The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America's Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality

by Anna-Lisa Cox

The story of America's forgotten black pioneers, who escaped slavery, settled the frontier, and proved that racial equality was possible even as the country headed toward civil war.

The American frontier is one of our most cherished and enduring national images. We think of the early settlers who tamed the wilderness and built the bones of our great country as courageous, independent--and white.

In this groundbreaking work of deep historical research, Anna-Lisa Cox shows that this history simply isn't accurate. In fact, she has found a stunning number of black settlements on the frontier--in the thousands. Though forgotten today, these homesteads were a matter of national importance at the time; their mere existence challenged rationalizations for slavery and pushed the question toward a crisis--one that was not resolved until the eruption of the Civil War.

Blending meticulous detail with lively storytelling, Cox brings historical recognition to the brave people who managed not just to secure their freedom but begin a battle that is still going on today--a battle for equality.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Race, African American, 19th Century, Historical

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 12, 2018

Reviews

[Debra - can't post any comments on site today grrr · Rating 4 out of 5]

"They not only wanted to abolish slavery, they wanted a better nation, a nation free of prejudice, a nation where all were equal. And so, they started with themselves and their school, hoping that they could lead their nation by example, showing the way forward on the frontier."

This book is meaty. There is a lot of information packed into the pages. That makes this book heavy. So be warned. I am not warning anyone off from the book – just prepare yourself to learn a lot. There is so much presented in this book that was not taught in school. Although, I am not surprised by any of the violence, nevertheless, some of the subject matter is shocking. Hatred is such an ugly thing. Ignorance is Ugly. Prejudice is ugly. It’s all here. But what is also here is courage, strength, determination and hope.

Again, there is so much that we are not taught in school, and I get that. There is only so much time which is why books such as this one are important, so we can educate ourselves. I will be honest, I knew nothing about freed slaves and/or escaped slaves being pioneers of the west. I knew they went north - it never occurred to me that they went west. I certainly learned a lot from this book-there is so information to take in - but in a good way.

“They used their position as free homesteading pioneers across this portion of the nation to assert their rights and push for change. As their numbers, their farms, and their communities grew, they refused to lie low, forcing an unavoidable conversation about equality, citizenship, and freedom.”

There are a lot of personal stories told in this book. I hoped that these sections would have been longer. The stories are used to show the day to day struggles and opposition that never let up for those searching for a better life. Black Pioneers shocked those who tried to keep them down by building successful communities, churches, schools and businesses.

“We inform our opposers that we are coming – coming for our rights-coming through the constitution of our common country-coming through the law- and relying upon God and the justice of our cause, pledge ourselves never to cease our resistance to tyranny, whether it be in the iron manacles of the slave, or in the unjust written manacles for the free.”

This is a history book with a lot of information. The Author did a tremendous amount of research and it showed. American History buffs this is the book for you! This book is well written, informative, moving, and educational.

Thank you to Perseus Books, PublicAffairs and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

See my reviews at www.openbookpost.com

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Still they planted; still they built churches, founded schools, married. Still they walked the long miles forward through their fields behind the plow. Still they hoped, even as the plight of prejudice and injustice infected the land and threaten to spoil everything they had grown." The author of this book is an historian focusing on the history of African Americans in the Midwest, but the scope of this book is much broader than that. She obviously did a great deal of research and the book covers the progress (and regression) of laws throughout the country governing the right to vote, own property, attend schools and basically enjoy the rights that white citizens have always taken as their own. These were accounts that I had not read before.

Sometimes the writing style annoyed me. I thought that too much was embellished or imagined. The author frequently used phrases like "he would have known", "they must have heard" or "must have anxiously awaited the news". And she assumed events: "Charles must have been gaunt when he courted Keziah, his clothes cinched tight and bunching around his waist, his bones sharp against her hands when they embraced." "As she stood there, Keziah would have heard her own breath in the stillness, watching that bright star that always hung low in the east..."

There was as odd mixture of history and snarky opinion. In a discussion of the American Colonization Society (ACS), a group supporting the removal of all people of African descent from the US, she wrote: "Of course, many of the men who started the ACS were also extreme pro-integrationists. They thought it a lovely thing to have their babies nursed at a black breast, to eat food grown and cooked by dark-skinned people, have African-descended women in their beds ... as they raped them. Of course, those people all had to be enslaved to be worthy of such integration." In a discussion of entrepreneurs: "Free Frank was brilliant at real estate transactions, and as he sold the land in New Philadelphia, often to whites, he bought another member of his family, bringing a whole new meaning to the term 'property flipping'."

