Acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriott corrects the record of American history and presents the perspectives and experiences of black Americans in this poignantly intelligent and painfully entertaining retelling. It is the story of the Mayflower pilgrims who founded a new nation.

It is the cherry tree of George Washington and the log cabin of Abraham Lincoln. It is the fantastic story of the slaves who spontaneously teleported to this land with only strong backs and Negro spirituals. It is a sugar-coated legend based almost entirely on a true story. After all, the history books were written by white men and their perspective is front and center. The downplaying and erasure of the black experience is as American as apple pie, if not more so.

In Black AF History, Michael Harriott presents a more accurate version of American history. By combining meticulous research based on primary sources and the work of pioneering black historians, scholars, and journalists with unapologetically provocative storytelling, Harriott removes the white sugar coating from the American story and puts black people at the center. With sharp wit, Harriott speaks hilarious truth to oppressive power and subverts the conventional historical narrative with little-known stories about the black American experience From the African Americans who arrived before 1619 to the unenslaved who inspired America's first police force From the bandits who were not enslaved to the bandits who were not enslaved, this long-overdue corrective action provides a necessary yet urgent, clarifying look into our past. For too long, we have been unwilling to acknowledge that American history is the history of white people. This is not. This history is Black AF.