ABSTRACT
In Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans, Kadir Nelson, again represents the history of Blacks in slavery through detailed oil paintings. However, with this text, Nelson also took on the responsibility of writer to present a survey of African American history that starts with the slave trade and ends with the civil rights movement. Throughout the text, the unnamed narrator guides readers through major events in African American history from the colonial period to the civil rights movement. Both Frederick Douglass and the Black Revolutionary War soldier are represented as strong, courageous, determined individuals who will stop at nothing to resist and challenge the institution of slavery. Pap and George Washington are used by Nelson to illustrate that Black men carried out covert acts of resistance against slavery and had the inner strength that was necessary to survive the harsh system under which they were treated inhumanely and viewed as property.
