John Hope, the Prince Who Refused the Kingdom

Abstract

Background: When I was  20,  l decided to hitchhike across the African continent, more or less following the line of the equator, from the  Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. I packed only one pair of sandals and one  pair of jeans to make room for  the three hefty books l had decided to read from cover to cover: Don Quixote, Moby Dick and From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. J  read the latter - the black-and—bound white bound third edition of John Hope Franklin's 194 7    book - while sailing down the Congo River and recovering from a nasty bout of dysentery. It became such a  valued reference for me that  I  kept it,  for years, in the bookcase at my bedside.