NOW DISTRIBUTED GLOBALLY

DISTRIBUTION UPDATE:

*now available* for sale on eBookIt.com
o www.ebookit.com/books/0000002017/What-the-World-Should-Know-About-Black-History-In-The-USA.html

...ALSO

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  world-wide)

.
BET YOU CANNOT READ THE FOREWORD.... WITHOUT READING THE ENTIRE LITTLE BOOKLET!  You be the judge... can it help people everywhere better understand race-relations in America? And, might readers feel more POSITIVE about our chances of bringing peace and harmony to the "global community" and new strength and prosperity to our "global economy"... IF they acknowledge and learn from mistakes of the past?

The primary goal is to inform, inspire, and motivate. It's about 32 pages (printed), with 15 pictures. It's priced at $2.99 as an eBook to make it as affordable as possible for schools and the eBook price is available to YOU - the lowest price allowed by our initial distributor. It will soon be available in print for $7.99,  as we explore strategies to attract donors to "sponsor bulk distribution" to under-funded schools, institutions, or organizations of their choice. The colorful cover also makes the printed booklet a great gift for coffee table display.

If you don't have a Kindle or other type eBook reader, don't worry, it will probably download to your computer as is! Or...you can download a FREE application to read it on your PC/MacBook/Phone: JUST CLICK HERE:   READ E-BOOKS ON YOUR COMPUTER

BLOG: www.learnaboutblackhistory.blogspot.com - TO COMMENT, If asked to select a "blog account" [LiveJournal, WordPress, AIM or OpenID], just open a FREE gMail account & join the conversation!)

NOTE: The "FOREWORD" appears below!!! Once you start... bet you can't stop! If we're wrong, please take time to comment. If we're right... please send this BLOG link to everyone you know... YES, even them!!!

For a Brighter, more Peaceful, Healthier, and Prosperous Future... for ALL,

Walter "Buzz" Luttrell

FOREWORD

"You Been Set Free" "When freedom came, my mama said Old Master called all of

'em to his house, and he said, ‘you all free, we ain't got nothing to do with you no

more. Go on away. We don't whop you no more, go on your way.’

My mama said they go on off, then they come back and stand around, just looking

at him and Old Mistress. They give 'em something to eat and he say, 'Go on away,

you don't belong to us no more. You been freed.' 

They go away and they kept coming back. They didn't have no place to go and nothing 

to eat. From what she said, they had a terrible time. She said it was bad times. Some 

took sick and had no 'tention and died. Seemed like it was four or five years before

they got to places they could live.

They all got scattered . . Old Master every time they go back say, You all go on

away. You been set free. You have to look out for yourselves now.'

—An ex-slave's account in Lay My Burden Down: A Folk History of Slavery, Ben

Botkin, 1945

--------------------

The above statement reveals the plight of a people facing a freedom almost as

formidable as the bondage from which they were released. The vindictive attitude

of many Southern slave holders was exemplified by the cry, "The Yankees freed

you, now let the Yankees feed you." Freedom without food, shelter, clothing or the

means to get them was to the black man — like the one above — an obvious step

backwards. Despairing of a place to settle, rootless bands of "freedmen" roamed the

South in that vague and hazy world between waking and sleeping, life and death,

bondage and freedom. 

"The South was a shambles, its major cities gutted or shelled, its farms neglected, 

crops un-gathered, banks closed, Confederate money worthless, and about 1/3 of its 

male citizens killed or wounded," according to Langston Hughes in a"Pictorial History 

of the Negro in America." Both black and white people of the South faced the immense 

task of re-establishing their lives. But the immediate future of freed slaves was indeed 

dark. 

To alleviate the situation, Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau, in March 

1865, to be administered by the Army and headed by Major General Oliver 0. Howard.

Against violent southern opposition the Freedmen's Bureau, supported by Federal

troops, distributed rations and medicine to the poor, black and white alike. The

Bureau built or helped to build more than 4,000 schools staffed with 9,000 teachers

who served almost 250,000 black students. 

At the time of the Emancipation, only one in every ten of the newly freed could 

read and write. Thousands of northern whites went to the South to teach at the 

Bureau's request, despite hostile threats. The task of teaching, especially under 

such conditions, seemed impossible. But, when the Bureau was abolished in 1870, 

approximately 21 per cent of the newly freed were literate.

(Author: That was in "just" five years 1865-70; imagine what we COULD have done? PLEASE, get this booklet and... and help spread the link to this site around the globe!)