In search of the promised land
Subtitle: a Black family and the Old South
By: John Hope Franklin, Loren Schweninger.
Contributors: Schweninger, Loren.
Series: New narratives in American history
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 286
Subjects: Thomas, Sally, 1787-1850; Thomas, Sally, 1787-1850 -- Family; Thomas family; Rapier family; Slaves -- Tennessee -- Nashville -- Biography; African Americans -- Tennessee -- Nashville -- Biography; African American families -- Southern States -- Case studies; Slavery -- Southern States -- Case studies; Nashville (Tenn.) -- Biography; Nashville (Tenn.) -- Race relations
Genres: Biography.; Case studies.
Description: 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. This book offers a portrait of her extended family and of the life of slaves before the Civil War. Based on family letters as well as an autobiography by one of her sons, the detective work follows a singular group 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. This small family experienced the full gamut of slavery, witnessing everything from the breakup of slave families, brutal punishment, and runaways, to miscegenation, insurrection panics, and slave patrols. They also illuminate the hidden lives of "virtually free" slaves, who maintained close relationships with whites, maneuvered within the system, and gained a large measure of autonomy. --From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 281-282) and index.