Slavery and its Aftermath

Whoever has tried to understand the "Black Experience" in the United States is well aware of its controversial nature. Highly regarded scholars often differ markedly in their interpretations of empirical findings. For many years, for example, the views of Melville J. Herskovits and E. Franklin Frazier about the extent of African influence on American Negro life have been hotly debated. Of late, other controversies have been dealt with in symposia, journal articles and rejoinders, and the inevitable campus hortatory. Included here, among others, are the polemics over Stanley Elkins' interpretation of slavery, over the Moynihan Report, and over William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner.