Description
The award-winning Revisioning American History series continues with this “groundbreaking new history of Black women in the United States” (Ibram X. Kendi)—the perfect companion to An Indigenous People’s History of the United States and An African American and Latinx History of the United States.
An empowering and intersectional history that centers the stories of African American women across 400+ years, showing how they are—and have always been—instrumental in shaping our country.
In centering Black women’s stories, two award-winning historians seek both to empower African American women and to show their allies that Black women’s unique ability to make their own communities while combatting centuries of oppression is an essential component in our continued resistance to systemic racism and sexism. Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross offer an examination and celebration of Black womanhood, beginning with the first African women who arrived in what became the United States to African American women of today.
A Black Women’s History of the United States reaches far beyond a single narrative to showcase Black women’s lives in all their fraught complexities. Berry and Gross prioritize many voices: enslaved women, freedwomen, religious leaders, artists, queer women, activists, and women who lived outside the law. The result is a starting point for exploring Black women’s history and a testament to the beauty, richness, rhythm, tragedy, heartbreak, rage, and enduring love that abounds in the spirit of Black women in communities throughout the nation.
Table of Contents
Authors’ Note
INTRODUCTION
Nannie’s Legacy and the Histories of Black Women
CHAPTER ONE
Isabel’s Expedition and Freedom Before 1619
CHAPTER TWO
Angela’s Exodus out of Africa, 1619–1760
CHAPTER THREE
Belinda’s Petition for Independence, 1760–1820
CHAPTER FOUR
Millie and Christine’s Performance and the Expansion of Slavery, 1820–1860
CHAPTER FIVE
Mary’s Apron and the Demise of Slavery, 1860–1876
CHAPTER SIX
Frances’s Sex and the Dawning of the Black Woman’s Era, 1876–1915
CHAPTER SEVEN
Augusta’s Clay, Migration, and the Depression, 1915–1940
CHAPTER EIGHT
Alice’s Medals and Black Women’s War at Home, 1940–1950
CHAPTER NINE
Aurelia’s Lawsuit Against Jim Crow, 1950–1970
CHAPTER TEN
Shirley’s Run, Black Power, Politics, and Black Feminism, 1970–2000
CONCLUSION
Patricia’s Climb and the Sisters Holding Down Liberty
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Image Credits
Notes
Index
