The French Encounter With Africans: White Response to Blacks, 1530-1880

"As French and American historians of France are revisiting the history of French racism today, William B. Cohen’s book is more important than ever. It has become a classic." —Nancy L. Green

In this pioneering work, William B. Cohen traces the ways in which negative attitudes toward blacks became deeply embedded in French culture. Examining the forces that shaped these views, Cohen reveals the persistent inequality of French interactions with blacks in Africa, in the slave colonies of the West Indies, and in France itself. Now a classic, The French Encounter with Africans is essential reading for anyone engaged in current discussions of European relations with non-Europeans and with issues of racism, ethnicity, identity, colonialism, and empire.

William B. Cohen (1941–2002) was Professor and former Chair of the Department of History at Indiana University.A His books include Rulers of Empire: The French Colonial Service in Africa.

James D. Le Sueur is Associate Professor of History at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and lives in Lincoln.