The book contains an incredible amount of information, but I never did figure out how the book was organized. Each chapter starts with a quote but the chapters tend to veer off topic. However, there were chapters primarily devoted to education, slave hunters, the right to vote and violent attacks. There are no photographs in the book, which is a little disappointing. I would have liked to have seen some of these people who managed to prevail, despite the fact that so many others were trying to prevent them from succeeding.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Lissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I first picked up this book, I thought that it was about African American pioneers in what is now the Great Plains. Since I live in the Great Plains now, I checked out the book from my library with some excitement - but I was even MORE excited when I got home and realized that it was actually about African American pioneers in the Northwest Territory (now Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin [along with a piece of Minnesota]). I'm originally from the state of Ohio, and I love reading about my home state's history, and this book promised to illuminate a part of history that, honestly, I don't know much about (black pioneers in the Northwest Territory, to be specific).

The material itself is amazing. I, for one, was not taught about most of this in school, and I've been a little neglectful about this time period in my own reading. Basically, in fourth grade we had one history class dedicated only to Ohio history. Looking back, it was "white Ohio history." There was practically no mention of African-Americans at all in Ohio, except that slavery was forbidden once the Northwest Territory was set aside and that southern Ohio (where I'm from) was an important stop on the Underground Railroad (even this information was couched in terms of what white people did, and not the contributions that African Americans made - and don't even get me started on what we were taught about Native Americans in that class; basically it was made to appear as if Ohio was just this vast empty place where no one was living at all until white settlers came along, which I know as an adult is far from true).

The actual story is much more complex, and the book partially dives into this. It's true, for example, that slavery was outlawed in the Northwest Territory - but what I didn't know was that people found ways to get around that. Slaves were reclassified as "indentured servants" with terms of 90+ years - a life sentence, in other words. And some states (the author seems to focus particularly on Illinois) just didn't care and openly allowed slavery in spite of the laws. Apparently, southern Ohio was still a racist hellhole then, much like it is today (and I feel like I can say that with authority after living there for thirty years).

Also, unbeknownst to me until now, there was a big shift in how African Americans, particularly free ones, were viewed by white people. After the Revolution, when thoughts about liberty and equality were running high, apparently a lot more people had abolitionist leanings (latent or open). But as the 1800s progressed, the tide began to turn, and even people and states that had been pretty pro-abolitionist began to turn into colonizationalists (African Americans should be freed from slavery but sent to Liberia or "somewhere else" that wasn't the United States) or even pro-slavery (some people argued, IN the "free" Northwest Territories, that slavery was a GOOD thing for everyone, including slaves - whaaaaaat). And the horrors of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 (where pretty much any person of color could be stolen and sold as a slave, even if they had been born free) and the Dred Scott decision (African Americans weren't considered as citizens of the United States and therefore had no rights) was brought to life in chilling detail.

This was mostly news to me. I suppose it shouldn't have been, except, like I said, the only "Ohio history" I had been exposed to was the incredibly white-centric stuff I'd been taught in school, my college reading (which mostly focused on pre-1787 Ohio and the Native Americans that had lived in what would become Ohio), and my family stories. I'm descended from a long line of socially-forward Quakers on my maternal grandfather's side, staunch abolitionists who were heavily involved in the Underground Railroad (and that is how my great-great-great grandfather met my great-great-great grandmother, actually - she was an escaped slave who got sick on the way to Canada and had to be sheltered by my g-g-g grandfather's parents for a few months until she got well, and by that time they had fallen in love).

There were hints, of course, that not everything in Ohio's history was rosy for African Americans. There are stories of my hometown's founder, John McIntire, owning slaves (true or not, I can't sa, although he was originally from Virginia so it seems plausible). And then there was the incident in the 1850s when a group of people from Zanesville (pro-slavery and still pretty damned racist to this day) tried to tar and feather a prominent abolitionist who was staying in Putnam (now swallowed up by Zanesville, but a hotbed at the time for abolitionists). But until I read this book, I had NO IDEA how deficient my knowledge was about this time in history. I hope to remedy that lack soon (does anyone have good recommendations about the African American experience in the north pre-Civil War?).

