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 Contents  vii

Sugar 121 African-American Institutions 149

Cotton 121 Churches 149
Cotton and Technology 122 Voices The Constitution of the Pittsburgh African
Other Crops 123 ­Education Society 150
House Servants and Skilled Slaves 123 Schools 150
Urban and Industrial Slavery 124 Voluntary Associations 151
Punishment 125 Free African Americans in the Upper South 152
Voices Frederick Douglass on the Readiness of Free African Americans in the Deep South 154
Masters to Use the Whip 126 Free African Americans in the Far West 156
The Domestic Slave Trade 126 Conclusion 156 Chapter Timeline 157
Slave Families 127 Review ­Questions 158
Explore on MyHistoryLab The Internal
Slave Trade 128 Chapter 8
Children 128
Sexual Exploitation 129 Opposition to Slavery,
Voices A Slaveholder Describes a New 1730–1833 159
Purchase 130
Antislavery Begins in America 160
Diet 131
From Gabriel to Denmark Vesey 161
Clothing 131
The Path toward a More Radical Antislavery
Health 132
Movement 162
The Socialization of Slaves 132
Slavery and Politics 163
Religion 133
The Second Great Awakening 164
The Character of Slavery and Slaves 134
The Benevolent Empire 164
Conclusion 135 Chapter Timeline 135
Explore on MyHistoryLab The Second
Review ­Questions 136
Great Awakening 165
Colonization 165
Chapter 7 Black Nationalism and Colonization 166
Black Opposition to Colonization 166
Free Black People in Voices William Watkins Opposes
Antebellum America, Colonization 167
1820–1861 137 Black Abolitionist Women 168
Voices A Black Woman Speaks Out on the Right
Demographics of Freedom 138
to Education 169
The Jacksonian Era 139
The Baltimore Alliance 169
Limited Freedom in the North 141
David Walker and Nat Turner 170
Black Laws 141
Conclusion 172 Chapter Timeline 173
Disfranchisement 142
Review Questions 174
Segregation 143
Black Communities in the Urban North 144
The Black Family 144 Chapter 9
Poverty 145 Let Your Motto Be Resistance,
The Northern Black Elite 145
Voices Maria W. Stewart on the Condition
1833–1850 175
of Black Workers 146 A Rising Tide of Racism and Violence 176
Inventors 147 Antiblack and Antiabolitionist Riots 176
Professionals 147 Texas and the War against Mexico 177
Artists and Musicians 147 The Antislavery Movement 178
Authors 148 The American Anti-Slavery Society 178
viii  Contents
Black and Women’s Antislavery Societies 179
Moral Suasion 180
Black Community Support 181
The Black Convention Movement 181
Black Churches in the Antislavery Cause 181
Voices Frederick Douglass Describes an Awkward
Situation 182
Black Newspapers 182
The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and
the ­Liberty Party 183
A More Aggressive Abolitionism 184
The Amistad and the Creole 184
The Underground Railroad 185
Technology and the Underground
Railroad 186
Canada West 186
Explore on MyHistoryLab The Under-
ground Railroad 187
Black Militancy 188
Voices Martin R. Delany Describes His Vision of
a Black Nation 189
Frederick Douglass 189
Revival of Black Nationalism 190
Conclusion 191 Chapter Timeline 192
Review Questions 193
Chapter 10
“And Black People Were at
the Heart of It”: The United
States Disunites over Slavery,
1846–1861 194
The Lure of the West 195
Free Labor versus Slave Labor 195
The Wilmot Proviso 195
African Americans and the Gold Rush 196
California and the Compromise of 1850 197
Fugitive Slave Laws 197
Voices African Americans Respond to the Fugitive
Slave Law 199
Fugitive Slaves 199
William and Ellen Craft 200
Shadrach Minkins 201
The Battle at Christiana 201
Anthony Burns 201
Margaret Garner 202
The Rochester Convention, 1853 202
Nativism and the Know-Nothings 203
Uncle Tom’s Cabin 203
The Kansas-Nebraska Act 204
Preston Brooks Attacks Charles Sumner 205
The Dred Scott Decision 206
Questions for the Court 206
Reaction to the Dred Scott Decision 207
White Northerners and Black Americans 207
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 208
Abraham Lincoln and Black People 208
John Brown and the Raid on Harpers Ferry 209
Planning the Raid 209
The Raid 209
The Reaction 210
Explore on MyHistoryLab The Sectional
Crisis 211
The Election of Abraham Lincoln 212
Black People Respond to Lincoln’s Election 212
Disunion 213
Conclusion 213 Chapter Timeline 214
Review ­Questions 215
Connecting the Past Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass and Black Autobiography 216
Chapter 11
Liberation: African
Americans and the Civil War,
1861–1865 218
Lincoln’s Aims 219
Black Men Volunteer and Are Rejected 219
Union Policies toward Confederate Slaves 219
“Contraband” 220
Lincoln’s Initial Position 221
Lincoln Moves toward Emancipation 221
Lincoln Delays Emancipation 221
Black People Reject Colonization 222
The Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation 222
Northern Reaction to Emancipation 222
Political Opposition to Emancipation 223
The Emancipation Proclamation 223
Limits of the Proclamation 223
Effects of the Proclamation on the South 224
Black Men Fight for the Union 226
The First South Carolina Volunteers 226
The Second South Carolina Volunteers 226
The 54th Massachusetts Regiment 227
 Contents  ix

Black Soldiers Confront Discrimination 227 Education 250

Black Men in Combat 228 Black Teachers 251
The Assault on Battery Wagner 228 Black Colleges 252
Olustee 229 Response of White Southerners 253
The Crater 229 Violence 253
The Confederate Reaction to The Crusade for Political and Civil Rights 254
Black Soldiers 230 Presidential Reconstruction under Andrew
The Abuse and Murder of Black Troops 230 Johnson 255
The Fort Pillow Massacre 230 Voices A Northern Black Woman on Teaching
Voices A Black Nurse on the Horrors of War and Freedmen 256
the ­Sacrifice of Black Soldiers 231 Black Codes 256
Black Men in the Union Navy 231 Black Conventions 257
Liberators, Spies, and Guides 232 The Radical Republicans 257
Violent Opposition to Black People 232 Radical Proposals 257
The New York City Draft Riot 233 The Freedmen’s Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights
Union Troops and Slaves 233 Bill 259
Refugees 233 Johnson’s Vetoes 259
Black People and the Confederacy 234 The Fourteenth Amendment 259
Skilled and Unskilled Slaves in Southern Radical Reconstruction 260
Industry 234 Universal Manhood Suffrage 260
The Impressment of Black People 234 Black Politics 261
Confederates Enslave Free Black People 235 Sit-Ins and Strikes 261
Black Confederates 235 The Reaction of White Southerners 261
Personal Servants 235 Conclusion 262 Chapter Timeline 263
Black Men Fighting for the South 236 Review ­Questions 264
Black Opposition to the Confederacy 236
The Confederate Debate on Black Troops 237
Conclusion 238 Chapter Timeline 239 Chapter 13
Review ­Questions 240 The Meaning of Freedom:
The Failure of Reconstruction,
Chapter 12 1868–1877 266
The Meaning of Freedom: The Constitutional Conventions 266
Promise of Reconstruction, Elections 266
Black Political Leaders 267
1865–1868 241 The Issues 268
The End of Slavery 242 Education and Social Welfare 268
Differing Reactions of Former Slaves 242 Civil Rights 269
Reuniting Black Families 242 Economic Issues 269
Land 243 Land 270
Special Field Order #15 243 Business and Industry 270
The Port Royal Experiment 244 Black Politicians: An Evaluation 270
The Freedmen’s Bureau 244 Republican Factionalism 271
Voices A Freedmen’s Bureau Commissioner Tells Opposition 271
Freed People What Freedom Means 246 The Ku Klux Klan 272
Southern Homestead Act 247 Voices An Appeal for Help against
Sharecropping 247 the Klan 274
The Black Church 247 The West 275
x  Contents

The Fifteenth Amendment 275 The Wilmington Riot 300

Explore on MyHistoryLab The New Orleans Riot 300
Reconstruction 276 Lynching 300
The Enforcement Acts 277 Explore on MyHistoryLab Racial
The North and Reconstruction 277 ­Violence in the United States, 1880–1930 302
The Freedmen’s Bank 278 Rape 302
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 279 Migration 303
The End of Reconstruction 279 The Liberian Exodus 303
Violent Redemption 279 The Exodusters 304
Voices Black Leaders Support the Passage of Migration within the South 306
a Civil Rights Act 280 Black Farm Families 306
The Shotgun Policy 280 Cultivating Cotton 306
The Hamburg Massacre and the Ellenton Riot 281 Sharecroppers 307
The “Compromise” of 1877 282 Renters 307
Conclusion 283 Chapter Timeline 284 Crop Liens 307
Review ­Questions 286 Peonage 307
Voices Cash and Debt for the Black Cotton
Connecting the Past Voting and Politics 287
Farmer 308
Black Landowners 308
Chapter 14 White Resentment of Black Success 309
African Americans and Southern Courts 309
White Supremacy Triumphant: Segregated Justice 309
African Americans in the The Convict Lease System 310
Late Nineteenth Century, Conclusion 311 Chapter Timeline 312
1877–1895 289 Review Questions 313

Politics 290
Black Congressmen 291 Chapter 15
Democrats and Farmer Discontent 292 African Americans Challenge
The Colored Farmers’ Alliance 292
The Populist Party 293
White Supremacy, 1877–1918 314
Disfranchisement 293 Social Darwinism 315
Evading the Fifteenth Amendment 294 Education and Schools 315
Mississippi 294 Segregated Schools 316
South Carolina 295 The Hampton Model 316
The Grandfather Clause 295 Booker T. Washington and the Tuskegee Model 316
The “Force Bill” 295 Critics of the Tuskegee Model 318
Segregation 296 Voices Thomas E. Miller and the Mission
Jim Crow 296 of the Black Land-Grant College 319
Segregation on the Railroads 296 Church and Religion 319
Plessy v. Ferguson 297 The Church as Solace and Escape 320
Streetcar Segregation 297 The Holiness Movement and the Pentecostal Church 320
Voices Majority and Dissenting Opinions Roman Catholics and Episcopalians 321
on Plessy v. Ferguson 298 Red versus Black: The Buffalo Soldiers 322
Segregation Proliferates 299 Discrimination in the Army 322
Racial Etiquette 299 The Buffalo Soldiers in Combat 324
Violence 299 Civilian Hostility to Black Soldiers 324
Washington County, Texas 299 Brownsville 325
The Phoenix Riot 300 African Americans in the Navy 325
 Contents  xi

