By SIU Press
“Organizing Freedom is a riveting and significant social history of black emancipation activism in Indiana and Illinois during the Civil War era,” SIU Press says.
“By enlarging the definition of emancipation to include black activism, author Jennifer R. Harbour details the aggressive, tenacious defiance through which Midwestern African Americans – particularly black women – made freedom tangible for themselves.
“Despite banning slavery, Illinois and Indiana share an antebellum history of severely restricting rights for free black people while protecting the rights of slaveholders.
“Nevertheless, as Harbour shows, black Americans settled there, and in a liminal space between legal slavery and true freedom, they focused on their main goals: creating institutions like churches, schools, and police watches; establishing citizenship rights; arguing against oppressive laws in public and in print; and, later, supporting their communities throughout the Civil War.”
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on May 30, 2020