Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society, 110, no. 2 (Summer 2008) .
Notes
Bibliography: p. 59 - 61.
Summary
The Gap gang was blamed for virtually every crime committed in this part of southeastern Pennsylvania - with good reason. From petty theft, armed robbery, arson, to counterfeiting, the loose-knit group terrorized the community, particularly its African - American members after 1850. This article focuses on the gang's pursuit of run-away slaves for profit.With the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, slave owners were emboldened in pursuing slaves who had escaped across the Mason-Dixon line into Pennsylvania. The law required civilians to assist in returning slaves to their owners, and it became profitable for the Gap Gang to sell former slaves in Pennsylvania back across the Mason Dixon line to slave owners. The gang developed a reputation for pursuing this line of business. This article also speaks of the formation of an African American Self Defense League in Lancaster County which meant to resist attempted captures of run-away slaves.
32 pages : color illustrations, color map ; 28 cm.
Series
Colonial people
Notes
Includes index.
Contents
Quasheba's family -- Slavery in the colonies -- Slave families -- Marriage and children -- Helping one another -- The lives of slave children -- The education of slaves -- Field hands -- House servants -- Tradespeople -- Culture from Africa -- The cost of freedom.
Summary
Introduces the personal relationships and daily activities that were part of the family life of slaves in colonial America.
xiv, 386 pages, [16] pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Notes
Includes bibliographical references (pages 354-372) and index.
Summary
The first narrative history of the Civil War as told by the very people it freed. Historian of nineteenth-century and African-American history Andrew Ward weaves together hundreds of interviews, diaries, letters, and memoirs. Here is the Civil War as seen from slave quarters, kitchens, roadsides, swamps, and fields. Body servants, army cooks and launderers, runaways, teamsters, and gravediggers bring the war to richly detailed life. From slaves' theories about the causes of the Civil War to their frank assessments of major figures; from their searing memories of the carnage of battle to their often startling attitudes toward masters and liberators alike; and from their initial jubilation at the Yankee invasion of the slave South to the crushing disappointment of freedom's promise unfulfilled, this is a transformative vision of America's second revolution.--From publisher description.
