“Tracing the free black families who settled the nation’s first frontier, the great Northwest Territory, Anna-Lisa Cox convincingly shows that African American history has always been interwoven with the pioneer experience in America. At the same time, she reveals the blurred, often dangerous lines between freedom and bondage even in the territories that the Founding Fathers established from the beginning to be beyond the reach of America’s original sin: slavery…. The Bone and Sinew of the Land is a revelation of primary historical research that is written with the beauty and empathic powers of a novel.” —Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
THE LONG-HIDDEN STORIES OF AMERICA'S
BLACK PIONEEERS. THE FRONTIER
THEY SETTLED, AND THEIR FIGHT FOR
THE HEART OF THE NATION
When black settlers Keziah and Charles Grier
started clearing their frontier land in 1818, they couldn't know
that they were part of the nation's earliest struggle for equal-
ity; they were just looking to build a better life. But within a
few years, the Griers would become early Underground Railroad
conductors, joining with fellow pioneers and other allies to
confront the growing tyranny of bondage and injustice.
The Bond and Sinew of the Land tells the Grier's story and
the stories of many others like them: the last history of the
nation's first Great Migration. In building hundreds of settle-
ments on the frontier, these black pioneers were making a
stand for equality and freedom. Their new home, the Northwest
Territory - the wild region that would become present-day Ohio,
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin - was the first territory
to ban slavery and have equal voting rights for all men. Though
forgotten today, in their own time the successes of these pio-
neers made them the targets of racist backlash. Political and
even armed battles soon ensued, tearing apart families and
communities long before the Civil War.
This groundbreaking work of research reveals America's
forgotten frontier, where these settlers were inspired by the
belief that all men are created equal and a brighter future
was possible.
I love reading books and I love learning about history. This book by Anna-Lisa Cox, "The Bone and Sinew of The Land: America's Forgotten Black Pioneers & the Struggle for Equality," uncovers facts never before collected about African-American landowners prospering in an American territory which banned slavery after the American Revolution via the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The ordinance not only promised that this region would be free of slavery but offered equal voting rights to any man who owned at least fifty acres of land.
The history revealed in this book is hard to digest because of the prejudice, hatred, and violence targeted at proud, hardworking people trying to live the American Dream. If not for the color of their skin, their dream might not have turned into a nightmare. If not for an influx of racist, white, southern slave state migrants, Black Code laws might never have been instituted. These codes were written to strip blacks of citizenship rights and restrict future migration of blacks to the territory, overriding the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. It all happened before the American Civil War, and it would not be the last time the American Government failed to protect person and property of African-American citizens from what I consider genocidal ethnic cleansing attacks.
Where there were thought to be approximately 30 black settlements in the Northwest Territory, Anna-Lisa Cox's research uncovers 338, with potential for adding to this number with more research. Part of her reason for writing this book is to get other historical researchers onboard. As she states over and over in her notes to chapters; "Further research is needed."
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