"Uses primary sources to tell the story of slavery in the United States"--

Traces the journey to freedom taken by countless slaves, showing how they were guided, protected and pursued along the way. The extraordinary story is told through historical documents, visits to important sites, interviews with the descendants of noted abolitionists and commentary from experts.

"Some studies of early America highlight events such as the first Thanksgiving and the establishment of different colonies. But true historians realize that American history is tightly bound to the history of enslavement in the Americas. This carefully researched volume presents the difficult topic of American slavery sensitively yet comprehensively. Readers will learn about the European slave trade and how and why it expanded to the American colonies....

"In Black Elders, Frederick C. Knight explores the experiences of African Americans with aging and in old age during the eras of slavery and emancipation. Though slavery put a premium on young labor, elders worked as caregivers, domestics, cooks, or midwives and performed other tasks in the margins of Southern and Northern economies. Looking at black families, churches, mutual aid societies, and homes for the aged, Knight demonstrates the pivotal...

Here is the riveting dual biography of two little-known but extraordinary men in Civil War history George E. Stephens and James Henry Gooding. These Union soldiers not only served in the Massachusetts 54th Infantry, the well-known black regiment, but were also war correspondents who published eyewitness reports of the battlefields. Their dispatches told the truth of their lives at camp, their intense training, and the dangers and tragedies on the...