The Black Cowboys 325 The NAACP 348

The Black Cowgirls 326 Using the System 348
The Spanish-American War 326 Du Bois and the Crisis 349
Black Officers 327 Washington versus the NAACP 349
“A Splendid Little War” 327 The Urban League 350
After the War 328 Black Women and the Club Movement 351
The Philippine Insurrection 328 The NACW: “Lifting as We Climb” 351
Would Black Men Fight Brown Men? 328 Phillis Wheatley Clubs 351
Voices Black Men in Battle in Cuba 329 Anna Julia Cooper and Black Feminism 352
Black Business People and Entrepreneurs 330 Women’s Suffrage 352
African Americans and the World’s Columbian The Black Elite 352
Exposition 330 The American Negro Academy 353
Obstacles and Opportunities for Employment among The Upper Class 353
African Americans 330 Fraternities and Sororities 353
African Americans and Labor 331 African-American Inventors 353
Unions 332 Presidential Politics 354
Strikes 332 Black Men and the Military in World War I 355
Black Professionals 333 The Punitive Expedition to Mexico 355
Medicine 333 World War I 355
The Law 334 Black Troops and Officers 356
Music 334 Discrimination and Its Effects 356
Ragtime 335 Du Bois’s Disappointment 358
Jazz 335 Race Riots 358
The Blues 335 Atlanta, 1906 358
Sports 336 Springfield, 1908 360
Boxing and Jack Johnson 336 East St. Louis, 1917 360
Baseball 337 Houston, 1917 361
Basketball and Other Sports 337 Chicago, 1919 361
College Athletics 337 Elaine, 1919 362
Conclusion 338 Chapter Timeline 339 Tulsa, 1921 362
Review ­Questions 340 Rosewood, 1923 363
The Great Migration 363
Chapter 16 Why Migrate? 363
Destinations 365
Conciliation, Agitation, and Migration from the Caribbean 365
Migration: African Americans Northern Communities 366
in the Early Twentieth Century, Voices A Migrant to the North Writes Home 367
1895–1928 341 Conclusion 369 Chapter Timeline 370
Review ­Questions 371
Booker T. Washington’s Approach 343
Washington’s Influence 344
The Tuskegee Machine 344 Chapter 17
Opposition to Washington 345 African Americans and the
W. E. B. Du Bois 345
Voices W. E. B. Du Bois on Being Black
1920s, 1918–1929 372
in America 346 Varieties of Racism 373
The Souls of Black Folk 346 Scientific Racism 374
The Talented Tenth 347 The Birth of a Nation 374
The Niagara Movement 347 The Ku Klux Klan 375
xii  Contents

Protest, Pride, and Pan-Africanism: Black Organiza- The Rise of Black Social Scientists 411
tions in the 1920s 375 Social Scientists and the New Deal 411
The NAACP 376 African Americans and the Second
Voices The Negro National Anthem: “Lift Every- New Deal 412
Voice and Sing” 377 Organized Labor and Black America 414
“Up You Mighty Race”: Marcus Garvey and the Voices A. Philip Randolph Inspires a
UNIA 377 Young Black Activist 415
Voices Marcus Garvey Appeals for a New African The Communist Party and African Americans 416
Nation 379 The International Labor Defense and the
The African Blood Brotherhood 380 “Scottsboro Boys” 416
Pan-Africanism 380 Debating Communist Leadership 417
Labor 381 The National Negro Congress 418
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters 382 Misuses of Medical Science: The Tuskegee
A. Philip Randolph 383 Study 418
The Harlem Renaissance 384 Conclusion 420 Chapter Timeline 420
Before Harlem 385 Review ­Questions 421
Writers and Artists 386
White People and the Harlem Renaissance 389
Chapter 19
Harlem and the Jazz Age 390
Song, Dance, and Stage 391 Meanings of Freedom: Culture
Sports 392 and Society in the 1930s, 1940s,
Rube Foster 392
and 1950s, 1930–1950 422
College Sports 393
Conclusion 393 Chapter Timeline 394 Black Culture in a Midwestern City 423
Review ­Questions 395 The Black Culture Industry and American
Racism 424
Connecting the Past Migration 396 The Music Culture from Swing to Bebop 425
Popular Culture for the Masses: Comic Strips, Radio,
and Movies 426
Chapter 18
The Comics 426
Black Protest, the Great Radio and Jazz Musicians and Technological
Depression, and the New Deal, Change 427
Radio and Black Disc Jockeys 427
1929–1940 398 Radio and Race 428
The Cataclysm, 1929–1933 399 Radio and Destination Freedom 429
Harder Times for Black America 399 Race, Representation, and the Movies 429
Black Businesses in the Depression: Collapse and The Black Chicago Renaissance 431
Survival 401 Voices Margaret Walker on Black Culture 432
The Failure of Relief 402 Gospel in Chicago: Thomas Dorsey 434
Black Protest during the Great Depression 403 Chicago in Dance and Song: Katherine Dunham
The NAACP and Civil Rights Struggles 403 and Billie Holiday 434
Du Bois Ignites a Controversy 404 Black Visual Art 436
Challenging Racial Discrimination in the Courts 404 Black Literature 436
Black Women and Community Organizing 406 Richard Wright’s Native Son 437
African Americans and the New Deal 407 James Baldwin Challenges Wright 438
Roosevelt and the First New Deal, 1933–1935 408 Ralph Ellison and Invisible Man 438
Voices A Black Sharecropper Details Abuse in the African Americans in Sports 439
­Administration of Agricultural Relief 409 Jesse Owens and Joe Louis 439
Black Officials in the New Deal 410 Breaking the Color Barrier in Baseball 439

Black Religious Culture 441
The Nation of Islam 441
Father Divine and the Peace Mission Movement 442
Conclusion 442 Chapter Timeline 443
Review ­Questions 445
Chapter 20
The World War II Era and
the Seeds of a Revolution,
1936–1948 446
On the Eve of War, 1936–1941 447
African Americans and the Emerging
International Crisis 448
A. Philip Randolph and the March on Washington
Movement 449
Executive Order 8802 450
Race and the U.S. Armed Forces 451
Institutional Racism in the American Military 451
The Costs of Military Discrimination 452
Soldiers and Civilians Protest Military
Discrimination 452
Black Women in the Struggle to Desegregate
the Military 453
Voices William H. Hastie Resigns in Protest 454
Voices Separate but Equal Training for Black
Army Nurses? 455
The Beginning of Military Desegregation 455
The Tuskegee Airmen 456
Voices A Tuskegee Airman Remembers 457
Technology: The Tuskegee Planes 457
The Transformation of Black Soldiers 458
Black People on the Home Front 459
Black Workers: From Farm to Factory 459
The FEPC during the War 460
Anatomy of a Race Riot: Detroit, 1943 460
The G.I. Bill of Rights and Black Veterans 461
Old and New Protest Groups on the
Home Front 461
The Transition to Peace 462
The Cold War and International Politics 463
African Americans in World Affairs: W. E. B. Du
Bois and Ralph Bunche 463
Anticommunism at Home 464
Paul Robeson 464
Henry Wallace and the 1948 Presidential
Election 465
Desegregating the Armed Forces 466
Contents  xiii
Conclusion 466 Chapter Timeline 467
Review ­Questions 469
Connecting the Past The Significance of
the Desegregation of the U.S. Military 470
Chapter 21
The Long Freedom Movement,
1950–1965 472
The 1950s: Prosperity and Prejudice 473
The Road to Brown 473
Constance Baker Motley and Black Lawyers
in the South 474
Brown and the Coming Revolution 475
Brown II 477
Massive White Resistance 478
The Lynching of Emmett Till 478
New Forms of Protest: The Montgomery Bus
Boycott 479
The Roots of Revolution 479
Voices Letter of the Montgomery Women’s
Political Council to Mayor W. A. Gayle 480
Rosa Parks 481
Montgomery Improvement Association 481
Martin Luther King, Jr. 482
Walking for Freedom 482
Friends in the North 482
Victory 483
No Easy Road to Freedom: 1957–1960 483
Martin Luther King, Jr., and the SCLC 484
Civil Rights Act of 1957 484
Little Rock, Arkansas 484
Black Youth Stand Up by Sitting Down 485
Sit-Ins: Greensboro, Nashville, Atlanta 485
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee 487
Freedom Rides 487
A Sight to Be Seen: The Movement at High Tide 488
The Election of 1960 488
The Kennedy Administration and the Civil Rights
Movement 489
Voter Registration Projects 489
The Albany Movement 490
The Birmingham Confrontation 490
A Hard Victory 492
The March on Washington 492
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 492
xiv  Contents
Mississippi Freedom Summer 495
The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party 496
Selma and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 496
Conclusion 497
Explore on MyHistoryLab The Civil
Rights Movement 499
Chapter Timeline 500 Review Questions 501
Chapter 22
Black Nationalism, Black Power,
Black Arts, 1965–1980 502
The Rise of Black Nationalism 503
Malcolm X’s New Departure 505
Stokely Carmichael and Black Power 506
The Black Panther Party 507
Police Repression and the FBI’s COINTELPRO 507
Voices The Black Panther Party Platform 508
Prisoners’ Rights 509
The Inner-City Rebellions 510
Watts 510
Newark 510
Detroit 511
The Kerner Commission 511
Difficulties in Creating the Great Society 512
Johnson and the War in Vietnam 513
Explore on MyHistoryLab The Vietnam
War 514
Black Americans and the Vietnam War 515
Project 100,000 515
Johnson: Vietnam Destroys the Great Society 515
Voices They Called Each Other “Bloods” 516
King: Searching for a New Strategy 517
King on the Vietnam War 518
King’s Murder 518
The Black Arts Movement and Black
Consciousness 518
Poetry and Theater 520
Music 521
The Black Student Movement 521
The Orangeburg Massacre 522
Black Studies 522
The Presidential Election of 1968 and Richard
Nixon 524
The “Moynihan Report” 524
Busing 525
Nixon and the War 526
The Rise of Black Elected Officials 527
The Gary Convention and the Black Political
Agenda 528
Shirley Chisholm: “I Am the People’s Politician” 528
Voices Shirley Chisholm’s Speech to the U.S. House
of Representatives 529
Black People Gain Local Offices 529
Economic Downturn 530
Black Americans and the Carter Presidency 530
Black Appointees 530
Carter’s Domestic Policies 531
Conclusion 532 Chapter Timeline 533
Review ­Questions 535
Chapter 23
African Americans in the
Twenty-First Century,
1980–2010 536
Progress and Poverty: Income, Education, and
Health 537
High-Achieving African Americans 538
African Americans’ Quest for Economic
Security 538
The Persistence of Black Poverty 540
Impact of the 2008–2010 Economic Recession on
Employed Black Women 541
Racial Incarceration 542
Education One-Half Century after Brown 542
Challenging Brown 543
The Health Gap 544
African Americans at the Center of Art and
Culture 545
The Hip-Hop Nation 547
Origins of a New Music: A Generation Defines
Itself 547
Rap Music Goes Mainstream 548
Gangsta Rap 548
African-American Intellectuals 548
Afrocentricity 549
African-American Studies Come of Age 550
Black Religion at the Dawn of the Millennium 550
Black Christians on the Front Line 551
Tensions in the Black Church 552
Black Muslims 553
Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam 553
Millennium Marches 554
 Contents  xv

