All Titles

Beyond Fragmentation: Perspectives on Caribbean History
Beyond Fragmentation book cover with Caribbean map
de Barros, Juanita, Audra Diptee and David Trotman (edited by Franklin Knight)

Subject: Caribbean

In this book, leading scholars pull together some of the most recent research on the key themes of Caribbean history: slavery, the transition to freedom, colonialism, and decolonization. Although all parts of the Caribbean experienced these phases, the manner in …

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The Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua: His Passage from Slavery to Freedom in Africa and America
Book cover: enslaved Africans in port scene
Law, Robin and Paul E. Lovejoy

Subject: Africa, U.S. History, Latin America, Caribbean, History of Slavery

This is the biography of an American slave who was born in Africa. His adventures took him to Rio de Janeiro, New York, Boston, Canada, and Britain; he knew Arabic, Dendi, probably Hausa, Portuguese, English, and French. In recent times …

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Bitter Bonds: A Colonial Divorce Drama of the Seventeenth Century
Bitter Bonds book cover with colonial silhouettes
Blussé, Leonard (translated by Diane Webb)

Subject: World History, European History, Asian History, Women's History

Book of the Year – Times Literary Supplement

In seventeenth-century Batavia, Cornelia van Nijenroode, the daughter of a geisha and a Dutch merchant in Japan, was known as “otemba” (meaning “untamable”), which made her a heroine to …

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The Bitter Legacy: African Slavery Past and Present
Book cover: African slavery past and present
Klein, Martin, Alice Bellagamba, Sandra Greene, Editors

Subject: Africa, Slavery

This collection of essays explores the ways that memories of African slavery and the slave trade persist into the present, as well as the effect those memories have in shaping political, social, economic, and religious behavior today. The …

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Black Rebels: African-Caribbean Freedom Fighters in Jamaica
Black Rebels book cover featuring a singing performer
Zips, Werner (preface by Franklin Knight; translated by Shelley Frisch)

Subject: Africa, Caribbean

This book chronicles the struggles of African-Americans who escaped from slavery and developed autonomous, “maroon” societies beyond the fringes of the colonial system, demonstrating the vulnerability of colonial rule and the vitality of black resistance in the Caribbean. Illustated with …

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A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs
Book cover: Civil War memoirs illustration
Taylor, Susie King (edited by Patricia W. Romero and Willie Lee Rose)

Subject: U.S. History

“These are the memoirs of a black woman who was born a slave, who had the good fortune to gain her freedom early in the war, with the education and ability to observe and the will to recall in later …

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A Black Woman’s Odyssey Through Russia and Jamaica: The Narrative of Nancy Prince
Yellow book cover: odyssey through Russia and Jamaica
Prince, Nancy (introduction by Ronald Walters; edited by Patricia Romero)

Subject: Africa, Europe, U.S. History, Caribbean, History of Slavery, Women's History

Memories of Africa, pre-civil war New England, political turmoil in Russia, the end of slavery in Jamaica, and Caribbean pirates; an intrepid black woman experiences many turning points in world history.

Nancy Prince paints a blunt picture of the struggle …

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Blacks in Bondage: Letters of American Slaves
Book cover: Blacks in Bondage, slave letters
Starobin, Robert S., editor

Subject: U.S. History, Slavery

Written while enslaved or shortly after escape, the words recorded here express complexity and diversity of thought and feeling about slavery and being black. Blacks in Bondage is a landmark document in understanding the human side of history.

  …

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Bon Papa: Haiti’s Golden Years
Colorful painting of man in straw hat
Diederich, Bernard

Subject: Caribbean

This is Haiti, pearl of the Antilles, during the presidency of General Paul E. (Bon Papa) Magloire (1950-56). It was an exciting time, when Haitians stood tall, and their country flourished, as reported in the pages of the Haiti Sun …

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The Book of Strangers: Medieval Arabic Graffiti on the Theme of Nostalgia
Cover of book 'The Book of Strangers'
Crone, Patricia and Shmuel Moreh, editors

Subject: Middle East

A tenth-century Iraqi longing for the happy days of the past took to collecting verse graffiti left behind by travelers and others who did not feel at home where they were in order to console himself. Some of the graffiti …

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