Showing results by narrator "Rodney" in All Categories

Twenty-five years after its original publication, Slave Religion remains a classic in the study of African American history and religion. In a new chapter in this anniversary edition, author Albert J. Raboteau reflects upon the origins of the book, the reactions to it over the past twenty-five...

According to local legend, the stagecoach known as the Gray Ghost is either haunted, cursed, or just plain unlucky. Each of its last three drivers and three more riding shotgun came to a violent, bloody end. And now it's Red Ryan's turn to guard five foolhardy passengers on the stage's next—and possibly last—trip. The travelers are a small troupe of performers with dark histories of their own: a song-and-dance man with a drinking problem, a juggler with a secret, a knife thrower with a past, and a beautiful fan dancer who's on the run from a one-eyed, vengeance-seeking outlaw . . .

Do you understand how your cardinal memories are the keys to your story development? Or how these very same memories may limit your potential? Lighten Up is more than a coming-of-age memoir. It is an in-depth look at Rodney Laney's disengagement from his cardinal memories. The book is humorous and provocative as Laney describes his journey into meditation and spirituality.

Two legends of the American West, Preacher and MacCallister have always fought for justice. Even when all parties were guilty. When all hope was lost. And when all the killing started . . . WHEN ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE It's one of the great mysteries of the Old West. The unexplained disappearance...

If anyone can get a shipment of brides to the church on time, it's Bo Creel and Scratch Morton. But this time, they'll have to cross hell and high water to escort four marriage-bound beauties to a remote gold-mining town in Alaska. The brides-to-be include a dangerously attractive widow, her sweet-hearted niece, and two of their friends. The roadblocks to the altar include a lecherous saloon owner, a lovesick sailor, and a gang of hired guns. And that's just for starters.... 

Ellis loves popcorn. No, she really loves popcorn. It's serious. So when her school and her dads ban all snack foods - including popcorn - Ellis won't listen. But when she tries to quietly sneak her favorite salty snack, one kernel refuses to pop. Loudly. Soon, the kernel has sprouted a face, arms, and legs! He's alive, his name is Popcorn Bob, and he is not in a good mood. He is hangry. Will Ellis be able to keep Bob a secret until she can get rid of him? (And after a few days with him, will she still want to?)

War Between Good and Evil: A Collection of Poems, Vol. I is a completed 12,342-word poetry book that mostly describes life in America through the lens of a Black man. The poems describe the challenges of growing up in poverty with an absent father and a mother who will move mountains to hold her family together. The speaker describes his struggles and the challenges of making ends meet and how he eventually overcomes those struggles and achieves his aspirations. The poems are of conflict and triumph.

When the lead runner starts his final lap in a long-distance race, the starter fires his pistol for the second time. This signals the start of the gun lap - the last chance to leave it all out on the track. Gun Lap is for men who are running their last lap. Or maybe younger men who are looking ahead to their gun lap, but want to live the rest of their lives with purpose and strength. This is no small thing. In fact, it’s a big deal, because we only get one chance at this life.

In 1802, Richard Drake (1790-1857) at the age of 12, joined his uncle on a slaving voyage between Benin and Brazil. It was the beginning of his 50 years’ career as a slave trader. Revelations of a Slave Smuggler, published posthumously in 1860, tells his stories including those of journeys to the interior of Africa, slave hunts, gold prospecting in West Africa, his capture by an African tribe, lion hunting, marriage to an African woman, visits with African rulers, slave markets, and the West Indies trade.

Bo Creel and Scratch Morton are mighty proud. They managed to deliver five mail-order brides to the New Mexico mining town of Silverhill in one piece. The town is so grateful, they want to make Bo their marshal and Scratch his deputy. Bo and Scratch are happy to accept the job - and even happier to attend the weddings of the fine young women they brought here.

Robber baron Clifton Satterlee is in greedy pursuit of a coveted piece of land in the New Mexico Territory. He plans to wrest the timber-rich hills from the Tua Pueblo and then populate the town with his own subservient labor force. Many will suffer as his thirst for blood equals his lust for wealth and power. But Saterlee has overlooked one mighty obstacle - the iron justice and deadly aim of the legendary mountain man Smoke Jensen. In triumph blood will be spilled.... 

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass covers the life of the prominent abolitionist during and after the Civil War. Here, Douglass provides a fuller account of his escape from slavery and the underground railway to freedom. It includes his recollections of presidents Garfield and Lincoln, Johnson and Garfield, and an account of his service as Marshall of the District of Columbia.

Martin Robison Delany (1812-1885) was an African-American abolitionist, journalist, physician, and author. He was one of the first three black people admitted to Harvard Medical School. Delany dreamed of establishing a settlement in West Africa and visited Liberia, a United States colony founded by the American Colonization Society. He was a prolific writer, and his book The Origin and Objects of Ancient Freemasonry, Its Introduction Into the United States, and Legitimacy Among Colored Men was published 1853.

In his 1920 book The Jews of Africa, Mendelssohn attempts to chart the separate and progressive histories of the Jews in the different parts of Africa where they lived since their expulsion from the land by the Romans. He succeeds in compiling a narrative of a large part of the histories of the Jews of Africa during the centuries following the Romans’ destruction of Jerusalem.

Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912) was a diplomat, educator, writer and politician. Born in the West Indies, he migrated to Liberia in 1851. Blyden’s writings on pan-Africanism were influential in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the two countries founded in the time of slavery for the resettlement of free blacks from the United Kingdom and the United States. Blyden believed that Zionism was a model for what he termed Ethiopianism, and that African-Americans could return to Africa and redeem it.

The Mysterious and Prophetic History of Esau Considered (1837) by J H Heath examines the numerous biblical prophecies on Edom and Esau. Drawing on the books of Exodus, Daniel, and Revelation, the author first looks at the history of the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their families, to identify Ishmael and Esau with Edom.

We all have ideas - things we want to do or create - but only some of us will do what it takes to see those ideas come to pass. In Good Idea. Now What? listeners will discover some of the essential values and principles that guide successful idea-makers, including the leveraging of mixed environments for creativity, working through resistance and setbacks, developing a practical plan for implementation that works, navigating collaborative opportunities, and communicating your idea to make it truly remarkable. 

The Jamaican orator and entrepreneur Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (1887-1940) preached success to the African diaspora. He believed that attaining economic, cultural, and political success would free African Americans in this life. Identifying integrity of character as the first step toward achievement, Garvey promoted capitalism as the means to establish African Americans as an independent group.

Garnet’s 1848 address to the Female Benevolent Society of Troy, New York, was published as The Past and the Present Condition and the Destiny of the Colored Race. In it, he elaborated on his convictions that the ancient Egyptians were Africans, that the Nubian warriors of Kush were celebrated by Homer, that the Song of Solomon was addressed to an African woman, that Moses’ wife was Nubian, and that Hannibal, Euclid, Origen, and Augustine were of African ancestry.

Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) was a Welsh explorer and journalist. Famous for his meeting with the missionary and explorer David Livingstone, Stanley searched for the source of the Nile as an agent of King Leopold II of Belgium. In Origin of the Negro Race, he attempts an ethnographic description of the continent’s people beginning with Egypt and the North.