Black Americans’ Indispensable Contribution to the Founding

Omission of the political opinions and literary creations of black Americans during the Founding era has produced an incomplete history of the birth and growth of the American republic that has distorted Americans’ self-understanding of who they are as a diverse but whole people. The most pernicious effect has been to reinforce the white supremacy that debilitated early and longstanding efforts to rid the nation of racial slavery and secure the equal protection of the law to all Americans regardless of race, color, or nation of origin. In Black Writers of the Founding Era, James G. Basker has compiled an anthology of 200 texts from more than 120 black writers that offers a much overdue public service announcement regarding the contribution that blacks have made to America. The volume’s raison d’etre, according to the foreword by historian Annette Gordon-Reed, is “recovering marginalized voices.” To borrow from Carter G. Woodson, the creator of Negro History Week (now African American History Month), such a volume presents “not Negro History, but the Negro in history.” He added, “The case of the Negro is well taken care of when it is shown how he has influenced the development of civilization.” For far too long,...