| Freedom Colonies: Independent Black Texans in the Time of Jim Crow Contributor(s): Sitton, Thad (Author), Conrad, James H. (Author), Orton, Richard (Photographer) |
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ISBN: 0292706421 ISBN-13: 9780292706422 Publisher: University of Texas Press OUR PRICE: $23.75 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2005 Annotation: This study is a thoughtful and important addition to an understanding of rural Texas and the nature of black settlements. -- Journal of Southern History "Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad have made an important contribution to African American and southern history with their study of communities fashioned by freedmen in the years after emancipation." -- Journal of American History "This book is the first of its kind....Blacks emerge as thinkers and actors on the stage; that is, they were not merely passive victims; rather, they made their own history by building their own communities and by becoming free farmers." -- James Smallwood, Professor Emeritus of History, Oklahoma State University In the decades following the Civil War, nearly a quarter of African Americans achieved a remarkable victory-- they got their own land. While other ex-slaves and many poor whites became trapped in the exploitative sharecropping system, these independence-seeking individuals settled on pockets of unclaimed land that had been deemed too poor for farming and turned them into successful family farms. In these self-sufficient rural communities, often known as "freedom colonies," African Americans created a refuge from the discrimination and violence that routinely limited the opportunities of blacks in the Jim Crow South. Freedom Colonies is the first book to tell the story of these independent African American settlements. Thad Sitton and James Conrad focus on communities in Texas, where blacks achieved a higher percentage of land ownership than in any other state of the Deep South. The authors draw on a vast reservoir of ex-slave narratives, oral histories, written memoirs, and publicrecords to describe how the freedom colonies formed and to recreate the lifeways of African Americans who made their living by farming or in skilled trades such as milling and blacksmithing. They also uncover the forces that led to the decline of the communities from the 1930s onward, including economic hard times and the greed of whites who found legal and illegal means of taking black-owned land. And they visit some of the remaining communities to discover how their independent way of life endures into the twenty-first century. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - History | United States - State & Local - General |
| Dewey: 333.335 |
| LCCN: 2004009477 |
| Series: Jack and Doris Smothers Series in Texas History, Life, and Culture (Paperback) |
| Physical Information: 0.63" H x 6" W x 8.92" (0.90 lbs) 256 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In the decades following the Civil War, nearly a quarter of African Americans achieved a remarkable victory--they got their own land. While other ex-slaves and many poor whites became trapped in the exploitative sharecropping system, these independence-seeking individuals settled on pockets of unclaimed land that had been deemed too poor for farming and turned them into successful family farms. In these self-sufficient rural communities, often known as "freedom colonies," African Americans created a refuge from the discrimination and violence that routinely limited the opportunities of blacks in the Jim Crow South. Freedom Colonies is the first book to tell the story of these independent African American settlements. Thad Sitton and James Conrad focus on communities in Texas, where blacks achieved a higher percentage of land ownership than in any other state of the Deep South. The authors draw on a vast reservoir of ex-slave narratives, oral histories, written memoirs, and public records to describe how the freedom colonies formed and to recreate the lifeways of African Americans who made their living by farming or in skilled trades such as milling and blacksmithing. They also uncover the forces that led to the decline of the communities from the 1930s onward, including economic hard times and the greed of whites who found legal and illegal means of taking black-owned land. And they visit some of the remaining communities to discover how their independent way of life endures into the twenty-first century. |
Contributor Bio(s): Sitton, Thad: - Thad Sitton is a historian of anthropological background and training, specializing in studies of rural Texas during the first half of the twentieth century. Three of Sitton’s books won the coveted T. R. Fehrenbach Award of the Texas Historical Commission, and his history of freedmen’s settlements received a major prize from the Texas Institute of Letters. In 2001, he received the Thomas L. Charlton Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Oral History Association.Conrad, James H.: - Until his retirement, James H. Conrad worked as an oral historian, librarian, and archivist at Texas A&M University–Commerce. In 2002, he received the Thomas L. Charlton Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Oral History Association. |