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The Bone and Sinew of the Land
America's Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality
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When black settlers Keziah and Charles Grier started clearing their frontier land in 1818, they couldn’t know that they were part of the nation’s earliest struggle for equality; they were just looking to build a better life. But within a few years, the Griers would become early Underground Railroad conductors, joining with fellow pioneers and other allies to confront the growing tyranny of bondage and injustice.
The Bone and Sinew of the Land tells the Griers’ story and the stories of many others like them: the lost history of the nation’s first Great Migration. In building hundreds of settlements on the frontier, these black pioneers were making a stand for equality and freedom. Their new home, the Northwest Territory — the wild region that would become present-day Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin — was the first territory to ban slavery and have equal voting rights for all men. Though forgotten today, in their own time the successes of these pioneers made them the targets of racist backlash. Political and even armed battles soon ensued, tearing apart families and communities long before the Civil War. This groundbreaking work of research reveals America’s forgotten frontier, where these settlers were inspired by the belief that all men are created equal and a brighter future was possible.
Named one of Smithsonian’s Best History Books of 2018
Excerpt
African American Farming Settlements in the Northwest Territory States, 1800–18601
[No asterisk] = Settlement with at least one African American farmer owning less than two hundred acres or with property valued at less than $2,000
* = Settlement with at least one African American farmer owning two hundred acres or more or worth $2,000 or more
** = Settlement with at least one African American farmer owning four hundred acres or more or worth $4,000 or more
*** = Settlement with at least one African American farmer owning 1,000 acres or more or with property worth $10,000 or more
Ohio
1 Painesville, Lake County
2 Bloomfield, Trumbull County
3 Mesopotamia, Trumbull County
4 Farmington, Trumbull County
5 Youngstown, Mahoning County
6 Austintown, Mahoning County
7 Goshen, Mahoning County
8 Smith, Mahoning County*
9 Knox, Columbiana County
10 Lexington, Stark County
11 Atwater, Portage County
12 Charlestown, Portage County
13 Ravenna, Portage County
14 Stow, Summit County
15 Bainbridge, Geauga County*
16 Independence, Cuyahoga County*
17 Middleburgh, Cuyahoga County
18 Grafton, Lorain County
19 Russia, Lorain County
20 Brownhelm, Lorain County**
21 Fitchville, Huron County
22 Sharon, Richland County
23 Greenfield, Huron County**
24 Perkins, Erie County
25 Sandusky, Sandusky County
26 Tiffin, Seneca County
27 Seneca, Seneca County*
28 Big Spring, Seneca County
29 Crawford, Wyandot County
30 Delaware, Hancock County
31 Perry, Allen County*
32 Bath, Allen County
33 Washington, Paulding County
34 Willshire, Van Wert County
35 Centre, Mercer County
36 Jefferson/Macon, Mercer County*
37 Butler, Mercer County
38 Granville, Mercer County
39 Carthagena, Mercer County
40 St. Marys, Auglaize County
41 Moulton, Auglaize County
42 Washington, Auglaize County
43 Van Buren, Shelby County*
44 Lake, Logan County
45 Jefferson, Logan County*
46 Perry, Logan County***
47 Monroe, Logan County
48 Thompson, Delaware County
49 Concord, Delaware County**
50 Perry, Franklin County**
51 Radnor, Delaware County
52 Peru, Morrow County
53 Harmony, Morrow County*
54 Washington, Morrow County*
55 Morris, Knox County
56 South Bloomfield, Morrow County
57 Hilliar, Knox County
58 Mount Vernon, Knox County
59 Virginia, Coshocton County
60 Cadiz, Harrison County
61 Mount Pleasant, Jefferson County*
62 Meigs, Muskingum County**
63 Roxbury, Washington County
64 Wayne, Pickaway County
65 Urbana, Champaign County
66 Spring Creek, Miami County
67 Washington, Miami County
68 German, Darke County***
69 Concord, Miami County
70 Union, Miami County
71 Xenia, Greene County
72 Sugar Creek, Greene County*
73 Wayne, Warren County*
74 Union, Warren County**
75 Caesar’s Creek, Greene County
76 Perry, Fayette County
77 Greenfield, Highland County
78 Fairfield, Highland County***
79 Hansbrough Settlement, Liberty, Highland County
