Using many photographs, this is a simple overview of the part played by African Americans during the formative years of the colonial period. The freedom sought by so many Europeans who came to America was not shared with many Africans & their descendants. The brief descriptions in this book tell of slavery as well as the limited freedoms of free blacks. Phillis Wheatley, Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, & Benjamin Banneker are among those briefly profiled. Index. Part of the Cornerstones of Freedom series. Bowker Authored Title code. Using many photographs, this is a simple overview of the part played by African Americans during the formative years of the colonial period. Presents a brief history of Afro-Americans and of slavery in seventeenth and eighteenth century America.