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Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad : the Geography of Resistance

"In Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad, Cheryl LaRoche brings the tools of archaeology to the study of the Underground Railroad movement. Unlike previous histories of the Underground Railroad, which have focused on frightened fugitive slaves and their benevolent abolitionist ac...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: LaRoche, Cheryl Janifer.
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2013.
Subjects and Genres:
1800-1899
Underground Railroad > Indiana.
Underground Railroad > Illinois.
Underground Railroad > Ohio.
Fugitive slaves > United States > History.
African Americans > History > 19th century > Sources.
Antislavery movements > United States > History.
African Americans > Antiquities.
Excavations (Archaeology) > United States.
SOCIAL SCIENCE > Ethnic Studies > African American Studies.
HISTORY > United States > 19th Century.
SOCIAL SCIENCE > Slavery.
African Americans.
Antislavery movements.
Excavations (Archaeology)
Fugitive slaves.
Underground Railroad.
Illinois.
Indiana.
Ohio.
United States.
History.
Sources.
Online Access:Book review (H-Net)
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Summary: "In Free Black Communities and the Underground Railroad, Cheryl LaRoche brings the tools of archaeology to the study of the Underground Railroad movement. Unlike previous histories of the Underground Railroad, which have focused on frightened fugitive slaves and their benevolent abolitionist accomplices, this study examines the interactions of those fleeing slavery, the Black communities that helped them, and the terrain where their struggles occurred. LaRoche's approach foregrounds the African Americans who were at the forefront of the movement, or "on the front-line of freedom." Small rural pre-Civil War free Black border communities were conduits for escape. As the first points of entry into the treacherous southern regions of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, Black communities in the southernmost counties bordering the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were positioned to offer sanctuary to anyone able to escape slavery. LaRoche explores oral family and personal histories, memories, documents, maps, memoirs and archaeological investigations of the historic communities of Rocky Fork and Miller Grove in Illinois, Lick Creek, Indiana, and Poke Patch, Ohio. These untold stories of the Underground Railroad reveal a geography of resistance viewed through local African-American strategies for equal rights and social justice"--
Physical Description: xviii, 232 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-218) and index.
ISBN: 9780252038044
0252038045
9780252079542
025207954X

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