80 Paint, Highland County
81 Concord, Highland County
82 Eagle, Brown County
83 Pebble, Pike County*
84 Chillicothe, Ross County
85 Jackson, Pike County**
86 Seal, Pike County
87 Liberty, Jackson County
88 Jackson, Jackson County
89 Franklin, Jackson County
90 Lick, Jackson County
91 Berlin Crossroads, Milton, Jackson County**
92 Huntington, Gallia County
93 Raccoon, Gallia County
94 Poke Patch, Lawrence/Gallia Counties
95 Decatur, Lawrence County
Indiana
96 Huggart Settlement, Union, St. Joseph County
97 Smith, Whitely County**
98 Blue Creek, Adams County
99 Mill, Grant County
100 Union, Grant County Union
101 Weaver Settlement, Liberty, Grant County
102 Greene, Grant County
103 Clay, Howard County*
104 Ervin, Howard County*
105 District 9, Carroll County
106 Honey Creek, Clinton County
107 Roberts Settlement, Jackson, Hamilton County***
108 Adams, Hamilton County
109 Marion, Boone County
110 Walnut, Montgomery County
111 Center, Marion County*
112 Warren, Marion County
113 Franklin, Marion County
114 Sugar Creek, Hancock County**
115 Brandywine, Hancock County
116 Vernon, Hancock County
117 Worth, Hancock County
118 Jackson, Hancock County
119 Ripley, Rush County***
120 Greensboro, Henry County*
121 Harrison, Henry County
122 Dudley, Henry County*
123 Jefferson, Wayne County
124 Blue River, Henry County
125 Stoney Creek, Henry County**
126 Cabin Creek Settlement, Randolph County**
127 Snow Hill, Randolph County
128 Greensfork, Randolph County*
129 Franklin, Wayne County**
130 New Garden, Wayne County
131 Wayne Township, Wayne County*
132 Clay, Wayne County**
133 Connersville, Fayette County*
134 Union, Rush County***
135 Laurel, Franklin County
136 Posey, Franklin County
137 Salt Creek, Franklin County
138 Fugit, Decatur County
139 Columbus, Bartholomew County
140 Washington, Brown County
141 Washington, Morgan County**
142 Washington, Owen County
143 Grayson/Marion, Owen County
144 Lost Creek, Vigo County**
145 Nevins, Vigo County
146 Raccoon, Parke County**
147 District 85, Parke County
148 Otter Creek, Vigo County
149 Harrison, Vigo County
150 Honey Creek, Vigo County
151 Underwood Settlement, Linton, Vigo County**
152 Busseron, Knox County*
153 Washington, Daviess County**
154 District 61, Knox County
155 Patoka, Gibson County*
156 Montgomery, Gibson County*
157 Black, Posey County*
158 Union, Vanderburgh County
159 Knight, Vanderburgh County
160 Patoka, DuBois County
161 Perry, Lawrence County
162 Marion, Lawrence County*
163 Orleans, Orange County
164 Orangeville, Orange County
165 Paoli, Orange County
166 Stampers Creek, Orange County
167 Southeast, Orange County
168 Harrison Township, Harrison County
169 Franklin, Floyd County*
170 New Albany, Floyd County**
171 Jeffersonville, Clark County
172 Charlestown, Clark County
173 Silver Creek, Clark County
174 Lafayette, Floyd County
175 Wood, Clark County
176 Washington, Washington County**
177 Driftwood, Jackson County
178 Jackson, Jackson County
179 Redding, Jackson County
180 Spencer, Jennings County
181 Geneva, Jennings County***
182 Vernon, Jennings County
183 Lancaster, Jefferson County
184 Smyrna, Jefferson County
185 Republican, Jefferson County
186 Hanover, Jefferson County**
187 York, Switzerland County**
Illinois
188 East and West Galena, Jo Daviess County
189 Wheeling, Cook County
190 Maine, Cook County
191 District 32, Iroquois County
192 New Albany, Coles County
193 Grandview and Embarrass, Edgar County**
194 Darwin, Clark County
195 Newton, Jasper County
196 Pinkstaff, Lawrence County*
197 “Not Stated,” Wabash County
198 “Not Stated,” Edwards County
199 Wabash, Gallatin County
200 Shawnee, Gallatin County
201 Cane Creek, Gallatin County
202 Equality, Gallatin County
203 Curran, Saline County*
204 Eagle, Gallatin County
205 Monroe, Saline County
206 “Not Stated,” Hardin County*
207 Miller Grove, in the Shawnee Hills, Pope County
208 “Not Stated,” Pulaski County
209 District 2, Union County**
210 District 2, Johnson County
211 Stonefort, Saline County
212 Township 8/“Not Stated,” Williamson County
213 Township 8, Jackson County
214 T6S R5W, Randolph County
215 T4S R5W, Randolph County
216 T6S R7W, Randolph County
217 T6S R8W, Randolph County
218 Prairie du Rocher, Randolph County
219 Mitchie, Monroe County
220 New Design, Monroe County
221 Turkey Hill, St. Clair County*
222 Lebanon, St. Clair County
223 Ridge Prairie, St. Clair County
224 Centreville, St. Clair County
225 American Bottom, St. Clair County
