Black Pioneers: An Untold StoryTaylor & Francis, 1999 - 193 pages Out of a past little noted in history texts comes this tale of African American pioneers in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. These pathfinders were slaves, poets, runaways, missionaries, farmers, teachers, and soldiers. For these African Americans, the frontier meant freedom, and from the earliest times, some seized liberty by joining Indian nations. As Southern slaveholders tried to pass laws to make slavery legal in the West and territorial legislatures wrote "Black Laws" that limited basic rights to white settlers, African American pioneers became freedom fighters. From Ohio to Kansas they battled slavehunters and developed Underground Railroad stations. Black families built their own schools and churches and created unique forms of protest to ensure their advancement. Historian William Loren Katz reveals a frontier saga that has often been buried, glossed over, or lost. |
Table des matières
The Order of the Men of Oppression | 111 |
The Iowa of Alexander Clark | 131 |
Wisconsin Battles The Heel of Oppression | 136 |
The Greys of Minnesota | 143 |
The Odyssey of Henry Clay Bruce | 153 |
From Alien and Stranger to U S Army Officer | 166 |
Endnotes | 172 |
Index | 182 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
abolitionist African American African descent arrived Baptist became began Black Laws Black pioneers Black women Blockson bondage Canada Chicago Chillicothe Cincinnati citizens Civil Clark Cleveland Coffin color conductors Congress convention County court DeBaptiste delegates Detroit dollars early enslaved entered the Union escape former slaves Frederick Douglass freedom friends frontier Fugitive Slave governor helped Henry Bibb Historical Society Illinois indenture indentured servant Indiana Iowa John Malvin John Marrant Jones Journal of Negro Kansas Kentucky Lambert land later legislature Levi Coffin liberty lived Louis Marrant married Methodist Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Mitchell Native Americans Negro History North Northwest Northwest Ordinance Oberlin Ohio River Ohio Valley Ohio's population posse president proslavery Quakers race runaways Sable Sarah served settled settlers slaveholders slavery Territory Thornbrough thousand trade Underground Railroad Virginia vote wagon West William William Loren Katz Wisconsin woman Woodson wrote Wyandot York
Fréquemment cités
Page 1 - I met with in this charming season, expelled every gloomy and vexatious thought. Just at the close of day the gentle gales retired, and left the place to the disposal of a profound calm. Not a breeze shook the most tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and, looking round with astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains, the beauteous tracts below.
Page 167 - I can hate this Government without being disloyal, because it has stricken down my manhood, and treated me as a saleable commodity. I can join a foreign enemy and fight against it, without being a traitor, because it treats me as an ALIEN and a STRANGER, and I am free to avow that should such a contingency arise I should not hesitate to take any advantage in order to procure indemnity for the future...
Page 33 - Chillicothe. Here we built our winter camps, making them as warm as we could. Our bread was made of pounded hominy and corn-meal, and we lived on this, together with what we could find in the woods. Fortunately for us.
Page 33 - Our bread was made of pounded hominy and corn-meal, and we lived on this, together with what we could find in the woods. Fortunately for us. game was plenty, and we caught opossums by the score. The colored people lived well on this food, and were as sleek and black as ravens.
Page 73 - I thought upon coming to a free state like Ohio, that I would find every door thrown open to receive me, but from the treatment I received by the people generally, I found it little better than in Virginia...
Page 89 - State, contrary to the provisions of the foregoing section shall be void ; and any person who shall employ such negro or mulatto, or otherwise encourage him to remain in the State, shall be fined in any sum not less than ten dollars...
Page 68 - ... light up the houses wherein we held our meetings after night; for in many places, they had neither candles nor candlesticks. After meeting was out, we have frequently gone from three to eight miles to get lodging, through the dark forest, where there was scarcely any road for a wagon to run on. I have traveled for miles over swamps, where the roads were covered with logs, without any dirt over them, which has sometimes shook and jostled the wagon to pieces, where we could find no shop or any...
Page 33 - In the spring my father and the rest of the family moved out, and, as soon as we could erect a cabin, all hands went to work to put in a crop of corn. It was necessary to fence in the prairie, and every one had to inclose with a fence as much ground as he had planted.
Page 21 - March 4 1789. George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States, April 30, 1789.