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PAUL R. GRIFFIN. Seeds of Racism in the Soul of America. Cleveland, Ohio: The Pilgrim Press, 1999. Pp. xvii 148, index. $20.95.
Paul R. Griffin, director of African American Studies at Wright State University, provides a powerful and provocative examination of the persistence of racism in the American psyche. To a historian, what is of particular importance in Griffin's wide-ranging study is his examination of the "theological ideas that were used to justify slavery in the past," and his assessment that the "distant roots of racism trace back not to southern plantation owners but to Puritans in the North, who first used theological ideas to justify slavery and racism" (p. xv).
Griffin provides a valuable scholarly contribution by demonstrating that support for the "twin evils" of slavery and racism was not limited to "unlettered and racist" southern slave owners, but was "widely held" among educated New England Christians. For evidence,...