Emancipation's Diaspora: Race and Reconstruction in the Upper Midwest (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)

Most studies of emancipation's consequences have focused on the South. Moving the discussion to the North, Leslie Schwalm enriches our understanding of the national impact of the transition from slavery to freedom. Emancipation's Diaspora follows the lives and experiences of thousands of men and women who liberated themselves from slavery, made their way to overwhelmingly white communities in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and worked to live in dignity as free women and men and as citizens. Schwalm explores the hotly contested politics of black enfranchisement as well as collisions over segregation, civil rights, and the more informal politics of race—including how slavery and emancipation would be remembered and commemorated. She examines how gender shaped the politics of race, and how gender relations were contested and negotiated within the black community. Based on extensive archival research, Emancipation's Diaspora shows how in churches and schools, in voting booths and Masonic temples, in bustling cities and rural crossroads, black and white Midwesterners—women and men—shaped the local and national consequences of emancipation. Most studies of emancipation's consequences have focused on the South. This book follows the lives and experiences of thousands of men and women who liberated themselves from slavery; made their way to overwhelmingly white communities in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin; and worked to live in dignity as free women and men, and as citizens. It explores the hotly contested politics of black enfranchisement as well as collisions over segregation, civil rights, and the more informal politics of race - including how slavery and emancipation would be remembered and commemorated "A full realization of the barbarities of slavery" "A time of scattering" "Overrun with free Negroes": the politics of wartime emancipation and Migration in the upper Midwest "To go and help be free": migration and the black military experience "The building up of our race": creating a life in freedom "Freedom was all they had:" civil rights and northern reconstruction "Agonizing groans of mothers" and "slave-scarred veterans": history Commemoration, and memoir in the aftermath of slavery. Helps understand the national impact of the transition from slavery to freedom. This book features the lives and experiences of thousands of men and women who liberated themselves from slavery, made their way to overwhelmingly white communities in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and worked to live in dignity as free women and men and as citizens. Helping readers understand the national impact of the transition from slavery to freedom, this book features the lives and experiences of thousands of men and women who liberated themselves from slavery and worked to live in dignity as free women and men and as citizens