Records of the revolutionary war: containing the military and financial correspondence of distinguished officers; names of the officers and privates of regiments, companies, and corps, with the dates of their commissions and enlistments; general orders of Washington, Lee, and Greene, at Germantown and Valley Forge; with a list of distinguished prisoners of war; the time of their capture, exchange, etc. To which is added the half-pay acts of the Continental Congress; the revolutionary pension laws; and a list of the officers of the Continental Army who acquired the right to half-pay, commutation, and lands
v. 1. Annual message of the President ; Report of the Secretary of the Interior ; Report of the Secretary of War ; Report of the Secretary of the Navy ; Report of the Postmaster-General -- v. 2. Report of the Secretary of War --
Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-196) and index.
Contents
A short history of fugitives in America and an African named James Somerset -- The original meaning of the fugitive slave clause -- The Fugitive Slave Act, kidnapping, and the powers of dual sovereigns -- The rights of slaveholders and those of free Blacks in Pennsylvania's Personal Liberty Law of 1826 -- Black sailors, kidnapped freemen, and a crisis in northern fugitive slave jurisprudence -- Arresting Margaret -- Arresting Edward Prigg -- Before the court -- Deciding Prigg -- After the court.
Summary
Margaret Morgan was born in freedom's shadow. Her parents were slaves of John Ashmore, a prosperous Maryland mill owner who freed many of his slaves in the last years of his life. Ashmore never laid claim to Margaret, who eventually married a free black man and moved to Pennsylvania. Then, John Ashmore's widow sent Edward Prigg to Pennsylvania to claim Margaret as a runaway. Prigg seized Margaret and her children, one of them born in Pennsylvania and forcibly removed them to Maryland in violation of Pennsylvania law. In the ensuing uproar, Prigg was indicted for kidnapping under Pennsylvania's personal liberty law. Maryland, however, blocked his extradition, setting the stage for a remarkable Supreme Court case in 1842.
Movement and place in the African American past -- The transatlantic passage -- The passage to the interior -- The passage to the north -- Global passages.
Summary
Four great migrations defined the history of black people in America: the violent removal of Africans to the east coast of North America known as the Middle Passage; the relocation of one million slaves to the interior of the antebellum South; the movement of six million blacks to the industrial cities of the north and west a century later; and, since the late 1960s, the arrival of black immigrants from Africa, the Americas, and Europe. These epic migrations have made and remade African American life. This new account evokes both the terrible price and the moving triumphs of a people forcibly and then willingly migrating to America. Historian Ira Berlin finds a dynamic of change in which eras of deep rootedness alternate with eras of massive movement, tradition giving way to innovation. The culture of black America is constantly evolving, affected by (and affecting) places as far away from one another as Biloxi, Chicago, Kingston, and Lagos.--From publisher description.
Life in southern prisons; from the diary of Corporal Charles Smedley, of Company G, 90th regiment Penn'a volunteers, commencing a few days before the "battle of the Wilderness", in which he was taken prisoner, in the evening of the fifth month fifth, 1864: also, a short description of the march to and battle of Gettysburg, together with a biographical sketch of the author
''Child Heroes of the Underground Railroad illuminates the vital contributions of specific, underappreciated child activists within the extremely local circumstances of their daily work. It also provides meaningful context to the actions of these young activists within the much broader social practice of resisting slavery, and offers fresh insight into the complicated question of who was responsible for ending slavery. Through a thorough examination of these subjects, author Jonathan Shectman proves his central thesis: in many specific cases, children were the essential lifeblood of the Underground Railroad's operational workforce." ( amazon.com )
Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-208) and index.
Contents
The dictates of humanity -- Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave -- Ran away from the subscriber -- Tell them I love them all -- Let not the sun go down on your anger, my boy -- Up like bucks: the Rankin boys -- States of matter divide the states -- Deeds of bold daring -- Many years under the yoke -- The conductor was, himself, presently enslaved.
Part I. Radical, young, and quaker: child pioneers of the underground -- Part II. Up like bucks: the line through Ripley -- Part III. Taking their freedom: young free blacks and fugitive children.
