Americans from Africa seeks to convey varying perspectives on the "Black Experience" in the United States and its controversial history. This volume, Slavery and Its Aftermath, deals with four major issues: the extent of African influences on the lives of those enslaved and brought to America, beginning with an essay on "Africanisms in Everyday Life" by Melville J. Herskovits; the impact of slavery on personality and social structure, sometimes called "The Elkins Debate;" similarities and differences in life for African Americans in the South and in the North; and matters of community, class, and family, including the full text of the "Moynihan Report" and several pointed critiques.

Contents Preface to the Transaction Edition Acknowledgments Contributors Introduction I. The African as Slave Africa and the New Americans 1 Africanisms in Secular Life Melville J. Herskovits 2 The Significance of the African Background E. Franklin Frazier 3 Between Two Cultures Kenneth M. Stampp 4 The Negro Laborer in Africa and the Slave South Eugene D. Genovese 5 Art Not Artifact LeRoi Jones Suggested Readings The Legacy of Slavery 6 Modern Tensions and the Origins of American Slavery Winthrop D. Jordan 7 Slavery in the Old South Ulrich Bonnell Phillips 8 Slavery and Negro Personality Stanley M. Elkins 9 Chattel Slavery and Concentration Camps Earle E. Thorpe 10 Slavery and the Origins of Black Culture: Elkins Revisited Mina Davis Caulfield II. This Side of Jordan Down Home and Up North 11 Uncle Remus and the Malevolent Rabbit Bernard Wolfe 12 The Blackways of Kent Hylan Lewis 13 Growing Up in the Black Belt: Ten Profiles Charles S. Johnson 14 Harlem, My Harlem Claude Brown 15 Urban Blues Charles Keil 16 The Rhetoric of Soul Ulf Hannerz Community, Class, and Family Life 17 Community and Class Realities G. Franklin Edwards 18 The Psychology of the Ghetto Kenneth B. Clark 19 The Negro Family Daniel P. Moynihan 20 The Negro Family and the Moynihan Report Laura Carper 21 New Trends in Civil Rights Benjamin F. Payton 22 Some Social Consequences of Research on Racial Relations Melvin M. Tumin Suggested Readings Index