226 T3N R10W, Madison County
227 T3N R7W, Madison County
228 T4N R7W, Madison County
229 T4N R9W, Madison County*
230 T5N R9W, Madison County
231 Rocky Fork Settlement, Godfrey, Madison County
232 “Not Stated,” Bond County
233 Southwest of District 22, Montgomery County
234 “Not Stated,” Macoupin County*
235 Between Macoupin and Apple Creeks, Greene County
236 Hadley, Pike County**
237 T1S R3W, Brown County
238 Buena Vista, Schuyler County
239 Hickory, Fulton County
240 “Not Stated,” Tazewell County
241 T11 N4E, Knox County*
242 T11 N1E, Knox County
243 “Not Stated,” Hancock County
Wisconsin
244 Peshtigo, Oconto County
245 Shawano, Shawano County
246 Richmond, Shawano County
247 Freedom, Outagamie County
248 Neenah, Winnebago County
249 Rushford, Winnebago County
250 Brothertown, Calumet County*
251 Stockbridge, Calumet County
252 Stantonville, Chilton/Calumet Counties*
253 Charlestown, Calumet County
254 Hubbard, Dodge County**
255 Waukesha, Waukesha County*
256 Caledonia, Racine County**
257 Norway, Racine County*
258 Eagle, Waukesha County
259 Dunkirk, Dane County*
260 Plymouth, Rock County
261 Avon, Rock County
262 Beetown, Grant County
263 Prairie du Chien, Crawford County
264 Willow, Richland County
265 Washington, Sauk County
266 Westfield, Sauk County
267 Fort Winnebago, Columbia County
268 Woodland, Sauk County
269 Forest, Bad Ax County
270 Adrian, Monroe County
271 Newark Valley, Adams County*
272 Plainfield, Waushara County
273 El Paso, Pierce County
274 Trimbelle, Pierce County
Michigan
275 St. Clair Ward 1, St. Clair County
276 Burtchville, St. Clair County
277 North Branch, Lapeer County
278 Lapeer, Lapeer County
279 Burton, Genessee County*
280 Wheatfield, Ingham County
281 Vevay, Ingham County*
282 Unadilla, Livingston County*
283 Hamburg, Livingston County
284 Royal Oak, Oakland County*
285 Springwells, Wayne County
286 Romulus, Wayne County
287 Canton, Wayne County*
288 Superior, Washtenaw County
289 Pittsfield, Washtenaw County**
290 York, Washtenaw County**
291 Manchester, Washtenaw County
292 Woodstock, Lenawee County
293 Somerset, Hillsdale County
294 Rollin, Lenawee County
295 Amboy, Hillsdale County
296 Ovid, Branch County
297 Fawn River, St. Joseph County**
298 Sherman, St. Joseph County
299 Lockport, St. Joseph County
300 Porter, Cass County*
301 Howard, Cass County**
302 Niles, Berrien County*
303 Sodus, Berrien County
304 Pipestone, Berrien County
305 Decatur, Van Buren County
306 Volinia, Cass County
307 Penn, Cass County**
308 Calvin, Cass County**
309 Newberg, Cass County
310 Marcellus, Cass County
311 Porter, Van Buren County**
312 Lafayette, Van Buren County*
313 Lawrence, Van Buren County
314 Arlington, Van Buren County*
315 Waverly, Van Buren County
316 Almena, Van Buren County*
317 Cheshire, Allegan County
318 Pine Grove, Van Buren County
319 Alamo, Kalamazoo County
320 Oshtemo, Kalamazoo County**
321 Kalamazoo, Kalamazoo County
322 Brady, Kalamazoo County
323 Fredonia, Calhoun County*
324 Emmett, Calhoun County
325 Lee, Calhoun County*
326 Barry, Barry County
327 Hope, Barry County
328 Fulton, Gratiot County
329 Fairplain, Montcalm County
330 Otisco, Ionia County
331 Paris, Kent County*
332 Gaines, Kent County*
333 Byron, Kent County
334 Spring Lake, Ottawa County
335 Ravenna, Muskegon County
336 Bridgeton, Newaygo County
337 White River, Muskegon County
338 Ontonagon, Ontonagon County
Author’s Note
At the front of this book is a map of a reality that no one thought existed, of a population that most have considered impossible—a population of successful African American pioneers integrating America’s first free frontier.1
The territory on this map became part of the United States in the revolutionary days of the early republic, and it was truly revolutionary, for this is the Northwest Territory—the largest piece of land in the New World to be set aside as free of slavery and to offer equal voting rights to American men regardless of the color of their skin. Before California or Texas, before Wyoming or Oregon, this territory was known as the Great West, a region of tremendous importance that shaped the nation before the Civil War. The pioneers featured in this book grew their farms and families on the frontier while also keeping alive the dream that had given birth to their new homes and their new nation, a dream of a country where all men are created equal and there could be liberty and justice for all.
