A Stronger Kinship One Town's Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith

by Cox, Anna-Lisa

• ISBN13: 9780316110181
• ISBN10: 0316110183
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-02-06
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Summary

"Now, in an astounding historical-detective feat, Anna-Lisa Cox uncovers the saga of a place that took the road untaken. Starting in the 1860s, and for decades later, the people of Covert, Michigan, attempted to do what then seemed impossible: love one's neighbor - regardless of skin color - as oneself. Drawing upon private diaries, overlooked documents, oral histories, and contemporary records, Cox gives us intimate glimpses of the people who lived there, from William Conner, the Civil War veteran who went on to become Michigan's first black justice of the peace, to Elizabeth Gillard, who survived a shipwreck that left her and her family washed onto Covert's shores, only to find she loved the unusual community she came to call home."--BOOK JACKET.

Author Biography

Anna-Lisa Cox is the author of A Stronger Kinship: One Town's Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith, and an award-winning historian. Currently a fellow at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, she also recently helped create two historical exhibits based on her original research at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, including one on black pioneers. She lives in Michigan.

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters	ix
Deerfield map	xiii
Colored population map	xiv
Introduction	3	(6)
1: The Bleeding Heartland	9	(36)
2: The Journey: 1860-1866	45	(21)
3: Rights: 1866-1869	66	(28)
4: Citizenship: 1870-1875	94	(22)
5: Equality: 1875-1880	116	(19)
6: Independence: 1880-1884	135	(18)
7: Friendship: 1885-1889	153	(20)
8: Justice: 1890-1896	173	(28)
Epilogue	201	(12)
Acknowledgments	213	(6)
Appendix	219	(8)
Notes	227	(28)
Bibliography	255	(8)
Index	263