In Search of the Promised Land : a Slave Family in the Old South
Based on family letters and other first-hand evidence, this remarkable piece of detective work follows a remarkable Black family as its members walk the boundary between slave and free, traveling across the country in search of a ""promised land"" where African Americans would be treated with respect. Their record of these journeys provides a vivid picture of antebellum America, stretching from New Orleans to St. Louis, from the Overland Trail to the California Gold Rush, and from Civil War battles to steamboat adventures. John Hope Franklin and Loren Schweninger weave a compelling narrative t
Biographies
1 online resource (305 pages)
9780199728794, 0199728798
1096521855
Intro; Contents; Illustrations; Foreword; Acknowledgments; The Descendants of Sally Thomas; PROLOGUE; One: SALLY THOMAS: A LIFE IN BONDAGE; Virtual Freedom; Sally's Children; Sally's Son James; Sally's Grandchildren: The Rapier Boys; Two: FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM; The Domestic Slave Trade; James Thomas: The Boyhood Years; Barbershop; Three: TRAVELS IN THE NORTH AND WEST; Nashville's Black Community; The Changing Attitudes of Whites; A Fugitive Slave in the North; The California Gold Rush; The Epidemic's Shadow; Four: IN SEARCH OF CANAAN; Bound for Nicaragua; The Dilemma of John Rapier Sr. The Minnesota TerritoryCanada West and James Thomas Rapier; Five: THE MIDWEST, HAITI, AND JAMAICA; Into "Bleeding Kansas"; Steamboating on the Mississippi; John Rapier Jr. in the Caribbean; Six: THIS MIGHTY SCOURGE OF WAR; James Thomas in St. Louis; John Rapier Jr.'s Continuing Odyssey; The War's End; EPILOGUE; AFTERWORD: THROUGH THE PRISM OF A BLACK FAMILY; ABOUT THE SOURCES; APPENDIX 1 PETITIONS OF EPHRAIM FOSTER AND JAMES THOMAS TO THE DAVIDSON COUNTY COURT; APPENDIX 2 JOHN RAPIER SR. TO RICHARD RAPIER, APRIL 8, 1845; APPENDIX 3 JOHN RAPIER JR. TO JAMES THOMAS, JULY 28, 1861 Selected Bibliography on SlaveryIndex; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; P; R; S; T; V; W