The map reveals the activities inspired by this dream, but it is limited in a few ways. It does not represent all African Americans in the Northwest Territory states, only African American farming settlements, so none of the many African American urban entrepreneurs are shown. And even in the rural areas, it excludes all the African American businesspeople who were not property-owning farmers, such as blacksmiths, general store owners, and mill owners.
My definition of a successful landowning African American entrepreneurial farm is based on the following criterion: a man of any skin color owning at least two hundred acres of property would have been eligible to run for office based on the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Having that much acreage would represent considerable economic success: Loren Schweninger points out in Black Property Owners in the South, by the mid-1800s a farmer with property worth between $2,000 and $5,000 was in the top 13 percent of wealthy landowners in the United States at that time, regardless of skin color. Many of these settlements included farmers with such wealth, and some were even wealthier.
What’s more, the number of landowning African American farming settlements on this map is conservative, and so is the value of the farms. African American farming families often did not want themselves or their farms counted on federal documents before the Civil War. This is unsurprising given the anti-immigration laws, the fugitive slave laws, and the unjust taxation policies in these states. The first African American lawyer in Ohio would not allow the federal census to record the value of his large and successful Ohio farm in the 1850s; it is recorded only in local land deeds and tax records.2
Because of settlement patterns, I drew information about Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois farms primarily from the 1850 federal census, while Michigan and Wisconsin data came from the 1860 federal census. Although some of these settlements had disappeared by 1860 and others only existed for a decade, they are still counted, for they had an impact both on the African American farmers themselves and on the white pioneers moving in and around them. Each of these pioneer farming families and each of these settlements testifies to the truth that people of African descent had the ability, courage, and perseverance to rise in America. This is the story of their rising and what happened when they rose.
Introduction
Boston, Massachusetts, 1853
William Lloyd Garrison left Boston in early October 1853 to travel to the Great West. He headed first to Albany, New York, where he would catch a train that would take him hundreds of miles west. By 1853 Garrison was one of the most widely recognized and revolutionary white abolitionists of his day, and he had been publishing his newspaper, the Liberator, in Boston for over twenty years, filling its pages with reports from the region he was now on his way to visit.1
The Great West, the Northwest territories, the frontier. Today these words conjure up images of the Rocky Mountains or the wild ranges of Texas. But the “Great West” was the name commonly given to the first territory created by the new nation of the United States, in 1787. Most of this region would become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin in the first half of the 1800s. Maps from the early nineteenth century show the nation ending at the Mississippi River, as if that waterway were a cliff at the end of the world.
And even as the nation expanded, this image of the Northwest Territory stayed strong in the minds of many Americans.
In 1853, Garrison did not plan on visiting all five of those states, just Ohio and Michigan. He was not getting any younger, and the new train lines now connecting the East Coast to Michigan and Ohio made travel there much easier. But he also had to be careful to visit what he deemed the safest parts of the Old Northwest Territory states. He knew of vicious attacks against abolitionists in some of these regions—he had reported on them in his newspaper for years. Of course, Boston was not exactly safe either. In the 1830s Garrison had nearly been tarred and feathered as well as lynched in his hometown of Boston. And tarring and feathering continued to be a favored means among pro-slavery men of torturing those struggling against the tyrannies of bondage and prejudice, even in the Northwest Territory states.2
Garrison wrote accounts of his journey soon after returning. He wrote of traveling around Michigan and Ohio, speaking to crowds large and small, of being barred from speaking halls in Detroit and almost attacked there. He wrote of his meetings with white and black abolitionists, as well as their enemies. He wrote with good humor of the time a young white man on a train platform in Ohio had warned him that an antislavery meeting was to be held in the area and “the nigger man from Boston was going to be there,” referring to Garrison himself. Garrison wrote, “This was really a very fine compliment, and I was as much gratified as amused by it.”3
But he devoted his first article upon his return, when his memory was freshest, to certain facts about the region that moved him and gave him hope:
Is it not on the American soil that the “Great Debate, the Conflict of the Ages,” is to be settled… as to the equality of the human race—human brotherhood—the value of man as man? Settled, not as an abstract theory, but by a practical recognition of the world-reconciling fact; settled, not with mountains or oceans intervening, but with people of every clime and race standing side by side, grouped together in one common locality, literally neighbors, daily looking each other in the face, and continually interchanging the kindnesses and courtesies of civilized life!4
As Garrison wrote about “people of every clime and race standing side by side” as neighbors, he was not envisioning some grand imagined experiment, some ideal future; he was describing a reality that he knew existed across most of the Great West. He was writing about a population in that region that most historians today do not know existed. But it did.
