Perspectives on African American History features accounts and descriptions of important but little known events in African American history recalled often by those who were witnesses or participants or viewpoints about historical developments shaping the contemporary black world. Many of these accounts will be instant primary sources available to current visitors to BlackPast and to future historians. Each article is accompanied by a brief biography and photo of its author.
In 1852, California legislators passed a harsh fugitive slave law that condemned dozens of African American migrants to deportation and lifelong slavery. Historian Stacey L. Smith examines the legal travails of three accused fugitive slaves to illuminate the social relations of slavery in gold rush … Read MorePacific Bound: California’s 1852 Fugitive Slave Law
In the following article historians Bruce Glasrud and Cary Wintz discuss their new book, The Harlem Renaissance in the American West which argues that the literary and artistic outpouring by African Americans during the third decade of the 20th Century was a national phenomenon which … Read MoreThe Harlem Renaissance in the American West
A small but growing number of black women are slowly being recognized for their contributions to the “long” civil rights movement, the nearly century-long struggle by African Americans against all forms of racial discrimination. In the account below University of Texas-El Paso historian Cecilia Gutierrez … Read MoreJuanita Jewel Shanks Craft (1902-1985) and the Long Civil Rights Movement in Texas
New York historian Walt Bachman introduces Northern Slave, Black Dakota, his new biography of Joseph Godfrey, an African American who was born into slavery in the free territory that became Minnesota, fled from abusive masters to seek refuge among the Dakota Indians, and was a … Read MoreSlavery and Freedom on the Minnesota Territory Frontier: The Strange Saga of Joseph Godfrey
Few Americans realize that the institution of slavery reached the Pacific Northwest in the two decades before the Civil War. A small number of the white settlers who followed the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri to Oregon City brought bondservants. Oregon historian R. Gregory Nokes, … Read MoreSlavery in Oregon: The Reuben Shipley Saga
Image Ownership: Midnightdreary (CC BY-SA 3.0) In the article that follows British Columbian historian and documentary editor, Mary Maillard, explores the controversy surrounding the precise birthdate of slave narrative author, Harriet Jacobs, and reminds us why precision matters. Earlier this year (2013), numerous celebrations marked … Read MoreDating Harriet Jacobs: Why Birthdates Matter to Historians
In the following article, American University political scientist James A. Thurber, a leading authority on presidential and congressional politics, describes the effort of President Barack Obama to change one part of the culture of Washington, the influence of lobbyists. Candidate Obama made that reform a … Read MoreHas President Obama Changed the Way Washington Works?
In the following account historian and novelist Lois Leveen describes how she came to write her critically acclaimed novel, The Secrets of Mary Bowser, the account of a black woman who served as a Union spy in the Confederate White House during the American Civil War. … Read MoreTelling Secrets, Spying Freedom: A Novel Account of Mary Bowser’s Civil War Espionage
In the account below, Jim Kershner, author, historian, and longtime journalist for the Spokesman-Review, Spokane’s major daily newspaper, discusses what led him to the story of Carl Maxey, one of Washington State’s key 20th century civil rights figures, and the challenges he encountered while writing … Read MoreTelling Carl Maxey’s Story: Understanding the Fighter in the Ring and the Courtroom
In the article below Seattle historian Carver Clark Gayton describes his most prominent ancestor, Lewis G. Clarke, who is widely considered to be the model for one of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s main characters in her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Here Gayton describes Clarke’s evolving relationship … Read MoreLewis G. Clarke: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Forgotten Hero
