Rodney Louis Tompkins has narrated 28 audiobooks on Listento.it by 25 authors, with an average listener rating of 3.5★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey.
Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey
Summary
Marcus Garvey (1887-1940) was an orator of Black Nationalism, and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League. He advanced a Pan-African philosophy which inspired a global movement, known as Garveyism. This book, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (1923) was compiled by his wife, Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey, mainly from his speeches. Promoting unity between Africans and the African diaspora, he campaigned for an end to European colonial rule in Africa and encouraged the political unification of the continent. Garvey's black nationalism went hand in hand with his Christian outlook and he contended that African Americans ought to view God as black and the Virgin Mary as a "Black Madonna”. The main message of his speeches was that Blacks should seek material, social, and political success.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
From Log Cabin to the Pulpit, or, Fifteen Years in Slavery
Summary
Robinson, one of 12 children of a slave family, grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, and this account encompasses his life story from his earliest childhood recollections to his position as minister in the 1890s. Before emancipation, he is referred to as Bill Cowens, a name given to him by his slave master. The audiobook contains poignant descriptions of the resilience of slaves under the inhumanity of slaveholders.
Public Domain (P)2018 Museum Audiobooks
The Ultimate Carter Godwin Woodson Collection: The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, A Century of Negro Migration, The History of the Negro Church, & The Mis-Education of the Negro
Summary
Carter Godwin Woodson (1875-1950) is best known as the "father of Black history". Woodson was a teacher, scholar, publisher, historian, and pioneer in the field of Black studies who popularized the subject in the schools and colleges of Black people. The Ultimate Carter Godwin Woodson Collection includes Book one: The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1919). In it, he documents the ways that education took place among African Americans from the beginning of slavery to the Civil War. There was fierce opposition to teaching slaves to read and write, while some slave owners thought it important for slaves to learn book and record keeping. Others wished for slaves to become educated enough to read the bible and become Christians; in this, Catholics and Quakers were at the forefront. At one stage, the South made draconian laws against educating slaves, specifically targeted to prevent Northerners from educational initiatives, which hampered the efforts of Abolitionists. As regards to higher education, the debate about whether to teach a trade or a liberal education was ongoing, and White trade unions protested the potential competition. Book two: A Century of Negro Migration chronicles the movement of Blacks from the South to the North and West. The introductory section discusses early migrations during the colonial era and at the close of the 18th century. The history up to the early 20th century is covered in chapters like "Transplantation to the North"; "Fighting It Out on Free Soil"; "Colonization as a Remedy for Migration"; "The Successful Migrant"; "Confusing Movements"; "Exodus to the West"; "The Migration of the Talented Tenth"; and "The Exodus During the World War". Drawing on information from newspapers, personal letters, and academic journals, the work is both a detailed history and a poignant account of decades of oppression and of liberation and achievement. Book three: The History of the Negro Church traces the development of the Black church in America from colonial times to the early years of the 20th century. The book includes a series of biographical sketches of church leaders, and offers a broad overview of church experience. Book four: The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933) discusses the flaws of Eurocentric curricula that ignores African American history and culture. Dr. Woodson claims that Blacks of his day were being culturally indoctrinated in American schools. He believed the system neglected to give African American students a proper sense of who they are within society; it failed to prepare them for success and caused them to seek out inferior positions in society. The author goes to great lengths to identify the historical roots of the problem, its development, and its influence on interpersonal relations and historical scholarship.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
The Origin and Objects of Ancient Freemasonry, Its Introduction Into the United States, and Legitimacy Among Colored Men
Summary
Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885) was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician, and author. He was one of the first three black people admitted to Harvard Medical School. Delany dreamed of establishing a settlement in West Africa and visited Liberia, a United States colony founded by the American Colonization Society. He was a prolific writer, and his book The Origin and Objects of Ancient Freemasonry, Its Introduction Into the United States, and Legitimacy Among Colored Men was published 1853. The chapter titles are: Man from Noah to Solomon, Man the Likeness of God, From Solomon Down and the Stages of Man's History.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Democracy and Education
Summary
In Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education (1916), John Dewey contends that the primary facts of the birth and death of each of the members of a social group determine the necessity of education. Dewey viewed the mind and its formation as a communal process, so that the individual is a meaningful concept only when regarded as an inextricable part of their society, whilst the society has no meaning apart from its realization through the lives of individual members. Just growing up and mastering the bare necessities of life are not sufficient to reproduce the life of the group, as a deliberate effort is required. Newborns are unaware of, and quite indifferent to the aims and customs of the social group, and, therefore, have to be made cognizant and actively interested in these. Dewey argued that education is the only way to achieve this.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
