"A History of Black America" by Lerone Bennett Jr

"A History of Black America" was recommended by a friend who knows black history better than anyone I have ever met.  He said the book was the first text he ever read on the subject.

The book was further recommended by Kannafoot after a review of the summation of the content based on the discussion regarding Lincoln and Kannafoot is also possessed of a scholarly knowledge of American history.

So, Cadillac Man, this one is for you.    Uh, Uh, Uh!

Note:  Uh, Uh, Uh was the rallying cry of a number of the delinquents hanging about Hosea Avenue in Cincinnati and the neighbors might have just loved that because it was invariably delivered with significant volume.

Unless I miss my guess, if we put those three individuals into a room to discuss the history of America, we might not ever see any of them again.  Cadillac Man recently read a text on Hamilton, one of the most significant figures in America history as a true Forefather, and the book weighed-in at about eight hundred pages. Do be forewarned, now he knows what's in them.  Nope, I don't think we would see them again as they could regale each other on American history until all the clocks stop.

Note:  if you're nerd enough to relate that room to Schrödinger's box ... welcome to Ithaka (larfs).

The black experience in America—starting from its origins in western Africa up to the present day—is examined in this seminal study from a prominent African American figure.  The entire historical timeline of African Americans is addressed, from the Colonial period through the civil rights upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s.  The most recent scholarship on the geographic, social, economic, and cultural journeys of African Americans, together with vivid portraits of key black leaders, complete this comprehensive reference. 

ISBN-13: 978-0874850000

ISBN-10: 0874850002 

Abraham Lincoln's position on slavery was one of the central issues in American history.

Lincoln often expressed moral opposition to slavery in public and private.  Initially, he expected to bring about the eventual extinction of slavery by stopping its further expansion into any U.S. territory, and by proposing compensated emancipation (an offer Congress applied to Washington, D.C.) in his early presidency.  Lincoln stood by the Republican Party platform in 1860, which stated that slavery should not be allowed to expand into any more territories.  Lincoln believed that the extension of slavery in the South, Mid-west, and Western lands would inhibit "free labor on free soil". In the 1850s, Lincoln was politically attacked as an abolitionist, but he did not consider himself one; he did not call for the immediate end of slavery everywhere in the U.S. until the proposed 13th Amendment became part of his party platform for the 1864 election.

In 1842, Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd, who was a daughter of a prominent slave-owning family from Kentucky.  Lincoln returned to the political stage as a result of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act and soon became a leading opponent of the "Slaveocracy"—that is the political power of the southern slave owners.  The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, written to form the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, included language, designed by Stephen A. Douglas, which allowed the settlers to decide whether they would or would not accept slavery in their region.  Lincoln saw this as a repeal of the 1820 Missouri Compromise which had outlawed slavery above the 36-30' parallel.