Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black

Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War

WINNER OF THE BANCROFT PRIZEA New York Times Book Review and Atlantic Monthly Editors' ChoiceThomas Jefferson denied that whites and freed blacks could live together in harmony. His cousin, Richard Randolph, not only disagreed, but made it possible for ninety African Americans to prove Jefferson wrong. Israel on the Appomattox tells the story of these liberated blacks and the community they formed, called Israel Hill, in Prince Edward County, Virginia. There, ex-slaves established farms, navigated the Appomattox River, and became entrepreneurs. Free blacks and whites did business with one another, sued each other, worked side by side for equal wages, joined forces to found a Baptist congregation, moved west together, and occasionally settled down as man and wife. Slavery cast its grim shadow, even over the lives of the free, yet on Israel Hill we discover a moving story of hardship and hope that defies our expectations of the Old South.

Country	USA
Brand	Random House Books for Young Readers
Manufacturer	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Binding	Paperback
PartNumber	0679768726_used
Color	Tan
IsAdultProduct
Height	7.95274
Length	5.07873
Weight	1.13758527192
Width	1.5748
ReleaseDate	2005-08-16
NumberOfItems	1

Israel on the Appomattox: A Southern Experiment in Black Freedom from the 1790s Through the Civil War