Complicating Black Identity in the Black Politics in the Clinton Era 580
Twenty-First Century 555 Black Politics and the Contested 2000 Election 581
Immigration and African Americans 557 Gore v. Bush 581
Black Feminism 558 Republican Triumph 581
Gay and Lesbian African Americans 559 George W. Bush’s Black Cabinet 582
Conclusion 559 September 11, 2001 582
Voices E. Lynn Harris 560 War 582
Chapter Timeline 561 ­Review Questions 562 Black Politics in the Bush Era 583
Bush’s Second Term 584
The Iraq War 584
Chapter 24
Hurricane Katrina and the Destruction
Black Politics from 1980 of Black New Orleans 584
to the Present: The President Black Politics in the Present Era: Barack Obama,
President of the United States 586
Obama Era, 1980–2012 563 Obama versus McCain 586
Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition 564 PROFILE  Barack Obama 588
Second Phase of Black Politics 565 PROFILE  Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama 590
The Present Status of Black Politics 566 Obama versus Romney 590
Ronald Reagan and the Conservative Reaction 567 Factors Affecting the Elections of 2008 and 2012 591
The King Holiday 567 Conclusion 592 Chapter Timeline 594
Dismantling the Great Society 567 Review ­Questions 597
Black Conservatives 568
Connecting the Past The Significance of
The Thomas–Hill Controversy 568
Black Culture 598
Debating the “Old” and the “New” Civil Rights 569
Affirmative Action 569
Voices Black Women in Defense of Epilogue­ 600
Themselves 570
The Backlash 571 appendix A-1
Black Political Activism at the End of the Twentieth
Century 573 glossary Key Terms and Concepts G-1
Reparations 574 Presidents and Vice Presidents of the
TransAfrica and Black Internationalism 574 United States P-1
The Rise in Black Incarceration 575
Policing the Black Community 575 Historically Black Four-Year Colleges
Black Men and White Injustice 576 and Universities U-1
Human Rights in America 577
CREDITS C-1
Black Politics, 1992–2001: The Clinton
Presidency 578 Index I-1
“It’s the Economy, Stupid!” 579
The Welfare Reform Act and “Three Strikes” 579
 Maps, Figures, and Tables

Maps 10–3 The Election of 1860 212

11–1 Effects of the Emancipation Proclamation 224
1–1 Africa: Climatic Regions and Early Sites 3 12–1 The Effect of Sharecropping on the Southern
1–2 Ancient Egypt and Nubia 5 Plantation: The Barrow Plantation, Oglethorpe
1–3 The Empires of Ghana and Mali 8 County, Georgia 248
1–4 West and Central Africa, C. 1500 11 12–2 Congressional Reconstruction 261
1–5 Trans-Saharan Trade Routes 14 13–1 Dates of Readmission of Southern States to the
2–1 The Atlantic and Islamic Slave Trades 26 Union and Reestablishment of Democratic Party
2–2 Atlantic Trade among the Americas, Great Britain, Control 282
and West Africa during the Seventeenth and 13–2 The Election of 1876 283
Eighteenth Centuries 28 14–1 African-American Population of Western
3–1 Regions of Colonial North America, Territories and States, 1880–1900 305
1683–1763 54 15–1 Military Posts Where Black Troops Served,
4–1 European Claims in North America, 1750 (Left) 1866–1917 323
and 1763 (Right) 72 16–1 Major Race Riots, 1900–1923 359
4–2 Major Battles of the American War for 16–2 The Great Migration and the Distribution of the
Independence, Indicating Those in Which Black African-American Population in 1920 366
Troops Participated 81 21–1 The Effect of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 498
4–3 The Resettlement of Black Loyalists after the 24–1 Election of 2008 587
American War for Independence 86 24–2 Election of 2012 592
5–1 Emancipation and Slavery in the Early
Republic 92
5–2 The War of 1812 109
Figures
5–3 The Missouri Compromise of 1820 111 2–1 Estimated Annual Exports of Slaves from
6–1 Cotton Production in the South, 1820–1860 117 Western Africa to the Americas, 1500–1700 24
6–2 Slave Population, 1820–1860 119 3–1 Africans Brought as Slaves to British North
6–3 Agriculture, Industry, and Slavery in the Old America, 1701–1775 52
South, 1850 120 3–2 Africans as a Percentage of the Total Population
6–4 Population Percentages in the Southern States, of the British American Colonies, 1650–1770 62
1850 124 4–1 The Free Black Population of the British North
7–1 The Slave, Free Black, and White Populations of American Colonies in 1750 and of the United
the United States in 1830 138 States in 1790 and 1800 85
8–1 Slave Conspiracies and Uprisings, 5–1 Distribution of the Southern Slave Population,
1800–1831 161 1800–1860 99
8–2 The Founding of Liberia 166 6–1 Cotton Exports as a Percentage of All U.S.
9–1 Antiabolitionist and Antiblack Riots during the Exports, 1800–1860 121
Antebellum Period 177 7-1 The Free Black, Slave, and White Populations of
9–2 The Underground Railroad 187 the United States in 1820 and 1860 139
10–1 The Compromise of 1850 198 7-2 The Free Black, Slave, and White Populations by
10–2 The Kansas-Nebraska Act 204 Region, 1860 140

xvi

9–1 Mob Violence in the United States,
1812–1849 176
14–1 African-American Representation in Congress,
1867–1900 290
14–2 Lynching in the United States: 1889–1932 301
15–1 Black and White Illiteracy in the United States
and the Southern States, 1880–1900 316
15–2 Church Affiliation among Southern Black
People, 1890 321
17–1 Black Workers by Major Industrial Group,
1920 382
17–2 Black and White Workers by Skill Level,
1920 383
18–1 Unemployment, 1925–1945 399
23–1 Median Income of Black, Ethnic, and White
Households, 1967–2011 539
23–2 Percentage of Children under Age 18 Living with
Their Mothers, 1968–2012 542
Tables
5–1 Slave Populations in the Mid-Atlantic States,
1790–1860 93
6–1 U.S. Slave Population, 1820 and 1860 118
7–1 Black Population in the States of the Old
Northwest, 1800–1840 142
7–2 Free Black Population of Selected Cities,
1800–1850 144
Maps, Figures, and Tables  xvii
13–1 African-American Population and Officeholding
during Reconstruction in the States Subject to
Congressional Reconstruction 267
14–1 Black Members of the U.S. Congress,
1860–1901 291
15–1 South Carolina’s Black and White Public Schools,
1908–1909 317
16–1 Black Population Growth in Selected Northern
Cities, 1910–1920 364
16–2 African-American Migration from the
South 365
18–1 Demographic Shifts: The Second Great
Migration, 1930–1950 400
18–2 Median Income of Black Families Compared
to the Median Income of White Families for
Selected Cities, 1935–1936 401
22–1 Black Power Politics: The Election of Black
Mayors, 1967–1990 527
23–1 Black Children under Age 18 and Their Living
Arrangements, 1960–2012 (Numbers in
Thousands) 541
23–2 Rates of Black Incarceration 543
23–3 Estimated Number of Diagnosed Cases of
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS),
per 100,000 in the United States, 2010 545
24–1 2012 Election Results: Voting Demographics 593
 Preface
“One ever feels his two-ness,—an A­ merican,
a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two
unreconciled strivings; two warring ide-
als in one dark body.” So wrote W. E. B. Du Bois
in 1897. African-American history, Du Bois maintained,
was the history of this double-­consciousness. Black peo-
ple have always been part of the American nation that
they helped to build. But they have also been a nation
unto themselves, with their own experiences, culture, and
aspirations. African-American history cannot be under-
stood except in the broader context of American history.
Likewise, American history cannot be understood with-
out African-American history.
Since Du Bois’s time, our understanding of both
­African-American and American history has been com-
plicated and ­enriched by a growing appreciation of the
role of class and g­ ender in shaping human societies. We
are also increasingly aware of the complexity of racial
experiences in American history. Even in times of great
racial polarity, some white people have empathized with
black people and some black people have identified with
white interests.
It is in light of these insights that African Americans:
A Concise History tells the story of African Americans.
That story begins in Africa, where the people who were to
become African A ­ mericans began their long, turbulent,
and difficult journey, a journey marked by sustained suf-
fering as well as perseverance, bravery, and achievement.
It includes the rich culture—at once splendidly distinc-
tive and tightly intertwined with a broader American
­culture—that African Americans have nurtured through-
out their history. And it includes the many-faceted quest
for freedom in which African Americans have sought to
counter white oppression and racism with the egalitarian
spirit of the Declaration of Independence that American
society professes to embody.
Nurtured by black historian Carter G. Woodson
during the early decades of the twentieth century,
African-American ­
­ history has blossomed as a field
xviii
of study since the 1950s. Books and ­ articles have
­appeared on almost every facet of black life. Yet this
survey is the first comprehensive college textbook of
the ­African-American experience. It draws on recent
research to present black history in a clear and direct
manner, within a broad s­ocial, cultural, and political
framework. It also provides thorough coverage of African-
American women as ­active builders of black culture.
African Americans: A Concise History balances ac-
counts of the ­actions of African-American leaders with
investigations of the lives of the ordinary men and women
in black communities. This community focus helps make
this a history of a people rather than an account of a few
extraordinary individuals. Yet the book does not neglect
important political and religious leaders, entrepreneurs,
and entertainers. It also gives extensive coverage to
­African-American art, literature, and music.
African-American history started in Africa, and this
narrative begins with an account of life on that continent
to the sixteenth century and the beginning of the forced
migration of millions of Africans to the Americas. Suc-
ceeding chapters present the struggle of black people to
maintain their humanity during the slave trade and as
slaves in North America during the long colonial period.
The coming of the American Revolution during the
1770s initiated a pattern of black struggle for racial jus-
tice in which periods of optimism alternated with times
of repression. Several chapters analyze the building of
black community institutions, the antislavery movement,
the efforts of black people to make the Civil War a war
for emancipation, their struggle for equal rights as citi-
zens during Reconstruction, and the strong opposition
these efforts faced. There is also substantial coverage of
African-­American ­military service, from the War for In-
dependence through ­American wars of the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries.
During the late nineteenth century and much of
the twentieth century, racial segregation and racially
motivated violence that relegated African Americans
to ­second-class citizenship provoked despair, but also

