In Search of the Promised Land A Slave Family in the Old South

by Franklin, John Hope; Schweninger, Loren

• ISBN13: 9780195160888
• ISBN10: 0195160886
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-02-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The matriarch of a remarkable African American family, Sally Thomas went from being a slave on a tobacco plantation to a "virtually free" slave who ran her own business and purchased one of her sons out of bondage. In Search of the Promised Land offers a vivid portrait of the extendedThomas-Rapier family and of slave life before the Civil War. Based on personal letters and an autobiography by one of Thomas' sons, this remarkable piece of detective work follows the family as they walk the boundary between slave and free, traveling across the country in search of a "promised land" where African Americans would be treated with respect.Their record of these journeys provides a vibrant picture of antebellum America, ranging from New Orleans to St. Louis to the Overland Trail. The authors weave a compelling narrative that illuminates the larger themes of slavery and freedom while examining the family's experiences with theCalifornia Gold Rush, Civil War battles, and steamboat adventures. The documents show how the Thomas-Rapier kin bore witness to the full gamut of slavery--from brutal punishment, runaways, and the breakup of slave families to miscegenation, insurrection panics, and slave patrols. The book alsoexposes the hidden lives of "virtually free" slaves, who maintained close relationships with whites, maneuvered within the system, and gained a large measure of autonomy.

Author Biography

John Hope Franklin is James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus at Duke University Loren Schweninger is Elizabeth Rosenthal Excellence Professor and Director of the Race and Slavery Petitions Project at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Table of Contents

Illustrations	p. vii
Foreword	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
The Descendants of Sally Thomas	p. xvi
Prologue	p. 1
Sally Thomas: A Life in Bondage	p. 11
Virtual Freedom	p. 14
Sally's Children	p. 16
Sally's Son James	p. 23
Sally's Grandchildren: The Rapier Boys	p. 34
From Slavery to Freedom	p. 46
The Domestic Slave Trade	p. 48
James Thomas: The Boyhood Years	p. 54
Barbershop	p. 63
Travels in the North and West	p. 75
Nashville's Black Community	p. 86
The Changing Attitudes of Whites	p. 92
A Fugitive Slave in the North	p. 95
The California Gold Rush	p. 99
The Epidemic's Shadow	p. 108
In Search of Canaan	p. 117
Bound for Nicaragua	p. 119
The Dilemma of John Rapier Sr.	p. 126
The Minnesota Territory	p. 135
Canada West and James Thomas Rapier	p. 142
The Midwest, Haiti, and Jamaica	p. 163
Into "Bleeding Kansas"	p. 167
Steamboating on the Mississippi	p. 169
John Rapier Jr. in the Caribbean	p. 180
This Mighty Scourge of War	p. 193
James Thomas in St. Louis	p. 194
John Rapier Jr.'s Continuing Odyssey	p. 203
The War's End	p. 219
Epilogue	p. 229
Afterword: Through the Prism of a Black Family	p. 249
About the Sources	p. 262
Petitions of Ephraim Foster and James Thomas to the Davidson County Court, 1851	p. 268
John Rapier Sr. to Richard Rapier, April 8, 1845	p. 273
John Rapier Jr. to James Thomas, July 28, 1861	p. 276
Selected Bibliography on Slavery	p. 281
Index	p. 283
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