This anthology is designed to introduce the reader to the contours and content of African American Studies. The text and readings included here not only impart information but seek as their foremost goal to precipitate in the reader an awareness of the complex and changing character of the African American experience—its origins, developments, and future challenges. The book aims to engage readers in the critical analysis of a broad spectrum of subjects, themes, and issues—ancient and medieval Africa, Western European domination and African enslavement, resistance to oppression, African American expressive culture, family and educational policies, economic and political matters, and the importance of ideas. The materials included in this anthology comprise a discussion of some of the fundamental problems and prospects related to the African American experience that deserve attention in a course in African American Studies. African American Studies is a broad field concerned with the examination of the black experience, both historically and presently. Hence, the subjects, themes, and issues included in this text transcend the narrow confines of traditional academic disciplinary boundaries. In selecting materials for this book, Floyd W. Hayes was guided by a developmental or historical approach in the general compilation of each section's readings. By doing so, the author hopes that the reader will be enabled to arrive at a critical understanding of the conditions and forces that have influenced the African American experience. A Collegiate Press book