Bound for America: The Forced Migration of Africans to the New World

Haskins, James

ISBN 10: 068810259X ISBN 13: 9780688102593

Publisher: HarperCollins, 1999

Synopsis

Between about 1500 and 1850, millions of Africans were captured and transported across the Atlantic in one of the most tragic ordeals in human history. In this objective and profoundly moving book, Haskins and Benson open with discussions of slavery thoughout history and of Europe and Africa at the time the African slave trade began, then closely examine every aspect of the Middle Passage. Included are sections on capturing the slaves, the march to the coast, the selection of slaves for purchase, conditions on slave ships, and slave revolts aboard ship. Illuminated with historic prints, photographs, and Floyd Cooper's compelling paintings. Timeline, bibliography, map, and index included.

About this title

About the Author

James Haskins is the author of more than a hundred books for both adults and children, including The Cotton Club, which inspired the motion picture of the same name, and The Story of Stevie Wonder, which won the Coretta Scott King Award. He was honored with the Washington Post/Children's Book Guild Award for his body of work, and his books Black Music in America, and The March on Washington both won the Carter G. Woodson Award. Mr. Haskins lives in New York City and Gainesville, Florida.

In His Own Words...

"I was born in Dentopolis, Alabama and spent my childhood in a household with lots of children, a household where I felt a great need for privacy. One of the places I found privacy was in books. I could be anywhere at all, but if I was reading it book I was by in myself. Sometimes it was hard for me to get books. In the 1950s, when I was a child, the South was rigidly segregated. The Demopolis Public library was for whites; I black child could not go there. My mother arranged for a white friend to get books from the library for me. Many years later, I returned to Demopolis and gave some of the books I had written to the library I could never enter as a child. Some Years after that, I was invited to give an important speech it that same library.

"I attended high school in Boston, Massachuetts, and college in a variety of places, the first of which was Alabama State University in Montgomery. It Was the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which began after a black woman named osa Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man. Inspired by her action and led by a young minister Martin Luther King, Jr., black people boycotted the buses for more than a year until the United States Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional. I helped hand out leaflets urging black people to stay off the buses and Was expelled front the college for doing so. Georgetown University In Washington, D.C., then offered me a scholarship, and I enrolled there.

"After graduating from college, I moved to New York, where I sold newspaper advertising space and worked as a stock trader on Wall Street before I decided to become a teacher. I taught music and special education classes in Harlem; My first book, Diary Of a Schoolteacher, was a result of my experiences.

"It was the 1960s, and college and high school Students were demonstrating against the war in Vietnam and for the civil rights of black people. My students were aware of those events and wanted to know more about them. But there were no books written on their level. So I started writing books for young people about the various movements--antiwar, civil rights, black power. After that I began writing biographies of black people, because young people black and white--like to read about how successful people grew up and overcame the barriers of poverty and racial discrinination.

"Since the early 1970s, I have taught on the collage level, and I have continued to write books. I have published more than 125 on many subjects for children, young adults, and adults. In 1994, the Washington Post Children's Book Guild honored me for my body of work in nonfiction for children.

"I have learned a lot from writing books. I have also met many important people, including Mrs. Rosa Parks herself, because I helped her write her autobiographies for young adults, Rosa Park: My Story; and for children, I Am Rosa Parks. When I think about that, I am amazed that the woman who was so important to my experiences as a young college student--not to mention the whole civil rights movement--now my friend.

"Books were once--and still are--a way to find my own private world. But they have also introduced me to a world far larger than I would otherwise have experienced. I love books, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to share this love With so many People."

Reviews

Grade 6 Up-Seldom has the plight of the African natives who were sent into slavery in the New World been more clearly and effectively presented. This combination of clear text and judicious use of primary-source material makes crystalline the inhumanity and commercialism that kept the trade in slaves alive for 350 years. Eighteen brief chapters illustrated with period and contemporary art cover the history of slavery in general; European and African society in 1492, when Columbus's contact with the New World precipitated the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade; the mechanics of the slave trade from capture to delivery; conditions on slave ships; mutinies; and what slaves could expect at the end of their journey. The volume includes a time line, a list for further reading divided between works for adults and for young people, and a sound index. Cooper's oil-and-wash paintings are exceptional, their impact resulting largely from the artist's ability to capture the suffering and stoicism of his subjects. Following on the heels of Haskins's and Benson's African Beginnings (Lothrop, 1998), this volume successfully continues the exploration of the history of people of African descent. Narrower in scope than Milton Meltzer's The Black Americans (HarperCollins, 1987) and Julius Lester's To Be a Slave (Dial, 1968), it shares their predilection for primary-source narrative. An excellent companion to Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer (Dell, 1975), this book will provide ample opportunity for thought and discussion.
Ann Welton, Terminal Park Elementary School, Auburn, WA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Grade 6 Up-This engrossing and detailed account of the Middle Passage evokes powerful images through full-page oil paintings, riveting reproductions, and maps. A moving story told with authority and sensitivity. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 068810259X
• ISBN 13: 9780688102593
• Binding: Library Binding
• Illustrator: Cooper Floyd
• Number of pages: 48