But while the material was amazing, the writing was not, and that's what brought down my review to three stars. The writing style came across as very disorganized, and I wasn't sure if the author was trying to make it more "accessible" to non-academics or what, but I found it completely distracting. There was a lot of rambling and disjointed parts smashed together in an attempt to make a whole, and it fell short.

And then there were the attempts at jokes. The author refers to satire as "funny" a few different times (p. 26). I'd call satire a lot of things - ironic, sarcastic, blistering - but not "funny." And the works she referred to were definitely not meant to be "funny" in the conventional sense, but to draw attention to the absurdity of the arguments that people used to defend slavery.

But that pales in comparison to the completely insensitive "joke" she made on page 73. After talking about the horrors of having to not only buy your own freedom, but to attempt to save up enough money to buy your family members' freedom as well, the author could have transitioned into a brief discussion about the morality of having to "own" your relatives until you were able to raise the money to pay the bond that would at last set them free (most Northwest Territory states required free African Americans to pay a "bond" to register as free - until they could afford to do so, they were "owned" by the relatives who had bought their "freedom" but could still not afford the bond). Instead, the author makes a crass joke about how selling plots of land to buy enslaved relatives brought "a whole new meaning to the term 'property flipping.'" Umm, really? Not funny. Not satire. Just rude.

In the hands of a more competent writer, this book would have been AMAZING. As it is, I'm left looking for something that has more meat to it that deals with the same era in time. Suggestions welcomed.

[Jifu · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Note: I received an advanced electronic copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)

This historical work was definitely eye-opening, and not just because until now I knew nothing about the incredible struggles of the numerous black pioneers that built lives in the old northwest territories of the United States. In detailing the challenges that these men and women faced, Cox extensively covers the rampant prejudice amongst much of the white populace in the lands above the Mason-Dixon Line that spawned most of said challenges. While the lion’s share of this focus goes to the states that now form the modern-day Midwest, Cox also writes of similar racist violence and prejudiced laws in other northern states. This in turn lead to some of the most shocking moments for me when I read about several ugly events that occurred in my home state of Connecticut that I was completely ignorant about.

This a excellent book for anyone looking to broaden their knowledge of American history. I guarantee that it will fill in no less than severals knowledge gaps that you most assuredly have.

[Rhea Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book because it is about the stories I grew up with about my family history, and because of the exhibit on Lyles Station, IN in the NMAAHC in Washington, DC. I am so moved to have my family history validated by research historians, and the context of free African-American farmers who lived before the Civil War made available. As a person who knew these stories before reading this book, it is with honor and respect I share the author recounted the stories exactly as I heard them, beginning in my childhood. Some phrases were verbatim, which is an eerie feeling. Finally, she gives respect to the tradition of oral history, and how abusing a family's oral history traditions in the name of research can bring unnecessary harm to the living descendants. I hope these personal reactions give readers unfamiliar with these communities a special insight into what are marvelously exciting stories for anyone interested in Early American history from the Old Northwest Territory.

[Stacie C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know if I have ever even stopped to think of the existence of Black pioneers. The image of a pioneer that automatically comes to mind are the images that I’ve been shown: white men and women, with their children in tow making their way across the land like in the old (and epically amazing) game “Oregon Trail.” That’s the history I’ve always been shown in school. It wasn’t until I was much older that I learned of the atrocities committed against Native Americans on that march West. And it isn’t until now that I’m learning about the existence of the courageous Black men and women who settled in the Northwest Territory, cultivated the land and became successful farmers.

Hundreds of Free Black men and women chose to settle in the Northwest Territory. They owned hundreds of acres of land and for a while, the men even had the right to vote. They started families, braved the winters, started schools and churches all in the 1800s before the Civil War had ever been fought. They were always on guard, aware that some of the people moving in around them were weary of living near Black people. At times it was really rough, with those who were pro-slavery and anti-abolitionists moving in to different territories hoping to turn them into slave states. But those Free Black families like the Lyles, the Griers, the Hawkins, the Elliots and the Clemens fought for themselves and for the right for other Free Black people to settle into the different territories.

The Bone and Sinew of the Land tells the stories of some of the families that lived in the Northwest Territory in the 1800s. Cox defines what a successful landowning Black family was very early on in the book and then details the different situations that occurred. Now the narrative in the beginning of the book is like telling a story and that caught me off guard at first. Cox uses language like “may have,” “probably felt,” “could have,” while conveying the emotions of the settlers. I was expecting a straight forward, informational text, so I had to adjust to these parts of the narrative that intertwined with the more factual information. This book has a plethora of information regarding the lives of successful Black landowners. Cox details many of the different experiences and gives historical context throughout. Cox doesn’t shy away from the impact on Native Americans and acknowledges that they were the original settlers of the land and how they were impacted by the movements of everyone west. But the focus is on the Black pioneers and what they endured.

