Israel on the Appomattox
A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War
Published on 16. August 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
656 pages
978-0-679-76872-2 (ISBN)
Description
WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZEA New York Times Book Review and Atlantic Monthly Editors' ChoiceThomas Jefferson denied that whites and freed blacks could live together in harmony. His cousin, Richard Randolph, not only disagreed, but made it possible for ninety African Americans to prove Jefferson wrong. Israel on the Appomattox tells the story of these liberated blacks and the community they formed, called Israel Hill, in Prince Edward County, Virginia. There, ex-slaves established farms, navigated the Appomattox River, and became entrepreneurs. Free blacks and whites did business with one another, sued each other, worked side by side for equal wages, joined forces to found a Baptist congregation, moved west together, and occasionally settled down as man and wife. Slavery cast its grim shadow, even over the lives of the free, yet on Israel Hill we discover a moving story of hardship and hope that defies our expectations of the Old South.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Random House USA Inc
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
43 ILLUSTRATIONS/3 MAPS
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 132 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
808 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-679-76872-2 (9780679768722)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Melvin Patrick Ely
Israel on the Appomattox
A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War
E-Book
12/2010
Vintage
€11.49
Available for download
Person
Melvin Patrick Ely
Content
An Opening Word: Black Slavery, Black Freedom
Chapter One: The View from Israel Hill, 1863
Chapter Two: Liberty and Happiness
Citizen Richard Randolph and His Slaves
Subordination Was Entirely Out of the Question
Chapter Three: The Promised Land
As Comfortable as the Best in Israel Hill
Neighbors
To Inclose His Little Plantation: The Free Black Drive for Independence
Chapter Four: Work
Sweating Like a Harvest Field Hand
Craft, Mystery, and Occupation
To Run the Road with a Waggon or the River with a Boat
Chapter Five: Challenges
Nat Turner
Edmund Young and Free Black Resistance
Idleness, Poverty, and Dissipation: The Birth of a Proslavery Myth
Chapter Six: Law and Order
Boisterous Passions and Paneless Windows
To Maim, Disfigure, Disable, and Kill
Chapter Seven: Worldviews
Kindred Cultures
Callousness and Closeness
Clashing Values
The Wisdom of Solomon
Chapter Eight: Progress and Struggle
For Richer, for Poorer
Black Freedom and the Crisis of the Union
Chapter Nine: Appomattox and the New Birth of Freedom
Postscript: The Search for Meaning in the Southern
Free Black Experience
Documents
Will of Richard Randolph
Will of Betty Dwin
Will of Thomas Ford
Colonel James Madison on Emancipated Slaves
Will of Philip Bowman
Will of Anthony (Tony) White
Sources and Interpretations
Abbreviations in Notes and Remarks on Primary Sources
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
Chapter One: The View from Israel Hill, 1863
Chapter Two: Liberty and Happiness
Citizen Richard Randolph and His Slaves
Subordination Was Entirely Out of the Question
Chapter Three: The Promised Land
As Comfortable as the Best in Israel Hill
Neighbors
To Inclose His Little Plantation: The Free Black Drive for Independence
Chapter Four: Work
Sweating Like a Harvest Field Hand
Craft, Mystery, and Occupation
To Run the Road with a Waggon or the River with a Boat
Chapter Five: Challenges
Nat Turner
Edmund Young and Free Black Resistance
Idleness, Poverty, and Dissipation: The Birth of a Proslavery Myth
Chapter Six: Law and Order
Boisterous Passions and Paneless Windows
To Maim, Disfigure, Disable, and Kill
Chapter Seven: Worldviews
Kindred Cultures
Callousness and Closeness
Clashing Values
The Wisdom of Solomon
Chapter Eight: Progress and Struggle
For Richer, for Poorer
Black Freedom and the Crisis of the Union
Chapter Nine: Appomattox and the New Birth of Freedom
Postscript: The Search for Meaning in the Southern
Free Black Experience
Documents
Will of Richard Randolph
Will of Betty Dwin
Will of Thomas Ford
Colonel James Madison on Emancipated Slaves
Will of Philip Bowman
Will of Anthony (Tony) White
Sources and Interpretations
Abbreviations in Notes and Remarks on Primary Sources
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index