A Narrative of the Negro

Black history does not begin with slavery.

Are you struggling to create a well-balanced Black history program? Do you regret how little you know about the African continent and the history of its descendants?

Leila Amos Pendleton, a community activist and teacher, felt the same way in the early twentieth century. Her search led her to the Library of Congress and the libraries at Yale and Harvard in search of answers. She felt that if young White children were being taught to love the land of their "kinfolk," lands they had never seen with their own eyes, then young Black children should be taught about African history so they could take pride in where they came from, too.

Years later, this rich resource is available with information about ancient African civilizations, the African diaspora, Caribbean and South American Black history, and American history into the early 1900s.

Content notes. In an insightful foreword, Amber O'Neal Johnston of Heritage Mom Blog covers some issues readers may want to be aware of: 

"Pendleton prefaced the book by asking readers to forgive all 'shortcomings and imperfections' of her work while considering her motives. I appreciate her forward-thinking humility and am entirely inclined to pardon the few ideas within the book that our 21st-century minds washed anew in scholarly research, updated vocabulary, and over a hundred years of hindsight can point out as misguided or incomplete. 

"In addition to her common use of outdated terminology such as 'negro,' 'colored,' and 'mulatto,' Pendleton subtly advances the dominant narrative of her time regarding African tribal groups and other Black people being better off because of the presence or interference of Europeans in their culture and lives. ... This misstep is undoubtedly something to note and discuss with your children as they absorb the otherwise worthy ideas found on the following pages. 

"Pendelton's objective of offering a sort of 'family story' to America's Black children, my children, was revolutionary during her time and is just as important today. She intended this work to be a mere starting point to whet th...