Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: people and currents -- The Atlantic Ocean: currents of life and death -- Topography: navigating the southern landscape -- Religion: shouting in the woods -- Resistance: rebellion, sustenance, and escape in the wilderness -- Preservation: blending the practical and the purist -- Conservation: an African legacy of working the land -- Children: dreaming and danger in woods and fields -- Nature study: observing, classifying, and utilizing the natural world -- Women and gardening: a patch of her own -- Environmental justice: free to breathe -- Conclusion: heritage and the future.

In Rooted in the Earth, environmental historian Dianne D. Glave overturns the stereotype that a meaningful attachment to nature and the outdoors is contrary to the black experience. In tracing the history of African Americans' relationship with the environment, emphasizing the unique preservation-conservation aspect of black environmentalism, and using her storytelling skills to re-create black naturalists of the past, Glave reclaims the African American heritage of the land.