This book chronicles the lives of black women from indentured servitude in the early American colonies to the cruelty of antebellum plantations, from the reign of lynch law in the Jim Crow South to the triumphs of the Civil Rights era. Tracing the accomplishments, as well as the suffering, of black women through the Great Migration, the Harlem Renaissance, the Depression, the Civil Rights movement, and the present day, this book challenges preconceived notions and moves black women from the fringes of American history to a central position in our understanding of the forces and events that have shaped this country.