inspired resistance and commitment to change. ­Chapters
on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries cover
the Great Migration from the cotton fields of the South to
the North and West, black nationalism, and the H ­ arlem
Renaissance. Chapters on the 1930s and 1940s—the
­beginning of a period of revolutionary change for African
Americans—tell of the economic devastation and politi-
cal turmoil caused by the Great Depression, the growing
influence of black culture in America, the emergence of
black internationalism, and the racial tensions caused by
black participation in World War II.
The final chapters tell the story of African Ameri-
cans in the closing decades of the twentieth century and
the dawn of the twenty-first century. They portray the
freedom struggles and legislative successes of the civil
rights movement at its peak during the 1950s and 1960s
and the electoral political victories of the black power
movement during the more conservative 1970s and
1980s. Finally, there are discussions of black life in the
twenty-first century and the election and reelection of
Barack Obama, the first African-American president of
the United States.
In all, African Americans: A Concise History tells a
compelling story of survival, struggle, and triumph over
adversity. It will leave students with an appreciation of
the central place of black people and black culture in this
country and a better understanding of both African-
American and American history.
What’s New in the fifth
Edition
Every chapter in the fifth edition of African Americans:
A Concise History has been revised and improved with
updated scholarship. A new feature at the end of each
part, Connecting the Past, examines important mile-
stones of the African-American ­experience over time.
These six featured essays examine the evolution of the
black church, the development of black autobiography,
black migration, desegregation of the military, and black
culture. There are new in-depth MyHistoryLab activities
that explore events and issues using interactive maps on
a key event within the chapters.
Chapter Revision Highlights
Chapter 1 The section on the “Birth of Humanity” has
been revised as has the section entitled “The Ancient
Manuscripts of Timbuktu.”
Preface  xix
Chapter 2 There is more information on “African
Women on Slave Ships.” The discussion of “seasoning”
has been clarified.
Chapter 3 The section on “The Spanish Empire”
has been eliminated and replaced with “The Spanish,
French, and Dutch,” which emphasizes the role of
Africans and people of African descent in those areas
of the New World. There have also been revisions made
to the section on “The British and Jamestown.”
Chapter 5 The section on “The War of 1812” has been
revised. A new featured essay, Connecting the Past,
“The Great Awakening and the Black Church,” follows
the chapter.
Chapter 7 “The Jacksonian Era” has been reworked.
Chapter 8 To clarify the text, two headings have been
changed: “A Country in Turmoil” to “The Path Toward
a More Radical Antislavery Movement;” and “Political
Paranoia” to “Slavery and Politics.”
Chapter 10 There is a new featured essay, Connecting
the Past, exploring “The Narrative of Frederick Douglass
and Black Autobiography,” which follows the chapter.
Chapter 11 The number of casualties sustained in
the Civil War has been revised upward to 750,000 in
keeping with recent research as has the number of
black men who served in the U.S. Navy during the
Civil War.
Chapter 12 The discussion of the devastating impact
that the Civil War had on the South has been expanded,
and there is more information on widespread disease
among African Americans following the War.
Chapter 13 There is a new section on the Ellenton
riot in South Carolina in 1876. There is a new featured
essay, Connecting the Past, on voting rights and
politics, which follows the chapter.
Chapter 14 The discussion of memories of the Civil
War among black and white people has been revised.
There is more information on the desire among black
people to acquire land.
Chapter 15 There is additional information on the
origins of the term “buffalo soldiers” and on black
women in the west including black “cowgirls.”
Chapter 16 There is a revised discussion of Booker
T. Washington’s dinner with President Theodore
Roosevelt in 1901. Information has been added on the
Great Migration, and there is a new table on migration,
 50,000 slaves liberated themselves in the days and weeks following Lincoln’s proclamation.
The Emancipation Proclamation remains one of the most important documents in American
history. It made the Civil War a war to free people as well as to preserve the Union, and it gave
the Union cause moral authority. And as many black people had freed themselves before the
Proclamation, many more would liberate themselves after.

Effects of the Proclamation on the South 11-1

xx  Preface
as well as a new quote from Ida B. Wells anticipating
the Chicago race riot in 1919.
Chapter 17 There is a new featured essay,
The Emancipation Proclamation destroyed any chance that Britain or France would offer
diplomatic recognition to the Confederate government. Diplomatic recognition would have
meant accepting the Confederacy as a legitimate state equal in international law to the Union, 11-2
and it would almost surely have led to financial and military assistance for the South. Brit-
ish leaders, who had considered recognizing the Confederacy, now declined to support a
11-3
“nation” that relied on slavery while its opponent moved to abolish it. In this sense, the Proc-
lamation weakened the Confederacy’s ability to prosecute the war.
Even more important, it undermined slavery in the South and contributed directly to 11-4
the Confederacy’s defeat. While the Proclamation may not have freed any of those in bond-
age on January 1, 1863, word of freedom spread rapidly across the South. Black people—
aware a Union victory in the war meant freedom—were far less likely to labor for their 11-5
owners or for the Confederacy. More slaves ran away, especially as Union troops approached.
Chronologies are included throughout the chap-
Slave resistance became more likely, although Lincoln cautioned against insurrection in the
Proclamation: “And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from 11-6
ters to provide students with a snapshot of the temporal
all violence, unless in necessary self-defence.” The institution of slavery cracked, crumbled,
relationship among significant events.
and collapsed after January 1, 1863.
11-7

Connecting the Past, on migration and its impact,

1861–1863 11-8
which follows the chapter. THE STEPS TO EMANCIPATION
Chapter 18 A new discussion of medical April 1861 11-9
experimentation on people besides those involved Fort Sumter is attacked; Civil
War begins May 1861
in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment has been added August 1861
General Butler refuses to return
escaped “contrabands” to slavery
General Fremont orders
with information about the syphilis experiments in emancipation of slaves in Missouri;
Lincoln countermands him August 1861
Guatemala and in the Indiana prison population. First Confiscation Act frees
captured slaves used by
Chapter 19 The Bibliography has been updated with Congress provides funds for
April 1862 Confederate Army

new studies and information about Don Cornelius, compensated emancipation;

border states spurn the proposal May 1862
creator of “Soul Train.” Lincoln revokes General Hunter’s
order abolishing slavery in South
Summer 1862
Chapter 20 There is new information on black radar Lincoln concludes that Union
Carolina, Georgia, and Florida

military victory requires

specialists at Camp Evans during World War II. There emancipation September 22, 1862
Lincoln issues Preliminary
is also a new photo of President Eisenhower and Dr. Emancipation Proclamation after
January 1, 1863 Battle of Antietam
Walter S. McAfee of Camp Evans. A new featured Emancipation Proclamation
takes effect
essay, Connecting the Past, on the significance of the
desegregation of the military, which follows the chapter.
Chapter 21 The discussion on Rosa Parks has been Voices boxes provide students with first-person per-
expanded as has that of black women’s activism against spectives on key events in African-American history. Brief
rape and sexual violence before the 1955-1956 bus boycott. introductions and study questions help students analyze
Chapter 22 The Introduction to the chapter has been these primary source documents and relate them to the text.
CHAPTER 11 LIBERATION: AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE CIVIL WAR 231

rewritten. There have been revisions to the discussion

of the black power movement “From Bullets to Ballots.”
A new chart of black elected officials has been added.
Chapter 23 The discussion of the impact of the
Recession of 2008–2011 on black women and black
communities has been revised and expanded.
VOICES A Black Nurse on the Horrors of War
and the Sacrifice of Black Soldiers
Susie King Taylor was born a slave in Georgia and learned
to read and write in Savannah. She escaped to Union
forces in 1862 and served as a nurse and laundress with
the First South Carolina Volunteers. In these passages,
written years later, she recalls her service with the black
men who went into combat and pays tribute to them.
them appreciate the old soldiers. My heart
burns within me at this want of appreciation.
There are only a few of them left now, so let us
all, as the ranks close, take a deeper interest
in them. Let the younger generation take an
interest also, and remember that it was through
the efforts of these veterans that we older ones
11-1

It seems strange how our aversion to seeing enjoy our liberty today.
Chapter 24 There is a new discussion of the four 226 suffering 11
CHAPTER is overcome in war,—how
LIBERATION: we are ableAND THE CIVIL WAR
AFRICAN AMERICANS
to see the most sickening sights, such as men
11-2

stages in the evolution of black politics. Information with their limbs blown off and mangled by the
Black Men Fight for the Union
deadly shells, without a shudder; and instead
1. How does Taylor describe what men in
combat endure? 11-3
on the reelection of Barack Obama to a second term is of turning away, how we hurry to assist in al-
11-5up their
leviating their pain, bind wounds, and
2. Who is the object of Taylor’s criticism,
What was the role of black men in and the Northern
why does military and what
she offer it? difficulties
did they face?
new as is a map of voters and a demographic chart of press the cool water to their parched lips, with
feelings only of sympathy and pity. . . . Proclamation not only
The Emancipation
source: Susie King Taylor, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp (Boston:
marked the beginning of the end of slavery but
11-4
Taylor, 1902), 31–32, 51–52.
the 2012 electorate. There is also a new chart depicting I look around also
nowauthorized
that our younger generation
and see thethe
enjoy, and
comforts
enlistment of black troops in the Union Army. Just as white leaders in
think of
the North came to realize the preservation of the Union Read onnecessitated
MyHistoryLabthe abolition
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select accomplishments of President Obama’s first term. the blood that was shed
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military Describes
effort if the

11-1 11-6
There is an added a new featured essay, Connecting Like the decision to free the slaves, the decision to employ black troops proceeded
neither smoothly nor logically. The commitment to the Civil War as a white man’s war

the Past, on the significance of black culture, which 11-2 Marginal glossary terms throughout the chapter
was entrenched, and many white northerners opposed the initial attempts to enlist black
troops. Asindiscriminately—as
cabinet. But rather than retaliate with emancipation, Lincoln
General moved slowly
Order 11 from outright opposition to cautious
required—the 11-7

follows the chapter. guide the student to key terms for review.
acceptance
cabinet decided to punish only those to enthusiastic
responsible forsupport for enlisting
the killings, if andblack
whenmentheyinwere
prehended. But no one was punished during or after the war. Instead, black troops exacted
the Union
ap- Army.
11-3
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First South Carolina Volunteers 11-8
revenge themselves. In fighting Petersburg later that year, black soldiers shouting
View on Some Union officers recruited black men long before emancipation was proclaimed and before
“Remember Fort Pillow!” reportedly
MyHistoryLab
murdered several Confederate prisoners.
11-4 most white northerners were prepared to accept, much less welcome, black troops. In May
On theirLook:
Closer own, Union commanders in the field also retaliated for the Confederate
Black Read on 11-9
About African Americans: Unionof
treatment Soldiers 1862 General David Hunter began recruiting former slaves along the South Carolina
captured black troops. When captured black men were virtually enslaved and
11-5 forced to work at Richmond
and the sea islands, an area Union forces had captured in late 1861. But some black
notand
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to enlist, and Confederate fortifications
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A Concise History Union

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often fought desperately.
authorization and funds to pay them. When Congress balked, Hunter disbanded
of former slaves
all but one company of the regiment that August. The troops were dispersed, unpaid and
The many special features and pedagogical tools inte- recruited in the South
disappointed. The surviving company was sent to St. Simon’s Island off the Georgia coast
11-7
Black
low country Men
in 1862 andintothe
Carolina and Georgia
protectUnion
former slaves.Navy
grated within African Americans: A Concise History are 1863 for service with Although Congress failed to support Hunter, it did pass the Second Confiscation
Union military forces
Besides in soldiers,
being Act andwhat other roles did1862
African Americans play
11-8 11-7 the Militia Act of , which authorized President Lincoln to enlist black men.
designed to make the text accessible to students. They the Civil War.
in the Union war effort?
Second Confiscation
In Louisiana that fall, two regiments of free black men, the Native Guards, were accepted for
federal service, and General Benjamin Butler organized them into the Corps d’Afrique. Gen-
include a variety of tools to reinforce the narrative and Act The
11-9 Black men 1862
hadActa tradition of serving at sea and had been in the U.S. Navy almost con-
freeing all slaves of
tinuously since its creation
eral Rufus Saxton gained the approval of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to revive Hunter’s
in the 1790s.
dispersed regiment Inand
thetoearly
recallnineteenth
the companycentury,
that hadthere weretoso
been sent St. Simon’s Island.
rebel owners.
help students grasp key issues. many black sailors that some As
Militia Act of 1862 The
ever,
white people tried
commander, Saxtonto ban black
appointed menWentworth
Thomas from the Higginson.
navy. How- Higginson was an ardent
sailors did not serve in segregated units. Naval crews were integrated. About for John Brown’s raid
white abolitionist, one of the Secret Six who had provided financial support
1862black
Act authorizing
Lincoln to enlist black on Harpers Ferry. He was determined not merely to end slavery but to prove that black people
soldiers. were equal to white people. Higginson set out to mold this regiment of mostly former slaves into
an effective fighting force. On Emancipation Day, January 1, 1863, near Beaufort, South Carolina,
the First South Carolina Volunteer Regiment was inducted into the U.S. Army.

