This path-breaking study questions many of the previous assessments of the cultural objectives of Afro-Americans and points the way toward the new and decisive role black Americans may soon be playing in American life. V.P. Franklin, associate professor of History and Afro-American studies at Yale University, examines the "core values" of the Afro-American experience. He quotes from early slave narratives, songs, sermons, and interviews with ex-slaves to show how Afro-Americans came to value freedom, resistance, and black unity and to formulate cultural values separate from white dominated society. - Back cover.