The Slave Ship

[Wild Bill]

Ok, no offense to anyone.

I took a summer course Afro American History and Culture, a post graduate course sponsored and funded by the Federal Government and taught by some fine black professors at Kentucky State College, then the black twin to the University of Kentucky (all Southern states commonly had such clones under the doctrine of separate but equal). I also taught the topic of Slavery in the Old South for 5 years at a college in Oklahoma, which began with an extensive look at domestic and international slave trade. BTW, WEB DuBois, the first black history PhD at Harvard, wrote his dissertation on the Suppression of the African Slave Trade--well worth reading.

I am not challenging anyone's credentials, but pointing out that we have the same basic backgrounds at different institutions. I would trust Curtin over Before the Mayflower, but that is my personal analysis. But I also trust most of what Lerone Bennett, Jr, says about Lincoln and race in Forced into Glory, despite Burlingame calling him a "black radical" in his critique, which was printed in the Courier some years back, I believe.

Personally, I doubt Burlingame would know a real black radical were he to see one. It is a gut feeling of living in the South and understanding what 19th century whites thought about blacks and slavery the South brought on by 50 years of study. But everyone is entitled to their feelings and analysis of what sources say and why, as am I.