The South Carolina Roots of African American Thought

"Thomas and Ashton offer an extensive examination of the profound questions of race, personal identity, and public policy in America. These selected texts by renowned African American scholars, writers, activists, and public intellectuals of the past and present, marshal an impressive knowledge, and their analyses are wide ranging and deep. These key interpretive and explanatory essays present an extraordinary contribution to historical understanding and add fresh perspectives to the study of slavery and abolition, segregation, the civil rights movement, education policy, and current issues today."—Orville Vernon Burton, professor of history, Clemson University, and author of In My Father's House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina and The Age of Lincoln

"This superb collection captures both the range and the richness of the African American intellectual tradition. Defying neat categorization, it serves as a signal reminder that all of South Carolina's most iconic thinkers and writers have long engaged each other across chasms of race, gender, and class. Indeed, the presence of these contesting voices further illuminates the Palmetto State's importance in key national debates over freedom, equality, and full citizenship."—Katherine Mellen Charron, associate professor, Department of History, North Carolina State University, author of Freedom's Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark

"The South Carolina Roots of African American Thought is a fresh, informative addition to the story of African Americans in the south, most especially South Carolina. The book adds not only to our knowledge about southern history, but also to the field of American history. It gives the reader the historical and cultural context of African American lives and should be an essential resource for the classroom teacher who uses primary source materials."—Frances Jones-Sneed, professor of history, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

"I enthusiastically recommend this creatively assembled and much-needed anthology. Ranging from the antebellum period to our present moment, the collection makes a strong case that South Carolina helped to inspire distinctive traditions of African American writing. Thomas and Ashton do an expert job of annotating and framing the fascinating selections in their volume."—Robert S. Levine, Distinguished University Professor of English, University of Maryland

"The South Carolina Roots of African American Thought includes a varied selection of letters, autobiographical excerpts and speeches, an engrossing introduction and thorough and lively scholarly pieces that accompany each of the selections. Compelling and accessible, this book highlights the extraordinary contributions and critiques made my some of the most well-known Black thinkers of the last 150 years."—P. Gabrielle Foreman, Ned B. Allen Professor of English and Professor of Black Studies, University of Delaware

"An intellectually rich, politically instructive, and often spiritually inspiring volume, The South Carolina Roots of African American Thought interweaves strands of cultural, political, and socioeconomic thought into an anthology of unusual historical breadth and depth. Specialists and general readers alike will be grateful for this volume."—William L. Andrews, E. Maynard Adams Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

"[A]n accessible introduction to African American intellectual history and its place in the history of South Carolina and the United States. Their claim of a long-standing tradition of Black resistance thinking is validated time and again in these documents. This text should be useful in courses on South Carolina history, African American history, and African American intellectual history"—South Carolina Historical Magazine