The United States has been in constant conflict with its Black population, which has been the greatest source of its wealth, said Dr. Gerald Horne, the prolific author who teaches African American Studies and history at the University of Houston. Enslaved and free African Americans often “collaborated with the real and imagined enemies” of the United States, to undermine the nation’s systems of oppression. “So, this was a troublesome property,” that consistently resists its subordination by a hostile government.