Northern slave, black Dakota
Subtitle: the life and times of Joseph Godfrey
By: Walt Bachman
Edition: First Edition.
Publisher: Pond Dakota Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: Bloomington, Minnesota
Language: eng
Number of pages: 412
ISBN-13: 9780985009908
Subjects: Dakota Indians; Biography; African Americans; Fugitive slaves; Relations with Indians; Wars, 1862-1865; History; Race relations
Other titles: Life and times of Joseph Godfrey
Description: "Separated from his mother when their master sold her, Joseph Godfrey grew up in bondage serving Minnesota's fur-trade elite. Escaping his masters' beatings, Godfrey sought refuge among the Dakota Indians who had befriended him as a child slave. Conscripted to join Dakota warriors in the U.S. Dakota War of 1862, Godfrey became the first of hundreds of men tried by a military court when the six-week war ended. Commander Henry Sibley, who created the court, was one of Godfrey's former masters. Sibley approved the death sentences of Godfrey and 302 Dakota soldiers. In this riveting biography, historian and retired trial lawyer Walt Bachman untangles the thorny questions that tangle Godfrey's story: How was he enslaved in free territory? Did his testimony send 38 Dakota men, including his father-in-law, to the gallows? Bachman argues that the 1862 Dakota War trials that ended with the largest mass execution in U.S. history, were both more just, and more unfair, than we've ever guessed."--Amazon.com.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 363-375) and index.