Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South

Exchanging Our Country Marks is a must read for anyone who has ever asked, and sincerely wanted an answer to the question, "Who, exactly, are the African Americans?" This is the book that I have been missing in my studies of African American ethnic/racial identity, and I am just now finding it, more than 10 years after its publication. Among the many illuminating points, an understanding of how race became the primary means by which an emerging ethnic collectivity self-identified was one of the greatest gems gifted. After reading this book, you will come to understand that one simply cannot rightly talk about African American ethnic identity without talking about Black racial identity. Many scholars (myself included) try to disentangle ethnicity from race and operationalize each so that they become mutually exclusive social constructs. This book illustrates why, when it comes to the matter of the African Americans, this endeavor is a futile one. I highly recommend this text along with Slave Community, Slave Religion, and Slave Culture.

This was okay? It felt really disjointed in parts and sometimes was hard to follow, but I do think this makes a really important intervention in terms of tracing shifts in identity and identity formation, and the individual chapters in the latter half are mostly pretty good (of special interest: the chapter on language and the chapter on Islam among enslaved African-born folks were both really interesting and cool!) Ultimately I didn't love this, but I do think it does important work. (I'm not an African historian, for the record, which I think really impacted my reading of it, because so much of it was so new. Also the 'conclusion' chapter was absolutely WILD.)

One of the most important and thoroughly written books on blqck history with regards to slavery that ive ever read. Answers a lot of questions ive held for most of my life...questions ive had about where exactly do we come from and what was it like to negotiate culture, language and relgion amongst ouselves as slaves from the moment of sale or capture through placements in the Americas. Extremely enlightening book.

This book is just what I needed to help me understand more about slavery and the people caught it its terrible grip.There is a section in the book about recently arrived African people and their attempts to escape from their terrible situation. The author expressed this desperate hope is such a fashion that tears came to my eyes and I felt that for the first time I had some inkling of the terror they were experiencing.

This is an excellent book. I want every one of African descent to read this book. It is fantastic. This book is in my 10 list.Early on the Africans were well aware of their ethnic identities, but over time, they were forgotten, and a new people emerged. Now this took generations. It was a slow and torturous process.If you want to educate yourself about black folks in America and where they came from, and how they evolved, read this book.

Excellent book

Extremely detailed and academic it is slow going in the beginning but once it gets going it is quite revelatory

Gomez is an outstanding and insightful historian of African and African American Cultural. He reveals numerous topics thattantalize the reader and instigates the thirst for more.