prove useful in high school, public and academic libraries.