The new edition reveals the story of the African guides and translators of the colonial era who became valued contacts with Indigenous peoples, examines the African and Indian alliance known as the Pueblo revolt of 1680 that ended Spain’s rule of the southwest for a dozen years, introduces Francisco Menendez and the 1738 Black Indian community that defended its liberty in Florida against British incursions, and describes the Lowry Gang in North Carolina that fought the Civil War Confederacy and then battled the KKK. The expanded and updated edition of Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage brings the Native American and African American alliance that for four centuries challenged the European conquest and slavery into the 21st century with additional research and documentary and photographic evidence. Two lessons on the Zinn Education Project website draw on Black Indians: The Color Line, about conscious efforts in early America to create divisions between races and The Cherokee/Seminole Removal Role Play, which helps students explore events leading up to the Trail of Tears. As one French colonial document stated, “Between the races we cannot dig too deep a gulf.” But the “digging” was not always successful, and much of the drama of Katz’ book is found in the inspiring instances of black-Indian unity, as in the Seminole Wars. This startling and readable work of people’s history chronicles both the attempts to keep black people and Indians divided in the Americas, and their efforts to unite. The classic Black Indians has been updated and reissued.
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