The Mysterious and Prophetic History of Esau Considered: In Connection with the Numerous Prophecies Concerning Edom
Summary
The Mysterious and Prophetic History of Esau Considered (1837) by J H Heath examines the numerous biblical prophecies on Edom and Esau. Drawing on the books of Exodus, Daniel, and Revelation, the author first looks at the history of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their families, to identify Ishmael and Esau with Edom. Many connections are made to the history of the Saracenic Empire. In the Book of Daniel, he makes an exhaustive study of the statue seen by Daniel in a dream and the empires represented by it. The cities of Rome and Istanbul also feature in the text, as well as the Papacy and the Ottoman Empire. This work is a thorough and illuminating look at prophecy firmly rooted in the Bible.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World
Summary
David Walker (1796-1830), the son of an enslaved man and a free black woman, was an entrepreneur, abolitionist, author and anti-slavery activist. In 1829, he published An Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, a radical call for black solidarity and resistance to slavery. It raised awareness of the abuses of slavery, encouraged pride in its black readers and offered hope that change would eventually come. Being a radical anti-slavery document, it caused a stir upon publication, as it called upon readers to take an active role in fighting their oppression, regardless of the risk. Walker also criticized the American Colonization Society, which sought to deport all free and freed blacks from the United States to a colony in Africa.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
The Black Man: The Father of Civilization, Proven by Biblical History
Summary
James Morris Webb argues that the Black man was the father of civilization, born in the land of Egypt, and that the different branches of science and art were simply transmitted to other races, which, as the ages have rolled by have only been enlarged - and to some extent improved upon. The narrative is rich in quotes from the Bible. Museum Audiobooks strives to present audiobook versions of authentic, unabridged historical texts from prior eras which contain a variety of points of view. The texts do not represent the views or opinions of Museum Audiobooks, and in certain cases may contain perspectives or language that is objectionable to the modern listener.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade
Summary
John Newton was the master of a slave ship, later becoming a beloved Anglican priest and an ardent abolitionist. His conversion to Christianity began in 1748, and in 1764 he was accepted in the priesthood. Newton collaborated with William Cowper to publish a volume of hymns, including the well-known “Amazing Grace”. However, it took him a while to denounce the slave trade as the pamphlet "Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade" was only published in 1787. Its impact was immediate and it became quite influential. William Wilberforce was among those it inspired. Graphically describing the horrors of the slave trade, the publication is a moving confession of repentance for the author’s part in the hideous trade in human beings.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
The Edomites: Their History as Gathered from the Holy Scriptures
Summary
In this work published in 1888, the author recounts the history of the Edomites as gathered from the Bible. It examines the history of the Edomites in detail, from Esau to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
Historical Sketches of the Ancient Negro
Summary
Historical Sketches of the Ancient Negro (1920) by Edward and Josephine sought to correct the image of their African ancestors in the perception of Afro-Americans. The authors explore the ancient history of Kush, Ethiopia, Nubia and other African kingdoms, relying on Biblical text and other primary sources to retell the story of black Africans from an Afrocentric point of view, and providing an important early contribution to Ancient African history. In describing the Ethiopians of the Kingdom of Kush, the authors point to Zipporah and Tharbis, the wives of Moses. Queen Candace, whose eunuch was baptized by Phillip, was an Ethiopian and one of a long line of Candaces (queens) of Kush. Ebed-Melech, the man who rescued the prophet Jeremiah from the pit prison was an Ethiopian. Solomon's renowned visitor, Makeda, queen of Sheba, was another Ethiopian sovereign. This work is a valuable resource for those interested in Ancient Africa’s contributions to civilization.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Character Building
Summary
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to multiple presidents of the United States. Washington came from the last generation of black American leaders born into slavery and became the leading voice of the former slaves and their descendants. Character Building (1902) is a collection of talks on self-development given to students and faculty at the Tuskegee Institute, of which he was leader. The author stresses the importance of developing oneself for life-long success. He cultivated the highest moral standards in his students, and these speeches represent the core of his teaching.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, Volume 2
Summary
The Jamaican orator and entrepreneur Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (1887-1940) preached success to the African diaspora. He believed that attaining economic, cultural, and political success would free African Americans in this life. Identifying integrity of character as the first step toward achievement, Garvey promoted capitalism as the means to establish African Americans as an independent group. He believed that economic success was the quickest route to autonomy and self-reliance and slammed poverty for facilitating immorality and crime: “I would prefer to be honestly wealthy, than miserably poor.” In The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, he formulated the "black is beautiful" ideal and championed the Back-to-Africa movement.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861
