Frontiers of Freedom: Cincinnati’s Black Community 1802–1868

by Nikki M. Taylor

Nineteenth-century Cincinnati was northern in its geography, southern in its economy and politics, and western in its commercial aspirations. While those identities presented a crossroad of opportunity for native whites and immigrants, African Americans endured economic repression and a denial of civil rights, compounded by extreme and frequent mob violence. No other northern city rivaled Cincinnati’s vicious mob spirit. Frontiers of Freedom follows the black community as it moved from alienation and vulnerability in the 1820s toward collective consciousness and, eventually, political self-respect and self-determination. As author Nikki M. Taylor points out, this was a community that at times supported all-black communities, armed self-defense, and separate, but independent, black schools. Black Cincinnati’s strategies to gain equality and citizenship were as dynamic as they were effective. When the black community united in armed defense of its homes and property during an 1841 mob attack, it demonstrated that it was no longer willing to be exiled from the city as it had been in 1829. Frontiers of Freedom chronicles alternating moments of triumph and tribulation, of pride and pain; but more than anything, it chronicles the resilience of the black community in a particularly difficult urban context at a defining moment in American history.

Genres: History, Grad School

328 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2005

About the author

Nikki Marie Taylor is an American historian. She is professor of history at Howard University and author of four books on nineteenth-century African-American history.

Reviews

[The Nutmeg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so appreciate this book. So very, very much. It's a little dry in the reading, yes, but that's not Taylor's fault, it's the nature of the subject: she's combed through /so/ many sources of the driest, most unappealing variety (census records and old newspapers and legal documents) and managed to wrangle it into something readable and understandable. As far as I can tell, no one's told this story before.

I mean, Levi Coffin talked about the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati, but he only really focused on white abolitionists, and...there was so much more to it than that. (Sorry, Coffin, I know you did a ton of good work. But you annoy me and I'm really vindictively happy that Taylor wrote this and set the record straight.) (Speaking of Levi Coffin, JOHN FAIRFIELD gets his due in a well-written paragraph and that makes me happy. I'm still so, so mad there isn't more information extant on John Fairfield.)

And the chapter "The Shadow People," which ends the book, was...so fascinating.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely good!