Africa To America

At the expense of basic human rights, dignity, and decency, Africans were torn from their native countries and first brought to the United State as slaves. Yet even in the face of the indefensible injustices and hardship they have endured since then, African Americans have been bolstered by the sacrifices, leadership, and determination of courageous individuals. This inspiring volume chronicles the history of African Americans from origins on the African continent to the end of the Harlem Renaissance.

Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784) was an American freed slave and poet who wrote the first book of poetry by an African-American. Sold into a slavery in West Africa at the age of around seven, she was taken to North America where she served the Wheatley family of Boston. Phillis was tutored in reading and writing by Mary, the Wheatleys' 18-year-old daughter, and was reading Latin and Greek classics from the age of twelve. Encouraged by the progressive Wheatleys who recognised her incredible literary talent, she wrote "To the University of Cambridge” when she was 14 and by 20 had found patronage in the form of Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. Her works garnered acclaim in both England and the colonies and she became the first African American to make a living as a poet. This volume contains a collection of Wheatley's best poetry, including the titular poem “Being Brought from Africa to America”. Contents include: “Phillis Wheatley”, “Phillis Wheatley by Benjamin Brawley”, “To Maecenas”, “On Virtue”, “To the University of Cambridge”, “To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty”, “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, “On the Death of the Rev. Dr. Sewell”, “On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield”, etc. Ragged Hand is proudly publishing this brand new collection of classic poetry with a specially-commissioned biography of the author.

At the age of 19, Phillis Wheatley was the first black American poet to publish a book. Her elegies and odes offer fascinating glimpses of the beginnings of African-American literary traditions. Includes a selection from the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Keith B. Richburg was an experienced and respected reporter who had paid his dues covering urban neighborhoods in Washington D.C., and won praise for his coverage of Southeast Asia. But nothing prepared him for the personal odyssey that he would embark upon when he was assigned to cover Africa. In this powerful book, Richburg takes the reader on an extraordinary journey that sweeps from Somalia to Rwanda to Zaire and finally to South Africa. He shows how he came to terms with the divide within himself: between his African racial heritage and his American cultural identity. Are these really my people? Am I truly an African-American? The answer, Richburg finds, after much soul-searching, is that no, he is not an African, but an American first and foremost. To those who romanticize Mother Africa as a black Valhalla, where blacks can walk with dignity and pride, he regrets that this is not the reality. He has been there and witnessed the killings, the repression, the false promises, and the horror. "Thank God my nameless ancestor, brought across the ocean in chains and leg irons, made it out alive," he concludes. "Thank God I am an American."

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

African American Psychology: From Africa to America provides comprehensive coverage of the field of African American psychology. Authors Faye Z. Belgrave and Kevin W. Allison skillfully convey the integration of African and American influences on the psychology of African Americans using a consistent theme throughout the text—the idea that understanding the psychology of African Americans is closely linked to understanding what is happening in the institutional systems in the United States. The Fourth Edition reflects notable advances and important developments in the field over the last several years, and includes evidence-based practices for improving the overall well-being of African American communities

Recent news media have exposed the horrific genocides in Rwanda, Darfur, and elsewhere, but little has been publicized about the unseen genocide committed by Muslims against millions of Christians in southern Sudan during the 1980s. From Africa to America: The Journey of a Lost Boy of Sudan provides a firsthand account of the atrocities caused by the same president and government committing genocide in Darfur today. Look through the eyes of one of the Lost Boys, a group of orphans who braved a dangerous trek through desert and jungle in order to flee the war-torn southern Sudan twenty years ago, as author Akol Makeer explains Sudanese cultural traditions and chronicles his life before and after the war. From Africa to America: The Journey of a Lost Boy of Sudan records years of human rights violations and bloodshed, the conversion of southern Sudanese from animism to Christianity during the war, the corruption of U.N. officials, and the sixteen-year journey of the Lost Boys from Sudan to Ethiopia, on to Kenya, and finally to religious and political freedom in America.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1956.