Crosscurrents in the Black Atlantic, 1770-1965: A Brief History with Documents

by David Northrup

Africans' influence in the Atlantic world before 1960 was not confined to their roles as victims in the one-way forced migration of the Atlantic slave trade and their labor on New World plantations. From the mid-eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, black people in the divided communities of the four Atlantic continents struggled to overcome geographical and cultural separations and build a broad coalition against discrimination and exploitation. David Northrup offers a collection of primary sources that presents the social, political, and intellectual interactions of black people around the Atlantic in their quests for advancement, liberation, and emancipation. His thoughtful introduction explores the themes woven through the history of the black Atlantic, in particular black people's search for security and self-fulfillment and their effort to find their place in a common humanity. Document headnotes, a chronology of key events, questions for consideration, and a selected bibliography offer additional pedagogical support.

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 6, 2007

About the author

David Northrup is serious about world travel and world history. So far, his rambles have taken him to 49 US states and as many foreign countries. Early studies and research in France were followed by teaching and research in rural Nigeria. The latter experience led him to earn a doctorate in African history from UCLA. While teaching African and world history at Tuskegee Institute and Boston College, he published important books and articles in African, Atlantic, and world history. He also served as president of the World History Assn. Since retirement from teaching in 2012, he had published two books, How English Became the Global Language and a third edition of Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 1450-1850. Two early books that had gone out of print, Indentured Labor in the Age of Imperialism and Beyond the Bend in the River, are now available for free in electronic formats.