Traces Black political cultures in the US from slave resistances in the 16th and 17th centuries to civil rights movements of the late 20th century. The text argues that Blacks have constructed cultures resistance and accommodation based on the different experiences of slaves and free Blacks.

CONTENTS: 1. The Coming to America; Blacks and Colonial English America; The Early Black Movements of Resistance; Marronage in North America; Diverging Political Cultures; 2. Slavery and Constitutions; Three American Revolutions; Documenting Indifference and Interest; The Slave's Revolution Continues; 3. Free Blacks and Resistance; Abolition and Free Blacks; The Black Abolitionist; Black Sovereignty; Insurrection; 4. The Civil War and Its Aftermaths; Opposing Objectives: Accumulation vs. Liberty; The Black's War; White Reconstruction and Black Deconstruction; 5. The Nadir and Its Aftermath; Black Agrarians; The Antilynching Movement; The First World War; Black Self-Determination; 6. The Search for Higher Ground; The Second World War and Black Struggles; The Cold War and the Race War; Civil Rights and Mass Struggle; Civil Rights and the Rituals of Oppression; The Negations of the Movement