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The Black West: A Documentary and Pictoral History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States
List Price: $17.95
Our Price: $12.21
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Manufacturer: Harlem Moon
Average Customer Rating: Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.0049607300922
EAN: 9780767912310
ISBN: 0767912314
Label: Harlem Moon
Manufacturer: Harlem Moon
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2005-10-25
Publisher: Harlem Moon
Release Date: 2005-10-25
Studio: Harlem Moon

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Editorial Reviews:

This entirely new edition of a famous classic has glorious new photographs—many never before seen—as well as a revised and expanded text that deepens our understanding of the vital role played by African American men and women on our early frontiers.Inspired by a conversation that William Loren Katz had with Langston Hughes, The Black West presents long-neglected stories of daring pioneers such as Nat Love, a.k.a. Deadwood Dick, Mary Fields, a.k.a. Stagecoach Mary, Cranford Goldsby, a.k.a. Cherokee Bill—and a host of other intrepid men and women who marched into the wilderness alongside Chief Osceola, Billy the Kid, and Geronimo.Featuring captivating narratives and photographs (many from the author’s world-famous collection), The Black West enriches and deepens our stirring frontier saga. From slave runaways during the colonial era, to the journeys of Lewis and Clark, to the charge at San Juan Hill, Katz vividly recounts the crucial contributions African Americans made during scores of frontier encounters. With its stirring pictures and vivid eyewitness accounts, The Black West is an exhilarating treasure trove.




Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: The Black West:: A Documentary & Pictoral History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the US
Comment: This book is great and very informative. It tells how the West was won with the help of African-Americans, the things they had to endure during slavery and after freedom and how they establish productive communities.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: Excellent!
Comment: Just a collection of informative vignettes detailing the Brothers and Sisters contributions to the creation of the Old West. Yet another piece of the historical African puzzle that everyone (but especially Blacks) need to become aware of.

Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: How the West was really won.
Comment: THE BLACK WEST is a revised edition of an older book by William Loren Katz. He gives us a definitive history, not only of the Black people who helped settle the West, but also of the machinations of the United States to steal the land from the indigenous people. He includes the brawl with Santa Ana of Mexico regarding Texas as well as the struggle to take California from the Mexicans and the Indians. Katz lets us know that although Blacks were prominent in the settling of the West, they were not welcome additions. Many territories that later became states, passed "black laws" to restrict the entry of Blacks into the territories and to regulate their behavior once they were there. Two such laws were keeping them from voting and preventing them from attending the local schools.

On the plus side, Katz gives the glittering history of the Black cowboys who herded the cattle, tamed the ponies and found gold. He even covers the lawbreakers who rustled cattle and gave Billy the Kid a run for his money in terms of bad behavior. Also there were those Blacks who were not willing to quietly accept the discrimination that they had left the states to avoid. Many of these individuals left a legacy of protest. Two women were told in a bar in Seattle, "We don't serve niggers here." They tore that place up. Then there was the sheriff who falsely arrested a Black Buffalo Soldier in Texas. Not only did his fellow soldiers protest, they ripped open the jail and took their comrade with them.

The heartbreaking side was those Blacks who worked hard and long to buy their freedom. Once they had the money and gave it their owner, their owner would accept the money and then continue to keep them in bondage. Also, when Blacks discovered gold, irate gangs of Whites who wished to steal from them frequently ran them off the claim.

This was an excellent book and in my opinion should be required reading for every school child in America. Katz does not sugar coat history as we've come so used to seeing in regular history books. He tells the good along with the bad. He makes the West come alive with his tales of individual courage as well as covering the ugly racism that has colored this country's history.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers


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