Overall this is a book that I highly recommend. I’m frustrated after reading it because it sheds a light on a part of history that should be more widely discussed but it interrupts the prevalent narrative that Black people are lazy and don’t want to work hard to make a living. These were prime examples of Free Black men and women, some born free, others escaped or bought their freedom, and they were working extremely hard to make a life for themselves. But racism, jealousy and greed constantly threatened their lives and livelihoods. This book details so many instances of these things happening. What we have historically is an erasure of that history. This book will help bring context and honesty to a hidden history. I give this 4 out of 5 stars.

Thanks Netgalley for this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tells the true story of free African-American farmers’ struggles in early to mid-1800s.

The Northwest Territories of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin were initially free states where slavery was outlawed. As the area’s population grew, slavery was replaced by a lifetime of indentured servitude for many. Told through the eyes of one such free family, the book describes their struggles with the virgin farmland, neighbors, changing politics and harsh weather.

This well-researched tale is highly recommended for those interested in both African-American and midwestern history. 4 stars!

Thanks to Public Affairs and NetGalley for an advanced copy.

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I heard this author speak at a conference on midwestern history in May. She was highly articulate and passionate about her topic. Her enthusiasm was infectious, and the substance of her talk was surprising. I knew that there were rural settlements of free African Americans in the Midwest before the Civil War, but I thought that they were few and isolated, maybe 2 or 3 per state. Instead, she has documented more than 300 of them. So, naturally, I was looking forward to reading her book. And, unlike the book by Kristin Hoganson, whom I heard speak at the same conference, this one certainly does not disappoint. It is the rarest of books: Written in astonishingly clear, engaging prose apparently for a wide, general audience, it also bears surprising new insights for professional historians. Treating what on the surface seems to be a pretty narrow topic, it engagingly addresses the biggest of ideas: the pursuit of freedom and equality. Yet it is not abstract, but imaginatively (yes, that’s the right word, even in this book by a historian, though some might fret that too many sentences include words like “probably,” “may have been,” “could well have,” etc.) recreates the lives of individual people, and she sets essential context that will be familiar to historians in lively, accessible prose in a way that even professional historians may find illuminating. Some readers (especially academics) may find the prose too precious and/or be put off by all the speculation, but I found it refreshing. The Northwest Territory, and the states that emerged from it, are often seen as relatively enlightened in their racial politics, but this book vividly shows just how precarious life was for African Americans--even, or maybe especially for financially successful ones--who settled in the region before the Civil War as their lives were threatened by unjust laws and, when that was not enough, by the threat and even the reality of violence.

[Holli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book filled with answers to questions that, in retrospect, I should have been asking. What happened to freed slaves like those of George Washington? Why did the states that grew out of the Northwest Territory later reinstate slavery? Why was the colonization movement (which President Lincoln once supported) so popular in certain states?
This book tells the story of the hard-working Black pioneers of the Northwest Territory that slowly saw their freedoms stripped away as newcomers moved in. It highlights the wealth they obtained through hard work on the land and how that made them objects of fear and jealousy. It shows how integrated communities and congregations became segregated in the lead up to the Civil War. I had not realized how many freedoms were gained and then lost between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. It was appalling and heartbreaking.
I also was reminded that racism was not the strict North/South divide that we draw on maps when we talk about the civil war. The midwest tends to avoid the condemnation of history when we talk about slavery but it really shouldn't. Those communities had to actively choose to reinstate/vote for slavery and they did it at the expense of their neighbors.
While I loved all the history, stories, and families in this book I did feel at times the research was a bit thin. I don't fault the author for this but rather the lack of primary sources readily available. There was a lot of suppositions about what the people might have felt or thought. It was always couched in language that made it clear the author was just guessing at the emotions but I still wished we had journals or letters to more accurately portray how these pioneers felt about their circumstances.
Since this was an audiobook listen I don't know if there were footnotes to source the information.