Summary
Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) has been called the Father of African American Studies. In The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1919), he documents the ways that education took place among African Americans from the beginning of slavery to the Civil War. There was fierce opposition to teaching slaves to read and write, while some slave owners thought it important for slaves to learn book- and record-keeping. Others wished for slaves to become educated enough to read the bible and become Christians; in this, Catholics and Quakers were at the forefront. At one stage, the South made draconian laws against educating slaves, specifically targeted to prevent Northerners from educational initiatives, which hampered the efforts of Abolitionists. As regards higher education, the debate about whether to teach a trade or a liberal education was ongoing, and White trade unions protested the potential competition. Woodson’s work is a thorough investigation of the history of education among Afro Americans.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Bible History of the Negro
Summary
Reverend Richard A. Morrisey (born 1858) was an African-American biblical scholar, a Doctor of Divinity, and the pastor of a number of churches in the South and in Pennsylvania. In 1915, he published Bible History of the Negro, with the hope of inspiring a greater desire to read the Bible which he describes as giving "the Negro a place among the foremost races of the world, in wealth, in education, in honor and in religion, a history to which every member of the race may point with great pride and profound gratitude to Almighty God today”. The book brings together all the references to black people in the Bible, covering, among others: Ham, son of Noah, Batsheba, Simon the Cyrenian, Nimrod, Melchizesek, Hagar, Ishmael, Rahab, and Candace, queen of Ethiopia.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
The Black Man, His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements
Summary
Born a slave, William Wells Brown (1814-1884) escaped to the North where he became a prominent abolitionist, historian, novelist and playwright. His 1863 book The Black Man: His Antecedents, His Genius, and His Achievements portrays the lives of individuals selected by Brown that had “by their own genius, capacity, and intellectual development, surmounted the many obstacles which slavery and prejudice have thrown in their way, and raised themselves to positions of honor and influence." By making his case for the equality of negroes in an era when white society believed otherwise, Brown provides more than 50 portraits of African Americans who managed to achieve and to make a difference in the face of prejudice and slavery. The author's research in Europe and his visits to the West Indies had given him the advantage of obtaining information not readily available at that time. The book's clarity and the author's own achievements make it an essential source of black history.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Black Masters: A Side-Light on Slavery
Summary
The Rev. Calvin Dill Wilson (1857-1946) was an author and Presbyterian minister. In Black Masters of 1904, he discusses the little-known history of the free African-Americans that bought and sold slaves just like Southern white planters. Free colored men and women could own their families and in this way protect them against oppressive local laws. There was also the desire to attain a position of superiority over other blacks, an ambition to rise to the class of the masters and to be on the same level as white men. The earliest documentary evidence of such a transaction dates from 1724, in Boston, Massachusetts while most of the cases discussed here concern the states of Louisiana, Maryland and South Carolina.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Clotel; or, The President's Daughter
Summary
Clotel; or, The President's Daughter: A Narrative of Slave Life in the United States is an 1853 novel by the author and playwright William Wells Brown. Set in the early 19th century, it is the story of Clotel and her sister Althesa, who are fictional slave daughters of Thomas Jefferson. It is considered the first novel published by an African American and explores the destructive effects of slavery on African American families, the difficult lives of mixed-race people, and the degraded and immoral condition of the relationship between master and slave.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
My Life as an Indian: The Story of a Red Woman and a White Man in the Lodges of the Blackfeet
Summary
First published in 1907, My Life as an Indian is the memoir of James Willard Schultz and tells the story of his first year living with the Pikuni tribe in Montana. It includes accounts of religious customs and ceremonies, hunting, raids, food preparation, child-rearing and more, and is thus of great interest to anthropologists and students of Native American history.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
Jesus Christ Had Negro Blood in His Veins
Summary
Dr. William Lucius Hunter, MD (1850-1915) was a clergyman of the African Methodist-Episcopal Church and a physician who graduated at the University of Buffalo in 1890. In his 1901 book Jesus Christ Had Negro Blood in His Veins, Dr. Hunter researches scripture in order to fight segregation and abuse. He identifies Canaanites as being black and claimed that several important Jewish figures and ancestors of Jesus had children by this group of people. Hunter came to the conclusion that Jesus had black ancestry dating back to Ham, the son of Noah. "The Lord God not only honored the black man by allowing him to bear the cross of Jesus Christ, God honored Ham by allowing or having His Son Jesus Christ carry negro blood His veins", the author contends.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks