Lerone Bennett - Before the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America 1619-1962

A History of the Negro in America, 1619-1962

Lerone Bennett, Jr.

Grade Level is 9.2 using the Flesch-Kincaid readability test with sample chapters.

First edition published by Johnson Publishing Company, Inc., 1962.

Electronic edition published by Ebooks for Students, Ltd., 2021.

This ebook is in the public domain, and is free of all copyright restrictions. It is also free of digital rights management protection so you can distribute copies to your students, their parents, and other prospective readers.

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Reviews from Goodreads.com:

A sample of the more than 72 reviews on Goodreads.com where the average rating by readers is 4.45 out of 5.

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This a great introduction, if not then the best introduction, to African American History. If you are wanting to know more about the story of African Americans this book is very readable and accurate. When I taught our school African American History class this was my text. My students liked it so much most of them went out and bought their own copies.

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Mr. Bennett gives voice to Black Americans, and to the cultures they brought with them. Through impeccable research, he has uncovered history and culture that was not readily available those many years ago. This book was published and available at almost the same time I finished my degree. I found it later when I had the luxury of being able to read what I wanted, rather than that which was assigned, and have used it to some degree in home schooling my son (though it is too difficult for most high school students). Highly readable and enormously enlightening.

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This was an amazing piece of work. I knew that people of color in this country had it rough but this truly shows just how bad. Even with all of the hardships people of color tried again and again to be the best that society would not let them. I was inspired by this book to continue to strive for progress and thus success. The stories of my ancestors have shown me that I come from a strong stock that can survived the worst of times so that I may have the best of times.

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Before the Mayflower tells the History of Black America begins with Ancient Egypt and the sub-Saharan African Kingdoms while Europe languished in the Middle Ages. The story continues with the first Africans to arrive in the future United States, in Jamestown one year before the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. From there, the book tells the engaging 400-year history of Black America.

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A classic account of African American history that I am so happy I finally got around to reading! Despite being written in the early 1960s, Bennett's perspective and approach is never dated. He offers an always insightful synthesis that draws on a wide range of sources. His writing is especially accessible and often reminds me of the sweep and style of two other great 'journalist historians'- WJ Cash and Bernard DeVoto.

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The most thorough study of the African American experience I've ever read. It takes you from their life in western Africa before the slave ships arrived all the way through the Jim Crow era to their struggles and place in our society today. For any history lover who wants a full, true account of the journey African Americans have taken in our society.

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If you are interested in American History then this book is a must.

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Given it has been more than half a century since it's writing, it is amazing to me how timeless ideas are. Also, as unfortunate as it is, how long a gap there is between ideas and progress. The book also highlights the sheer number of individuals who contribute to progress versus the simplistic hero-worship that is conventional history....

This book grew out of a series of articles which were published originally in Ebony magazine. The book, like the series, deals with the trials and triumphs of a group of Americans whose roots in the American soil are deeper than those of the Puritans who arrived on the celebrated Mayflower a year after a Dutch man of war deposited twenty Negroes at Jamestown.

This is a history of the other Americans and how they came to North America and what happened to them when they got here. The story begins in Africa with the great empires of the Sudan and Nile Valley and ends with the Second Reconstruction which Martin Luther King, Jr., and the sit-in generation are fashioning in the North and South. The story deals with the rise and growth of slavery and segregation and the continuing efforts of Negro Americans to answer the question of the Jewish poet of captivity: How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land? This history is founded on the work of scholars and specialists and is designed for the average reader. It is not, strictly speaking, a book for scholars; but it is as scholarly as fourteen months of research could make it. Readers who would like to follow the story in greater detail are urged to read each chapter in connection with the outline of Negro history in the appendix.

Without the help and encouragement of many people, this book would not have been possible. John H. Johnson, president of Johnson Publishing Company, conceived the idea for the series and made it possible for me to spend fourteen months researching and writing it. The editors of Johnson Publishing Company were also helpful with suggestions and criticisms. I am especially indebted to the managing editors of Ebony, Herbert Nipson and Era Bell Thompson, and Doris Saunders, Lucille Phinnie, Basil Phillips, Norman Hunter, Ariel Strong, Herbert Temple, Lacey Crawford and Robert E. Johnson. I should like to express my appreciation to the personnel of the University of Chicago Library, the Johnson Publishing Company Library, the Hall Branch of the Chicago Public Library, and the Chicago Historical Society. My wife, Gloria, also has my thanks for her suggestions and understanding. Whatever virtues this book has are due to the help and encouragement of other people. The errors are my own.

When this material appeared in Ebony magazine in an abridged form, a great many readersNegroes and whiteswere surprised by the depth of involvement of Negroes in the American experience. They were surprised, for example, to discover that Negroes were at Lexington and Concord and that they stood with Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans and with William Lloyd Garrison in the battle against slavery. The reader, I believe, will be astonished by the richness of the Negros heritage. He will also perceive, I hope, that this story is relevant to the struggle of all men and that it is a moving chapter in the whole human drama.