The Second South Carolina Volunteers

A month later, the Second South Carolina Volunteers began enrolling ex-slaves, many
from Georgia and Florida. James Montgomery, another former financial supporter of John
Brown, commanded them. But like Hunter, Montgomery found that many former slaves
were reluctant to volunteer for military service, so he also used force to recruit them. He
concluded that black men responded to the call to arms much the way white men did, except
black men were less likely to desert once they joined the army:

470
Connecting the Past essays examine impor-
tant milestones of the African-American experi-
ence over time: evolution of the black church, the
emergence of black autobiography, black migration,
desegregation of the military, and black culture.
Supplementary
African-American men, women, and children who participated in the Great Migration to the north,
with suitcases and luggage placed in front, Chicago, 1918.
Instructional Materials
The supplementary package that accompanies
African Americans: A Concise History pro-
vides instructors and students with an array
of ­resources that combine sound scholarship,
­engaging content, and a variety of pedagogical tools and
media to enrich the classroom experience and students’
understanding of African-American history.
Instructor’s Manual
The Instructor’s Manual provides instructor resources—­
lecture and discussion topics, MyHistoryLab resources, and
­audio/visual resources for each chapter—organized around
the learning objectives from the text. The Instructor’s Man-
ual is available to adopters for download at Pearson’s In-
structor Resource Center, www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.
Test Item File
Test materials include multiple-choice, essay, and short-
answer questions correlated to the learning objectives
from the text. The test item file is available to adopters
for download at Pearson’s Instructor Resource Center,
www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.
My Test
This online test management program allows instruc-
tors to select from testing material in the Test Item File
to design their own exams. They are available to adopt-
ers for download at Pearson’s Instructor Resource Cen-
ter, www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.
PowerPoint Presentations
PowerPoint presentations correlated to the chapters of
­African Americans: A Concise History include a full lecture
script, a wealth of images and maps, and links to the full ar-
ray of MyHistoryLab media. They are available to adopters
for download at Pearson’s Instructor Resource Center, www
.pearsonhighered.com/irc.
MyHistoryLab™
MyHistoryLab is a state-of-the-art interactive and instruc-
tive solution, designed to be used as a supplement to a
traditional lecture course in African-American history, or
Preface  xxi
PART IV Searching for Safe Spaces CHAPTER 17 AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE 1920S 471
CONNECTING THE PAST
Migration
chicago had slightly more than
40,000 black residents in 1910. By 2010,
not have to step aside when white people
passed on city sidewalks.
more than one million African Ameri- Many myths accompanied the mi-
cans lived in Chicago and its suburbs.
This huge growth in the city’s black
population was part of the Great Mi-
gration, the largest internal movement
grants. Black people who already lived
in northern cities looked down on the
“countrified” ways of the new arrivals and
ridiculed the way they talked, dressed,
of people in American history. Yet this and carried themselves. They disparaged
massive shift in population was only the newcomers’ supposed lack of educa-
one of many instances over the long tion, low incomes, and inability to main-
course of history that Africans and tain stable families. But these perceptions
their descendants have willingly or un- proved to be inaccurate. Migrants had a
willingly changed locations. sense of purpose and commitment. They
Early humans roamed from Africa were better educated than the people they
into Asia and Europe as hunters and left behind. They had higher incomes and
gatherers about 100,000 years ago. Be- were less likely to be on welfare than Af-
tween the sixteenth and nineteenth cen- rican Americans who already resided in
turies, 12 million Africans were forced the North. They were more likely to be
to endure the horrors of the Middle Pas- married and remain married. Their chil-
sage and the Atlantic slave trade. In the dren lived in two-parent households.
decades before the Civil War, thousands The development of black politi-
of southern slaves escaped to freedom in cal power was one of the unexpected
the northern states and Canada by way consequences of the Great Migration.
By the middle of the twentieth century, several million African Americans lived in densely populated urban
of the underground railroad. In the late Black men and women voted freely in communities throughout the nation. Here are residents of Harlem on Seventh Avenue on a cold February day in 1956.
1870s, economic and political oppres- the North and West. Living together in
sion led as many as 40,000 former slaves black neighborhoods afforded them the opportunity to elect black city councilmen, alder-
known as Exodusters to leave the South and move west to Kansas and Oklahoma. About the men, and congressmen. By the 1950s, black men from Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and
same time a small number of freedmen left the United States and went to Liberia in West Africa. Harlem served in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the 1960s and 1970s, black may-
But it was the twentieth century’s Great Migration that prompted recent and profound po- ors were elected in Cleveland, Newark, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Democratic presidential
litical and economic changes in American society. Most of these migrants boarded segregated candidates Harry Truman in 1948 and John F. Kennedy in 1960 relied on black voters in
passenger trains in southern towns to travel on the overground railroad to northern and west- northern cities to provide them with margins of victory.
ern communities. Unlike the nineteenth century abolitionist movement and the civil rights The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 eradicated Jim Crow
movement of the 1950s and 1960s, no dynamic organizations or inspirational leaders were in the South. The Great Migration began to reverse itself. Black people who had migrated
involved in this remarkable resettlement. Instead, individuals, husbands, wives, and friends to northern communities in the 1940s and 1950s began to retire in the 1980s and 1990s to
made what was often a heart-wrenching decision to leave the southern communities where towns and communities they had left as young people. Now, with a shifting racial dynamic
they had been born and raised for a strange and distant destination like Chicago, Pittsburgh, or in the United States that included the election of an African-American president, there is a
New York City. They did so because, like the slaves who had fled to freedom a century earlier, new migration. Black people from Africa and the Caribbean increasingly come to America.
the migrants wanted a better life. They hoped to liberate themselves from economic depen- Between 2000 and 2010, 216,900 Africans moved to the United States. Not all of them will
dence, and to escape the segregation and violence that exemplified life in the Jim Crow South. remain, but more will come, attracted to a place where their predecessors were sold and
While life in the North and the West may have been an improvement, black migrants did not toiled as slaves. Those predecessors and their descendants helped create a vibrant nation
suddenly find themselves residing in the Promised Land. White workers resented black compe- that now draws immigrants from nearly every corner of the globe.
tition for unskilled jobs in manufacturing. Labor unions prohibited black membership. White
employers’ use of black workers as strikebreakers or scabs further alienated white workingmen.
1. What specific factors account for the Great Migration?
Black women were confined to domestic work and denied employment as retail clerks, bank tell-
ers, waitresses, or secretaries. But the “white” and “colored” signs that saturated the South rarely 2. Under what circumstances would you move hundreds of miles from your
were seen in the North. Buses, streetcars, and passenger trains had open seating. Black people did friends and family?
to completely administer an online course. MyHistoryLab
provides access to a wealth of resources, all geared to meet
the individual teaching and learning needs of instructors
and students. Highlights of MyHistoryLab include:
• The tools you need to engage every student before,
during, and after class. An assignment calendar and
gradebook allow you to assign specific activities
with due dates and to measure your students’ prog-
ress throughout the semester.
• The Pearson e-Text lets students access their text-
book anytime, anywhere, and anyway they want,
including listening online. The e-Text for African
Americans: A Concise History features integrated
videos, Explorer activities, documents, ­ images,
maps, and interactive self-quizzes.
• A Personalized Study Plan for each student, based
on Bloom’s Taxonomy, arranges activities from those
that require less complex thinking—like remember-
ing and understanding—to more complex critical
thinking—like applying and analyzing. This layered
approach promotes better critical thinking skills,
helping students succeed in the course and beyond.
New Features of MyHistoryLab
Two exciting new features of MyHistoryLab are
­Explorer and MyHistoryLibrary.
• Explorer activities connect with topics from the
text, engaging students with data visualizations,
comparisons of change over time, and data local-
ized to their own communities.
• MyHistoryLibrary features 200 documents that en-
able students to explore the discipline more deeply.
Multiple-choice questions for each reading help
students review what they’ve learned—and allow
instructors to monitor their performance. The doc-
uments are available as e-Texts and audio files.
 Acknowledgments
In preparing African Americans: A Concise History, we
have benefited from the work of many scholars and the
help of colleagues, librarians, friends, and family.
Special thanks are due to the following scholars for
their substantial contributions to the development of The
African-American Odyssey, from which this concise edi-
tion has been crafted: Hilary Mac Austin, Chicago, ­Illinois;
Brian W. Dippie, University of Victoria; Thomas Doughton,
Holy Cross College; W. Marvin Dulaney, College of
­Charleston; Sherry DuPree, Rosewood Heritage Founda-
tion; Peter Banner-Haley, Colgate University; ­Robert L.
Harris, Jr., Cornell University; Wanda Hendricks, Univer-
sity of South Carolina; Rickey Hill, Mississippi Valley State
University; William B. Hixson, Michigan State University;
Barbara Williams Jenkins, formerly of South Carolina State
University; Earnestine Jenkins, University of Memphis;
Hannibal Johnson, Tulsa, Oklahoma; Wilma King, Uni-
versity of Missouri, Columbia; Karen Kossie-­Chernyshev,
Texas Southern University; Frank C. Martin, South ­Carolina
State University; Jacqueline McLeod, Metropolitan State
University of Denver; Freddie Parker, North ­Carolina
Central ­University; Christopher R. Reed, ­Roosevelt Uni-
versity; Linda Reed, University of Houston; ­Mark Steg-
maier, Cameron University; Robert Stewart, Trinity School,
New York; Matthew Whitaker, Arizona State University;
­Barbara Woods, South Carolina State University; Andrew
Workman, Mills College; Deborah Wright, Avery Research
­Center, College of Charleston.
We are grateful to the reviewers through six editions
who devoted valuable time to reading and commenting
on The African-American Odyssey and African Ameri-
cans: A Concise History. Their insightful suggestions
greatly improved the quality of the text: L ­ eslie Alexan-
der, The Ohio State University; Carol Anderson, Univer-
sity of Missouri, Columbia; Abel A. Bartley, University
of Akron; Jennifer L. Baszile, Yale University; James M.
Beeby, West Virginia Wesleyan College; ­ Richard A.
Buckelew, Bethune-Cookman College; Claude A.
Clegg, Indiana University; Gregory Conerly, Cleveland
State University; Delia Cook, University of Missouri at
xxii
Kansas City; Caroline Cox, University of the P ­acific;
Mary Ellen Curtin, Southwest Texas State Univer-
sity; Henry Vance Davis, Ramapo College of NJ; Roy F.
Finkenbine, Wayne State University; Dr. Jessie Gas-
ton, California State University, Sacramento; Abiodun
Goke-Pariola, Georgia Southern University; Robert Gregg,
Richard Stockton College of NJ; Keith Griffler, University
of Cincinnati; John H. Haley, University of North ­Carolina
at Wilmington; Robert V. Hanes, Western ­Kentucky Uni-
versity; Julia Robinson Harmon, Western Michigan
University; Ebeneazer Hunter, De Anza College; Eric R.
Jackson, Northern Kentucky University; Wali R ­ ashash
Kharif, Tennessee Technological University; John W.
King, Temple University; Joseph Kinner, Gallaudet Uni-
versity; Lester C. Lamon, Indiana University, South
Bend; Eric Love, University of Colorado-Boulder; John F.
Marszalek, Mississippi State University; Kenneth ­Mason,
Santa Monica College; Andrew T. Miller, Union Col-
lege; Diane Batts Morrow, University of Georgia; Ruddy
Pearson, American College; Walter Rucker, University of
­Nebraska, Lincoln; Josh Sides, California State University,
Northridge; Manisha Sinha, University of Massachusetts,
Amherst; John David Smith, North Carolina State Univer-
sity at Raleigh; ­Marshall Stevenson, Ohio State University;
Betty Joe Wallace, A ­ ustin Peay State University; Matthew
C. Whitaker, Arizona State University; Harry Williams,
Carleton College; Vernon J. W ­ illiams, Jr., Purdue Univer-
sity; Leslie Wilson, Montclair State University; Andrew
Workman, Mills College; Marilyn L. Yancy, Virginia
Union University.
We wish to thank the following reviewers for their
insightful comments in preparation for the revision of
The ­African-American Odyssey, which is the basis for
the concise edition: Leslie ­Alexander, The Ohio State
University; Lila Ammons, Howard University; ­Beverly
Bunch-Lyons, Virginia Technical College; Latangela
Crossfield, Clark Atlanta University; Linda Denkins,
Houston ­Community College; Lillie Edwards, Drew Uni-
versity; Jim Harper, North Carolina Central University;
Dr. Maurice ­ Hobson, ­ University of Mississippi; Alyce

