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Author Franklin, John Hope, 1915-2009, author.

Title In search of the promised land : a slave family in the Old South / John Hope Franklin, Loren Schweninger
Published New York : Oxford University Press, 2006

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Description 1 online resource (xvii, 286 pages) : illustrations, maps
Series New narratives in American history
New narratives in American history.
Contents Sally Thomas : a life in bondage. Virtual freedom ; Sally's children ; Sally's son James ; Sally's grandchildren: the Rapier boys -- From slavery to freedom. The domestic slave trade ; James Thomas: the boyhood years ; Barbershop -- 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 -- In search of Canaan. Bound for Nicaragua ; The dilemma of John Rapier Sr. ; The Minnesota territory ; Canada West and James Thomas Rapier -- The Midwest, Haiti, and Jamaica. Into "Bleeding Kansas" ; Steamboating on the Mississippi ; John Rapier Jr. in the Caribbean -- This mighty scourge of war. James Thomas in St. Louis ; John Rapier Jr.'s continuing odyssey ; The war's end -- Afterword : through the prism of a black family -- Appendix 1. Petitions of Ephraim Foster and James Thomas to the Davidson County Court -- John Rapier Sr. to Richard Rapier, April 8, 1845 -- Appendix 3. John Rapier Jr. to James Thomas, July 28, 1861
Summary Sally Thomas went from being a slave on a tobacco plantation, to a "virtually free" slave who ran her own business and purchased one of her sons out of bondage. This book offers a portrait of her extended family and of the life of slaves before the Civil War. Based on family letters as well as an autobiography by one of her sons, the 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. This small family experienced the full gamut of slavery, witnessing everything from the breakup of slave families, brutal punishment, and runaways, to miscegenation, insurrection panics, and slave patrols. They also illuminate the hidden lives of "virtually free" slaves, who maintained close relationships with whites, maneuvered within the system, and gained a large measure of autonomy.--From publisher description
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-282) and index
Notes English
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Print version record
digitized 2024. HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Thomas, Sally, 1787-1850.
Thomas, Sally, 1787-1850 -- Family
Thomas family.
Rapier family.
SUBJECT Rapier family fast
Thomas family fast
Thomas, Sally, 1787-1850 fast
Thomas. fssh
Rapier. fssh
Subject Enslaved persons -- Tennessee -- Nashville -- Biography
African Americans -- Tennessee -- Nashville -- Biography
African American families -- Southern States -- Case studies
Slavery -- Southern States -- Case studies
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Historical.
REFERENCE -- Genealogy & Heraldry.
African American families
African Americans
Families
Race relations
Slavery
Enslaved persons
Slavery -- Tennessee.
Sklaverei
Familie
United States - General.
Regions & Countries - Americas.
History & Archaeology.
SUBJECT Nashville (Tenn.) -- Biography
Nashville (Tenn.) -- Race relations
Subject Southern States
Tennessee -- Nashville
USA
Schwärze
Genre/Form collective biographies.
Biographies
Case studies
Biographies.
Case studies.
Biographies.
Études de cas.
Form Electronic book
Author Schweninger, Loren, author.
LC no. 2004061666
ISBN 1423746627
9781423746621
1602567247
9781602567245
0195160878
9780195160871
0195160886
9780195160888
1280503238
9781280503238