This bookbrings together perspectives on violence and its representation in African American history from slavery to the present moment of Black Lives Matter.

"This remarkable collection of essays offers a series of timely interventions in the study of violence and its representation in African American history. It breaks new ground in all kinds of ways, helping us to understand how the bitter and often traumatic experiences of African Americans, from the establishment of the American republic right up to the present day, have shaped a whole range of cultural forms and profoundly influenced the way African Americans identify themselves. The African American activist, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, famously claimed in 1967, 'Violence is as American as cherry pie.' This book offers support for that claim in terms that are at once passionately committed and rigorously critical." -- Richard Gray, Fellow of the British Academy