It’s an important point that you can also find in the College Board’s Advanced Placement class in African American Studies. “In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians and healers in the North and South,” the A.P. “Once free, African Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others.”Similar points, yes, but the language isn’t quite the same. To say that any more than a fortunate few could “parlay” their skills into anything that might improve their lives is to spin a fiction. For them, there was no point after slavery where they could use their skills.

---

Persons: It’s, ”, Donald Yacovone Organizations: African American Studies, British Crown Locations: North, North America, British, United States