Miller, John Tyler Community ­College; Zacharia Nchinda,
University of ­ Wisconsin, Milwaukee; Melinda Pash,
­Fayetteville Technical Community College; Charmayne
Patterson, Clark ­Atlanta University; Matthew Schaffer,
Florence Darlington Technical College; Denise Scifres,
City ­Colleges of Chicago, Center for Distance Learning;
Linda Tomlinson, Fayetteville State U ­ niversity; Angela
Winand, University of Illinois, Springfield; ­Erica Woods-
Warrior, Hampton University.
Many librarians provided valuable help tracking
down ­important material. They include Avery Daniels,
Ruth Hodges, Doris Johnson, the late Barbara Keitt, Cathi
Cooper Mack, Mary L. Smalls, Ashley Till, and Adrienne
Webber, all of Miller F. Whittaker Library, South ­Carolina
State University; James Brooks and Jo Cottingham of
the interlibrary loan department, Cooper Library, Uni-
versity of South Carolina; and Allan Stokes of the South
­Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina.
Dr. Marshanda Smith and Kathleen Thompson provided
important documents and other source material.
Seleta Simpson Byrd of South Carolina State Uni-
versity and Marshanda Smith of Northwestern Univer-
sity provided valuable administrative assistance.
Each of us also enjoyed the support of family mem-
bers, particularly Barbara A. Clark, Robbie D. Clark,
Acknowledgments  xxiii
Emily Harrold, Judy Harrold, Carol A. Hine, and
Thomas D. Hine.
Finally, we gratefully acknowledge the essential help
of the superb editorial and production team at Prentice
Hall: Charlyce Jones Owen, Publisher, whose vision got
this project started and whose unwavering support saw
it through to completion; Maureen Diana, Editorial As-
sistant; Rochelle Diogenes, Editor-in-Chief of Develop-
ment; Maria Lange, Creative Design Director; Ann M ­ arie
McCarthy, Senior Managing Editor; and Emsal Hasan,
Project Manager, who saw it efficiently through produc-
tion; Marianne Gloriande, Manufacturing Buyer; Wendy
Albert, Senior Marketing Manager; Beverly Fong, Pro-
gram Manager; and Monica Ohlinger Group, who pulled
together the book’s supplementary material.
We owe a special and heartfelt debt of gratitude
to our development editor, the late Gerald Lombardi.
­Gerald worked closely and conscientiously with us
for five editions. This is a better book b­ ecause of his
efforts.
D.C.H.
W.C.H.
S.H.
 About the Authors
Darlene Clark Hine
Darlene Clark Hine is Board of Trustees Professor of
African-American Studies and Professor of History at
Northwestern University. She is a fellow of the A ­ merican
Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as past president
of the Organization of A ­ merican Historians and of the
Southern Historical Association. Hine received her BA at
Roosevelt University in Chicago, and her MA and Ph.D.
from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. Hine has taught
at South Carolina State University and at Purdue Univer-
sity. She was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study
in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and at
the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard
University. She is the author and/or co-editor of 20 books,
most recently The Black Chicago Renaissance (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 2012), Black Europe and the
African Diaspora (Urbana: University of ­Illinois Press,
2010), co-edited with Trica ­Danielle ­Keaton and Stephen
Small; Beyond Bondage: Free Women of Color in the Amer-
icas (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2005), co-edited
with Barry Gaspar; and The Harvard Guide to African-
American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
2000), co-edited with Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham and
Leon Litwack. She co-edited a two-volume set with Ear-
nestine Jenkins, A Question of Manhood: A Reader in
U.S. Black Men’s History and Masculinity (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1999, 2001); and with Jacque-
line McLeod, Crossing Boundaries: Comparative History
of Black ­People in Diaspora (Bloomington: Indiana Uni-
versity Press, 2000). With Kathleen Thompson she wrote
A Shining Thread of Hope: The History of Black Women
in America (New York: Broadway Books, 1998), and
edited with Barry Gaspar More Than Chattel: Black Women
and Slavery in the Americas (Bloomington: Indiana Uni-
versity Press, 1996). She won the Dartmouth Medal of the
American Library Association for the reference volumes
co-­edited with Elsa Barkley Brown and Rosalyn Terborg-
Penn, Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia
(New York: Carlson Publishing, 1993). She is the author
of Black Women in White: ­Racial Conflict and Coopera-
tion in the Nursing Profession, 1890–1950 (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1989). She continues to work
on the forthcoming book project The Black Professional
Class: Physicians, Nurses, Lawyers, and the Origins of the
Civil Rights Movement, 1890–1955.
William C. Hine
William C. Hine received his undergraduate education
at Bowling Green State University, his master’s degree at
the University of Wyoming, and his Ph.D. at Kent State
University. He is a Professor of History at South Carolina
State University. He has had articles published in several
journals, including Agricultural History, Labor History,
and the Journal of Southern History. He is currently writ-
ing a history of South Carolina State University.
Stanley Harrold
Stanley Harrold, Professor of History at South Carolina
State University, received his bachelor’s degree from
­Allegheny College and his master’s and Ph.D. degrees
from Kent State University. He is co-editor of Southern
Dissent, a book series published by the University Press
of Florida. In 1991–1992 and 1996–1997 he had National
Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships. In 2005
and 2013 he received NEH Faculty Research Awards. His
books include Gamaliel Bailey and ­Antislavery Union (Kent,
Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1986), The Abolitionists
and the South (Lexington: University Press of ­Kentucky,
1995), Antislavery Violence: Sectional, Racial, and ­Cultural
Conflict in Antebellum America (co-edited with John R.
McKivigan, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1999),
American Abolitionists (Harlow, U.K.: Longman, 2001),
Subversives: ­Antislavery ­Community in Washington, D.C.,
1828–1865 (Baton Rouge: ­Louisiana State ­University Press,
2003), The Rise of Aggressive Abolitionism: Addresses to the
Slaves (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2004),
Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Reader
(Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 2007), and Border War: Fighting
Over Slavery before the Civil War (Chapel Hill: University
of North ­Carolina Press, 2010). He has published articles in
Civil War History, Journal of Southern History, Radical His-
tory Review, and Journal of the Early Republic.
 1
Chapter

Africa ca. 6000 bce–ca. 1600 ce

 isten to Chapter 1
L
on MyHistoryLab

Learning Objectives
The ancestral homeland of most black Americans is West
Africa. Other parts of Africa—Angola and East Africa—were caught up in the great What are the geographical
characteristics of Africa?
1-1
Atlantic slave trade that carried Africans to the New World from the sixteenth to the
nineteenth centuries. But West Africa was the center of the trade in human beings. Where and how did humans
originate?
1-2
Knowing the history of West Africa therefore is important for understanding the people
who became the first African Americans.
Why are ancient African
civilizations important?
1-3
That history, however, is best understood within the larger context of the history and
geography of the African continent. This chapter begins, therefore, with a survey of the larger Why is West Africa
significant for African- 1-4
context. It emphasizes aspects of a broader African experience that shaped life in West Africa
American history?
before the arrival of Europeans in that region. It then explores West Africa’s unique heritage
and the facets of its culture that have influenced the lives of African Americans from the What did Kongo and
Angola have in common 1-5
Diaspora—the original forced dispersal of Africans from their homeland—to the present. with West Africa?

How did the legacies of

West African society and 1-6
culture influence the way
African Americans lived?

West Africans were making iron

tools long before Europeans
arrived in Africa. 1

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 2  CHAPTER 1 Africa

A Huge and Diverse Land

1-1 What are the geographical characteristics of Africa?

From north to south, Africa is divided into a succession of climatic zones (see Map ­1–1).
Except for a fertile strip along the Mediterranean coast and the agriculturally rich Nile
River valley, most of the northern third of the continent consists of the Sahara Desert.
For thousands of years, the Sahara limited contact between the rest of Africa—known
as sub-Saharan Africa—and the Mediterranean coast, Europe, and Asia. South of the
1-1 Sahara is a semidesert region known as the Sahel, and south of the Sahel is a huge
savanna A flat, nearly grassland, or savanna, stretching from Ethiopia west to the Atlantic Ocean. Much of the
treeless grassland habitable part of West Africa falls within the savanna. The rest lies within the northern
1-2 typical of large portions part of a rain ­forest that extends east from the Atlantic coast over most of the central
of West Africa.
part of the continent. A ­ nother region of savanna borders the rain forest to the south,
rain forest A dense followed by another desert—the Kalahari—and another coastal strip at the continent’s
1-3 growth of tall trees southern extremity.
characteristic of hot,
wet regions.
1-4
The Birthplace of Humanity
1-5
1-2 Where and how did humans originate?

1-6 Paleoanthropologists—scientists who study the evolution and prehistory of humans—have

concluded that the origins of humanity lie in the savanna regions of Africa. All people
today, in other words, are very likely descendants of beings who lived in Africa millions of
years ago. Fossil and genetic evidence suggests that both humans and the forest-dwelling
great apes (gorillas and chimpanzees) descended from a common ancestor who lived in
Africa about 5 to 10 million years ago.
The earliest known hominids (the term designates the biological family to which
humans belong) were the Ardipithecines, who emerged about 4.5 million years ago.
These creatures walked upright but otherwise retained primitive characteristics and
did not make stone tools. But by 3.4 million years ago, their descendants, known as
Australopithecus, used primitive stone tools to butcher meat. By 2.4 million years
ago, Homo habilis, the earliest creature designated as within the homo (human) lin-
eage, had developed a larger brain than Ardipithecus or Australopithecus. Homo habilis
(habilis means “tool using”) used fire and built shelters with stone foundations. Like
hunting and gathering people in hunting and gathering societies today, they probably lived in small bands
societies Small in which women foraged for plant food and men hunted and scavenged for meat. Re-
societies dependent
cent discoveries suggest Homo habilis may have spread from Africa to the Caucasus
on hunting animals
and collecting wild
region of southeastern Europe. A more advanced human, Homo erectus, who emerged
plants rather than on in Africa about 1.6 million years ago, spread even farther from Africa, reaching east-
agriculture. ern Asia and Indonesia.
Paleoanthropologists agree that modern humans, Homo sapiens, evolved from Homo
erectus, but they disagree on how. According to a multiregional model, modern humans
evolved throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe from ancestral regional populations of Homo
erectus and archaic Homo sapiens. According to the out-of-Africa model, modern humans

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 CHAPTER 1 Africa  3

View on MyHistoryLab Map: Interactive Map: Africa Climate Regions and Early Sites

Strait of Gibraltar

un tains Me
s Mo diterra
Atla nean
Sahel Sea

S a h a r a
EGYPT
Ahaggar Plateau
1-1

R
NUBIA/KUSH

ed
Nile River

Se
Tibesti
Mountains Kerma

a
Napata
Se
n
N
ig er R
iver
Sahel
Ennedi Plateau Meroe
1-2
eg

Cape Verde
al

Azum
R

Lake
ive

Jenne Chad EASTERN

r

Jos Plateau SUDAN

WESTERN Nok Culture
SUDAN Taruga CENTRAL r ABYSSINIA
1-3

ive
eR
iver
SUDAN (ETHIOPIA)

e Nile R
Lim nu
it of Be
rest
Rain Fo

hit
Lake

W
Ub a Rudolph
ngi Riv
er
1-4
EQUATOR ire) River Mt. Kenya EQUATOR
Za
(
g o
on

K
Lake
Mt. Kilimanjaro
INDIA N 1-5
Victoria
OCEAN

Lake 1-6
ATLAN TI C Tanganyika
Lake
Nyasa
OCE AN
i River
bez

el
nn
m
Za

ha
eCu

MADAGASCAR
biq

Kalahari
zam

Desert po River
po
m
Mo
Li

Rain forest
Mountain ranges and high plateau Oran
ge Rive
r

Savanna and steppe

Desert
Rift Valley
Cape of Good Hope 0 500 1000 mi

0 500 1000 km

Map 1–1 Africa: Climatic Regions and Early Sites

Africa is a large continent with several climatic zones. It is also the home of several early
civilizations.

What impact did the variety of climatic zones have on the development
of civilization in Africa?

emerged in Africa some 200,000 years ago and began migrating to the rest of the world
about 100,000 years ago, eventually replacing all other existing hominid populations. Both
of these models are consistent with recent genetic evidence, and both indicate that all living
peoples are closely related.

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 4  CHAPTER 1 Africa

Ancient Civilizations and Old Arguments

1-3 Why are ancient African civilizations important?

The earliest civilization in Africa and one of the two earliest civilizations in
world history is that of ancient Egypt (see Map 1–1), which emerged in the
Nile River valley in the fourth millennium bce. Mesopotamian civilization,
the other of the two, emerged in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates riv-
ers in southwest Asia. In both regions, civilization appeared at the end of a
1-1 long process in which hunting and gathering gave way to agriculture. The
settled village life that resulted from this transformation permitted society to
become increasingly hierarchical and specialized. Similar processes gave rise
1-2 to civilization in other parts of the world.
The race of the ancient Egyptians and the nature and extent of their in-
fluence on later Western civilizations have long been a source of controversy.
1-3
That controversy reflects more about the racial politics of recent history than
it reveals about the Egyptians themselves, who did not regard themselves in
1-4 ways related to modern racial terminology.
The argument over the Egyptians’ race began in the nineteenth century
when ­African Americans and white reformers sought to refute claims by
1-5 racist pseudoscientists that people of African descent were i­ nherently infe-
rior to people of European descent. Unaware of the achievements of West
­African civilization, those who believed in human equality used evidence
1-6 that the Egyptians were black to counter assertions that African Americans
were incapable of civilization.
During the last two decades of the twentieth century, a more scholarly
debate occurred between Afrocentricists and traditionalists. A­ frocentricists re-
garded ancient Egypt as an essentially black civilization closely linked to other
indigenous African civilizations to its south. They maintained not only that
the Egyptians influenced later African civilizations but also that they had a
This drawing is based on a partial, fossilized decisive impact on the Mediterranean Sea region, including ancient Greece and
skeleton discovered at Afar, Ethiopia, in 1994. Rome. Therefore, in regard to philosophy and science, black Egyptians origi-
The anthropologists who found the remains
nated Western civilization. In response, traditionalists claimed that modern
concluded in 2009 that the bones are those of a
female Ardipithecus ramidus (nicknamed “Ardi”) racial categories have no relevance to the world of the ancient Egyptians. The
who lived 4.5 million years ago. Ardi shows ancient Greeks, they argued, developed the empirical method of inquiry and
that hominids diverged from apes much earlier notions of individual freedom that characterize Western civilization. Not under
than previously believed and fortifies existing
evidence that human origins lay in Africa. debate, however, was Egypt’s contribution to the spread of civilization through-
out the Mediterranean region. No one doubts that in religion, commerce, and
hierarchical Refers to
art, Egypt strongly influenced Greece and subsequent Western civilizations.
a social system based
on class rank.
hieroglyphics A Egyptian Civilization
writing system based on Egypt was, as the Greek historian Herodotus observed 2,500 years ago, the “gift of the Nile.”
pictures or symbols. This great river’s gentle annual flooding regularly irrigated its banks, leaving behind deposits
patrilineal Descent of fertile soil. The Nile also provided the Egyptians with a transportation and communica-
through the male line. tions artery, while their desert surroundings protected them from foreign invasion.
patriarchal A society Egypt became a unified kingdom around 3150 bce. B ­ etween 1550–1100 bce,
ruled by a senior man. it ­expanded beyond the Nile valley, creating an empire over the coastal regions of

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 CHAPTER 1 Africa  5

southwest Asia as well as over Libya and Nubia in

Africa. During this period Egypt’s kings began us- Read on MyHistoryLab Document: Ibn Battuta
ing the title pharaoh. After 1100 bce, Egypt fell prey Describes a Journey Through Egypt, c. 1325
to a series of outside invaders. With the invasion of
Alexander the Great’s Macedonian army in 331 bce, dit
erranean
Me Se
Egypt’s ancient culture began a long decline under a

E
IN
Buto
the pressure of Greek ideas and institutions (see

T
S
Tanis LE
L OW E R PA
Map 1–2). Finally the Roman Empire conquered EG YP T Tell el-Daba
Abu Roash
Egypt in 30 bce. Giza
Abusir
Bubastis
Heliopolis
Zawiyet el-Aryan Maadi
Before decline began, Egypt had resisted change Saqqara Dahshur
Memphis
El-Omari
Mazghuna
for thousands of years. Pharoahs presided over a Seila El-Lisht
Sinai
1-1
Hawara Meidum
hierarchical society. Beneath them were classes of Illahun

warriors, priests, merchants, artisans, and peasants.

R.
Scribes, who mastered Egypt’s complex ­hieroglyphic 1-2

N il e
writing system, staffed a large bureaucracy. E­ gyptian Dara Amarna
Arabian
Desert
society was also patrilineal and patriarchal. ­Egyptian Cusae
Red 1-3
women nonetheless held a high status compared Sea
Western
with women in much of the rest of the ancient world. Desert
They owned property independently of their hus- Abydos
Naqada 1-4
band, oversaw household slaves, controlled the edu- Deir el-Medina
Tarif Luxor
cation of their children, held public office, served as U P PER
E G YP T El-Kab
priests, and operated businesses. Several women be- Hierakonpolis
Edfu
1-5
came pharoah, one of whom, Hatshepsut, reigned for Elephantine
20 years (1478–1458 bce). 1st cataract

A complex polytheistic religion shaped E ­ gyptian 1-6

life. Although there were many gods, two of the
more important were the sun god Re (or Ra), who Abu Simbel
represented the immortality of the Egyptian state, 2nd cataract

and Osiris, the god of the Nile, who embodied each

person’s immortality. Personal immortality and the N U B IA /K U S H

immortality of the state merged in the person of

R.

le
Ni
the pharoah, as expressed in Egypt’s elaborate royal Nubian

tombs, the most famous of which are the Great Desert

­Pyramids at Giza. 3rd cataract 0 50 100 mi

0 50 100 km
Kerma

Nubia, Kush, Meroë, and Axum Napata

To the south of Egypt in the upper Nile valley, in 4th cataract
5th cataract

what is today the nation of Sudan, lay the ancient

region known as Nubia. As early as the fourth mil-
lennium bce, the black people who lived there
interacted with the ­Egyptians. Archaeological evi- Pyramid
dence suggests that grain production and the con- City/ Meroë
administrative center
cept of monarchy may have arisen in Nubia and
then spread north to Egypt. But Egypt’s population
always greatly exceeded Nubia’s, and during the sec-
Map 1–2 Ancient Egypt and Nubia
ond millennium bce, Egypt used its military power
to make Nubia an Egyptian colony and control What does this map indicate about the relationship
Nubian copper and gold mines. between ancient Egypt and Nubia/Kush?

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 6  CHAPTER 1 Africa

Egyptian religion, art, hieroglyphics, and political structure influenced Nubia.

Then, with Egypt’s decline during the first millennium bce, the Nubians established
an independent kingdom known as Kush. During the eighth century bce, the Kush-
ites took control of upper (meaning southern because the Nile flows from south to
north) Egypt, and in about 750 bce, the Kushite king Piankhy added lower Egypt to his
realm. Piankhy became pharaoh and founded Egypt’s twenty-fifth dynasty, which ruled
until the Assyrians, who invaded Egypt from southwest Asia in 663 bce, drove the
Kushites out.
Kush itself remained independent for another thousand years until 540 bce when a
resurgent Egyptian army destroyed Kerma, and the Kushites moved their capital southward
1-1 to Meroë. The new capital became wealthy from trade with East Africa, with regions to the
west across Sudan, and with the Mediterranean world by way of the Nile River. The devel-
opment of a smelting technology capable of exploiting local deposits of iron transformed
1-2
the city into Africa’s first industrial center.
Kush’s wealth attracted powerful enemies, and in 23 bce a Roman army invaded. But
1-3 it was the decline of Rome and its Mediterranean economy that hurt Kush the most. As
the Roman Empire grew weaker and poorer, its trade with Kush declined, and Kush, too,
weakened. During the early fourth century ce, it fell to the neighboring Noba people, who
Semitic Refers to
1-4 languages, such as in turn fell to the kingdom of Axum, whose warriors destroyed Meroë.
Arabic and Hebrew, Located in what is today Ethiopia, Axum emerged as a nation during the first cen-
native to southwest Asia. tury bce as Semitic people from the Arabian Peninsula settled among a local black
1-5

1-6
Read on MyHistoryLab Document: Herodotus on Carthaginian Trade and on the City of Meroë

The ruined pyramids of Meroë on the banks of the upper Nile River are not as old as those at Giza in Egypt,
and they differ from them stylistically. But they nonetheless attest to the cultural connections between Meroë
and Egypt.

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 CHAPTER 1 Africa  7

population. By the time it absorbed Kush during the fourth century ce, Axum had
become the first Christian state in sub-Saharan Africa. By the eighth century, shift-
ing trade patterns, environmental depletion, and I­ slamic invaders combined to reduce
Axum’s power.

West Africa
1-4 Why is West Africa significant for African-American history?
1-1
The immediate birthright of most African Americans, then, is to be found not in the ancient
civilizations of the Nile valley—although those civilizations are part of the heritage of all
1-2
Africans—but thousands of miles away among the civilizations that emerged in West Africa
during the first millennium bce.
Like Africa as a whole, West Africa is physically, ethnically, and culturally diverse. 1-3
Much of West Africa south of the Sahara Desert falls within the savanna that spans the
continent from east to west. West and south of the savanna are extensive forests. These
two environments—savanna and forest—were home to a variety of cultures and languages. 1-4
­Patterns of settlement in the region ranged from isolated homesteads and hamlets to
­villages, towns, and cities.
West Africans began cultivating crops and tending domesticated animals between 1-5
1000 bce and 200 ce. Those who lived on the savanna usually adopted settled village
life well before those who lived in the forests. The early farmers produced grains while
1-6
tending cattle and goats. By 500 bce, some West Africans produced iron tools and
weapons.
From early times, the peoples of West Africa traded among themselves and with the
peoples who lived across the Sahara Desert in North Africa. This extensive trade became an
essential part of the region’s economy and had two other important results. First, it was the
basis for the three great western Sudanese empires that successively dominated the region,
from before 800 ce until the beginnings of the modern era. Second, it drew Arab merchants,
and the Islamic religion, into the region.

Ancient Ghana
The first known kingdom in western Sudan was Ghana (see Map 1–3). Founded by the
Soninke people in the area north of the modern republic of Ghana, the kingdom’s origins
are unclear. Because they possessed superior iron weapons, the Soninke dominated their
neighbors and forged an empire through constant warfare. Ghana’s boundaries reached into
the Sahara Desert to its north and into modern Senegal to its south. But the empire’s real
power lay in commerce.
Ghana’s kings were known in Europe and southwest Asia as the richest of monarchs,
and trade produced their wealth. The key to this trade was the camel, introduced into Africa
from Asia during the first century ce. The camel’s ability to endure long journeys on small
amounts of food and water dramatically increased trade across the Sahara between western
Sudan and the coastal regions of North Africa.
Ghana traded in several commodities. From North Africa came silk, cotton, glass
beads, horses, mirrors, dates, and especially salt. In return, Ghana exported pepper, slaves,
and especially gold. The slaves were usually war captives.

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 8  CHAPTER 1 Africa

Read on MyHistoryLab Document: Ghana and Its People in the Mid-Eleventh Century

ATLANTIC ATLANTIC
ALGERIA ALGERIA
OCEAN OCEAN
Fez Fez
TUNISIA TUNISIA
MOROCCO MOROCCO
Marrakesh Marrakesh

1-1
Taghaza (salt mines)

1-2 TUAREG

SONGHAI
Se Walata
Se Timbuktu
Awdaghost

ne
Gao Tekedda
ne

ga
GHANA R. MALI (copper mines)
ga

l
R
1-3 Gambia R .
l

Kumbi
Nig

Gambia R .
. Saleh er R
Nig
er

Kumbi Jenne

.
Saleh
R.

Ni
. ge
R r
er Niani
ig

R.
N
1-4 nu
eR
.
nu
e R.
Be Be

1-5 0 250 500 mi 0 250 500 mi

0 250 500 km 0 250 500 km

1-6 Map 1–3 The Empires of Ghana and Mali

The western Sudanese empires of Ghana and Mali helped shape West African culture.
Ghana existed from as early as the fourth century ce to 1076. Mali dominated western
­Sudan from 1230 to 1468.

What does this map suggest concerning the historical relationship

between ancient Ghana and Mali?

Before the fifth century ce, Roman merchants and Berbers were West Africa’s chief part-
ners in the trans-Sahara trade. As Roman power declined and Islam spread across North
Africa during the seventh and eighth centuries, Arabs replaced the Romans. Arab merchants
settled in Kumbi Saleh, Ghana’s capital, which by the twelfth century had become an impres-
sive city. There were stone houses and tombs and as many as 20,000 people. Kumbi Saleh had
several mosques, and some Soninke converted to Islam, although it is unclear whether the
royal family joined them. Muslims dominated the royal bureaucracy and introduced Arabic
writing to the region.
Commercial and religious rivalries led to Ghana’s decline during the twelfth century.
The Almoravids, who were Islamic Berbers from what is today Morocco, had been Ghana’s
principal competitors for control of the trans-Sahara trade. In 992 Ghana’s army captured
Awdaghost, the Almoravid trade center northwest of Kumbi Saleh. Driven as much by re-
ligious fervor as by economic interest, the Almoravids retaliated in 1076 by conquering
Ghana. The Soninke regained their independence in 1087, but a little over a century later
the Sosso, a previously tributary people, destroyed Kumbi Saleh.

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 CHAPTER 1 Africa  9

Voices Al Bakri Describes Kumbi Saleh

and Ghana’s Royal Court
Nothing remains of the documents compiled by
­Ghana’s Islamic bureaucracy. As a result, accounts
of the civilization are all based on the testimony of
Arab or Berber visitors. In this passage, written in the
eleventh century, Arab geographer Al Bakri describes
the great wealth and power of the king of Ghana and
suggests there were tensions between Islam and the
indigenous religion of the Soninke.
The city of Ghana [Kumbi Saleh] consists of
two towns lying in a plain. One of these towns
is inhabited by Muslims. It is large and possesses
twelve mosques. . . . There are imams and muez-
zins, and assistants as well as jurists and learned
men. Around the town are wells of sweet wa-
ter from which they drink and near which they
grow vegetables. The town in which the king
lives is six miles from the Muslim one, and
bears the name Al Ghaba [the forest]. The land
between the two towns is covered with houses.
The houses of the inhabitants are of stone and
acacia wood. The king has a palace and a num-
ber of dome-shaped dwellings, the whole sur-
rounded by an enclosure like the defensive wall
of a city. In the town where the king lives, and
not far from the hall where he holds his court
of justice, is a mosque where pray the Muslims
who come on diplomatic missions. Around the
king’s town are domed buildings, woods, and
copses where live the sorcerers of these people,
the men in charge of the religious cult. . . .
Of the people who follow the king’s religion,
only he and his heir presumptive, who is the son
of his sister, may wear sewn clothes. All the other
people wear clothes of cotton, silk, or brocade,
according to their means. All men shave their
beards and women shave their heads. The king 1-1
adorns himself like a woman, wearing necklaces
and bracelets, and when he sits before the people
he puts on a high cap decorated with gold and 1-2
wrapped in a turban of fine cotton. The court of
appeal [for grievances against officials] is held in
a domed pavilion around which stand ten horses 1-3
with gold embroidered trappings. Behind the king
stand ten pages holding shields and swords deco-
rated with gold, and on his right are the sons of 1-4
the subordinate kings of his country, all wearing
splendid garments and their hair mixed with gold.
. . . When the people professing the same religion 1-5
as the king approach him, they fall on their knees
and sprinkle their heads with dust, for this is their
way of showing him their respect. As for the Mus- 1-6
lims, they greet him only by clapping their hands.
1. What does this passage indicate about
life in ancient Ghana?
2. According to Al Bakri, in what ways do
customs in Kumbi Saleh differ from
customs in Arab lands?
source: Roland Oliver and Caroline Oliver, Africa in the Days of Exploration
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1965), 9–10. Reprinted with permission.

The Empire of Mali, 1230–1468

Following the defeat of Ghana by the Almoravids, western Sudanese peoples competed
for political and economic power. This contest ended in 1235 when the Mandinka, under
their legendary leader Sundiata (c. 1210–1260), defeated the Sosso at the Battle of Kirina.
­Sundiata then forged the Empire of Mali.
Mali was socially, politically, and economically similar to Ghana. It was larger than
Ghana, however, and centered farther south, in a region of greater rainfall and more abun-
dant crops. Sundiata also gained control of Wangara’s gold mines, making Mali wealthier
than Ghana had been. As a result, Mali’s population grew to eight million.

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 10  CHAPTER 1 Africa

To administer their vast empire at a time when communication was slow, Mali’s rulers
relied on personal and family ties with local chiefs. Commerce, bureaucracy, and scholar-
ship also helped hold the empire together. Mali’s most important city was Timbuktu, which
had been established during the eleventh century beside the Niger River near the southern
edge of the Sahara.

By the thirteenth century, Timbuktu had become a major hub for trade in gold, slaves,
and salt. It attracted merchants from throughout the Mediterranean world and became a
Read on MyHistoryLab
Document: Leo Africanus center of Islamic learning. The city had several mosques, 150 Islamic schools, a law school,
Describes Timbuktu, c. 1500 and many book dealers. It supported a cosmopolitan community and impressed visitors
with its religious and ethnic tolerance.
1-1 Mali reached its peak during the reign of Mansa Musa (r. 1312–1337). One of the
wealthiest rulers the world has known, Musa made himself and Mali famous when in
1324 he undertook a pilgrimage across Africa to the Islamic holy city of Mecca in Arabia.
1-2
With an entourage of 60,000, a train of one hundred elephants, and a propensity for dis-
tributing huge amounts of gold to those who greeted him along the way, Musa amazed
1-3 the Islamic world. After his death, however, Mali declined. In 1468, one of its formerly
subject peoples, the Songhai, captured Timbuktu, and their leader, Sunni Ali, founded a
new West African empire.
1-4

1-5

Read on MyHistoryLab Document: Al-Umari Describes Mansa Musa of Mali, c. 1330

1-6

Mansa Musa, who ruled the West African Empire of Mali from 1312 to 1337, is portrayed at the bottom center of
this portion of the fourteenth-century Catalan Atlas. Musa’s crown, scepter, throne, and the huge gold nugget he
displays symbolize his power and wealth.

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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN