In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South / Edition 1 available in Paperback, eBook
In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South / Edition 1
In Search of the Promised Land: A Slave Family in the Old South / Edition 1
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Overview
Based on family letters as well as an autobiography by one of Thomas's sons, this remarkable piece of detective work follows a singular group as they 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 that illuminates the larger themes of slavery and freedom. To a remarkable degree, this small family experienced the full gamut of slavery, witnessing everything from the breakup of slave families, brutal punishment, and run-aways to miscegenation, insurrection panics, and slave patrols. They also illuminate the hidden lives of "nearly free" slaves, who maintained close relationships with whites, maneuvered within the system, and gained a large measure of autonomy.
The Thomas-Rapiers were keen observers of the human condition. Through the eyes of this exceptional family and the indomitable black woman who held them together, we witness aspects of human bondage otherwise hidden from view.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 2900195160887 |
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Publication date: | 02/23/2006 |
Pages: | 304 |
Product dimensions: | 6.70(w) x 4.70(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Illustrations | vii | |
Foreword | xi | |
Acknowledgments | xiii | |
The Descendants of Sally Thomas | xvi | |
Prologue | 1 | |
1 | Sally Thomas: A Life in Bondage | 11 |
Virtual Freedom | 14 | |
Sally's Children | 16 | |
Sally's Son James | 23 | |
Sally's Grandchildren: The Rapier Boys | 34 | |
2 | From Slavery to Freedom | 46 |
The Domestic Slave Trade | 48 | |
James Thomas: The Boyhood Years | 54 | |
Barbershop | 63 | |
3 | Travels in the North and West | 75 |
Nashville's Black Community | 86 | |
The Changing Attitudes of Whites | 92 | |
A Fugitive Slave in the North | 95 | |
The California Gold Rush | 99 | |
The Epidemic's Shadow | 108 | |
4 | In Search of Canaan | 117 |
Bound for Nicaragua | 119 | |
The Dilemma of John Rapier Sr. | 126 | |
The Minnesota Territory | 135 | |
Canada West and James Thomas Rapier | 142 | |
5 | The Midwest, Haiti, and Jamaica | 163 |
Into "Bleeding Kansas" | 167 | |
Steamboating on the Mississippi | 169 | |
John Rapier Jr. in the Caribbean | 180 | |
6 | This Mighty Scourge of War | 193 |
James Thomas in St. Louis | 194 | |
John Rapier Jr.'s Continuing Odyssey | 203 | |
The War's End | 219 | |
Epilogue | 229 | |
Afterword: Through the Prism of a Black Family | 249 | |
About the Sources | 262 | |
Appendix 1 | Petitions of Ephraim Foster and James Thomas to the Davidson County Court, 1851 | 268 |
Appendix 2 | John Rapier Sr. to Richard Rapier, April 8, 1845 | 273 |
Appendix 3 | John Rapier Jr. to James Thomas, July 28, 1861 | 276 |
Selected Bibliography on Slavery | 281 | |
Index | 283 |