SWEET FREEDOM's PLAINS: African Americans on the Overland Trails
SWEET FREEDOM’S PLAINS: African Americans on the Overland Trails 1841-1869 By Shirley Ann Wilson Moore, PhD. For the National Park Service National Trails Intermountain Region Salt Lake City & Santa Fe January 31, 2012 ii The Flying Slave The night is dark, and keen the air, And the Slave is flying to be free; His parting word is one short prayer; O God, but give me Liberty! Farewell – farewell! Behind I leave the whips and chains, Before me spreads sweet Freedom’s plains --William Wells Brown The Anti-Slavery Harp: A Collection of Songs For Anti-Slavery Meetings, 1848 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures and Maps iv Preface vii Acknowledgments xvi Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Race, Slavery, and Freedom 4 Chapter 2: The Jumping-Off Places 40 Chapter 3: The Providential Corridor 66 Chapter 4: Sweet Freedom’s Plains 128 Chapter 5: Place of Promise 176 Appendix: Figures and Maps 215 Bibliography 267 iv LIST OF FIGURES AND MAPS Photographs and Illustrations York in the Camp of the Mandans 216 Victory Hymn for Archy Lee 217 Dred Scott and Harriet Scott 218 Westport, Missouri, ca. 1858 220 Independence, Missouri, 1853 221 Emily Fisher, Her Final Resting Place 222 Possibly a Hiram Young Wagon, Independence, Missouri, ca. 1850 223 Hiram and Matilda Young’s Final Resting Place 224 James P. Beckwourth 232 Moses “Black” Harris, ca. 1837 233 Elizabeth “Lizzy” Flake Rowan, ca 1885 234 Green Flake 235 Edward Lee Baker, Jr. 236 Rose Jackson 237 Grafton Tyler Brown 238 Guide Book of the Pacific, 1866 239 Fort Churchill, Nevada Territory 240 Black Miner, Spanish Flat, California, 1852 241 Black Miner, Auburn Ravine, California, 1852 242 George W.
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