At the very time when the United States was forming itself, when the young nation was opening its first free frontier, there was a pioneering movement so massive and successful that it changed the legal and social landscape of our country. This movement consisted of free people of African descent.
Long before the Great Migration of the twentieth century, there had been another Great Migration, one that spanned the first half of the nineteenth century. This was a migration, in wagon trains and on foot, of tens of thousands of African American pioneers who became some of the earliest settlers of the Great West. Most of these pioneers had not come to cities; instead, they had flung themselves at the wildest edges of the frontier. Highly visible, assertive, and brave, they scattered themselves across the land in hundreds of farming settlements.
Genre:
- "Tracing the free black families who settled the nation's first frontier, the great Northwest Territory, Anna-Lisa Cox convincingly shows that African American history has always been interwoven with the pioneer experience in America. At the same time, she reveals the blurred, often dangerous lines between freedom and bondage even in the territories that the Founding Fathers established from the beginning to be beyond the reach of America's original sin: slavery. In introducing us to the Grier and Lyle families, among others for whom land was the dream, Cox uncovers a rich history that may surprise even those most devoted to the study of African American history. The Bone and Sinew of the Land is a revelation of primary historical research that is written with the beauty and empathic powers of a novel."—Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University
- "The journey of America's Black pioneers is a story that remains unknown to Americans like the frontiers they settled. Starting in the earliest days of the republic, these brave men and women built new lives far away from the White enslavers who doubted them, threatened them, and attacked them. This groundbreaking work of research is a beautifully written testament to their bold courage, to their trailblazing strength."—Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times bestselling authorof Stamped from the Beginning
- "Through ingenious research and a generous sensibility, Anna-Lisa Cox captures the hidden stories of African American farmers who fought for equality and justice against virulent white supremacy. Her heartfelt, lyrical narrative brings the bones and sinews of black frontier families back to life, showing how their idealistic struggles helped to shape the Midwest, and the nation."—Peter H. Wood, author of Black Majority and Strange New Land
- "The Bone and Sinew of the Land unearths and shines a light on a crucial but untold African American and American history that parallels and complicates the well-known story of the Underground Railroad. Cox convincingly reframes the symbolic importance of American pioneers by proving how free black families and communities were shaping their own destinies in America's first frontier of the nineteenth century. Free black people were creating and framing their own destinies across a wide geography through a deep connection to land ownership and politics. This work will not only influence scholarship. It should also deeply shape public history and public conversations from local historic houses to sites to national institutions."—Paul Gardullo, curator, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History andCulture
- "In this engrossing narrative, historian Cox restores attention to the role of African-Americans in shaping both the frontier and early- to mid-19th-century American political life... Cox's book tells a story worth recovering, and it will interest anyone wanting to learn more about the lives of free black Americans before the Civil War."—Publishers Weekly
- "Recent scholarship on the history of slavery, white supremacy, and domestic terrorism has expanded well beyond the bounds of the South, and Cox has made an excellent contribution with her latest book... A must-read for gaining a deeper understanding of the history of racism in the Midwest, particularly present-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin."—Library Journal
- "Cox provides a moving and necessary corrective to American pioneer history." —Booklist
- "The Bone and Sinew of the Land explores how black settlers, many of them slaves who had bought their freedom, settled in what is now the Midwest and established thriving farm communities that were threatened by violence and injustice."—Columbus Dispatch
- "Today, evidence of the pioneering African-American presence exists only here and there in place names, still-functioning churches and local lore. The Bone and Sinew of the Land takes a step toward remembering it."—BookPage
- "The Bone and Sinew of the Landis a valuable contribution toward understanding the complex history of race in America."—Shepherd Express
- On Sale
- Jun 12, 2018
- Page Count
- 304 pages
- Publisher
- PublicAffairs
- ISBN-13
- 9781610398107
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