[༺Kiki༻ · Rating 3 out of 5]

You might also enjoy:

✱ Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad
✱ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
✱ My Bondage and My Freedom
✱ Twelve Years a Slave
✱ Narrative of Sojourner Truth
✱ The Great Escapes: Four Slave Narratives
✱ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
✱ Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"

[Camille McCarthy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was written so badly I couldn't get more than 60 pages in, even though it was a relatively short book (200 pages) and had an interesting subject (Black Pioneers in the Northwest Territory). The author kept switching back and forth between narrating the life of a specific Black couple and their journey and introducing a wide range of historical figures, going back and forth in time, and skipping around so much I couldn't keep track of what she was talking about. The writing style was confusing, because it almost seemed geared toward children because of its oversimplification - she keeps talking about how everyone was fighting for ideals of "freedom," without really saying what that meant to them. I am sure there are better books on this topic out there; don't waste your time on this one. I'm sure she meant well but it just wasn't well-organized or well-written.

[Minosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book excavates some really important history. The writing is kind of iffy though (very hypothetical, almost historical fiction in places) and the mostly uncritical use of "pioneer" languages is less than ideal (though maybe I'm just too used to reading academic books). Basically: fascinating content, wish it had been written differently, with more analysis.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good glimpse in a part of our history that is largely passed over. Cox does well to remind us that racism is not natural: it is a manufactured hate that takes work to sustain.

[Roger · Rating 2 out of 5]

1) Not including notes, this book is 210 pages written mostly in the style of narrative nonfiction. This writing style should have made it an accessible read, but the author’s start-and-stop unfolding and general use of conjunctions and connecting words and phrasing made the unveiling of the details very cumbersome to this reader.

2) This book has lots of important revisionist information about African-American farming communities, and it is important these stories are honored appropriately in the context of existing dominant narratives about white pioneers and farmers. The project is inappropriately focused on agentic tropes and struggles of key black figures without a balancing of the white supremacist structures that sought their undoing. Surely some space in this text should have been granted to a discussion of the word “pioneer” itself, a term laden with colonial and patriarchal meaning (the author assumes a well-intentioned and universal meaning behind “liberty,” and “unity,” too.) Elsewhere, as in chapter four’s discussion of the complicated ways African Americans purchased freedom of their families, the writing fails to adequately address violence and the trauma of legally owning a family member, instead rallying off lots of details about numbers paid and theoretical conversations and writing that “it brings new meaning to the term property flipping.”

I understand this book project to be the result of research for an exhibition / display at the new African American museum of history and culture. This may explain why the writing and presentation of history is so incredibly benign. Clearly even our most progressive institutions and scholars value storytelling and data above an examination of our white supremacist history and foundations. It is important to hear about the experiences of black Americans during and after enslavement and to center their stories, but this project does not do so appropriately.

[Phil J]

I read the chapter on Cincinnati plus a few other portions on William Henry Harrison and Ohio.

Lots of fascinating history in here. Harrison spearheaded the slavery movement in Ohio and requested temporary ten-year permission to legalize slavery in the northwest territory for the purpose of taming the land. Cox States that this was a backdoor way of getting it into the northwest territory permanently. This is a credible accusation in light of Harrison’s willingness to own slaves in the northwest territory despite laws to the contrary.

I was fascinated to discover that there was a series of race riots from 1829 through 1841 in Cincinnati. The one in 1841 was especially bad. African-Americans organized a militia to protect their neighborhood, and the riot climaxed with white rioters dragging a canon out of the armory and firing it at the intersection of Broadway and sixth.

I have lived in the city almost my whole life and had no idea that that happened here. However, I am very familiar with the name Robert Lytle, who has a park and several buildings named after him a few blocks from the site of the 1841 riot. Lytle believed that African-Americans were lower than humans and he advocated wiping them out by sterilizing the men and raping the women.

I appreciate the authors scholarship and use of sources. My only gripe about this book is the authors tendency to editorialize and pass her personal judgment on the events she describes. That is not necessary when the facts speak so loudly for themselves.

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing book on a fascinating subject. I really wish the information had been presented better, because I was so excited to learn more about the history of free African Americans in my region of the world. Unfortunately, this book is beyond repetitive (The writing felt a lot like me as an undergrad, trying to pad out an assigned paper with as many meaningless phrases as possible. Also, I wish I had a dollar for every time the word "liberty" popped up) and its discussion of the actual issues and legislation of the time period is shallow. Worse, in many parts the author is writing what is essentially historical fiction, ascribing thoughts, emotions, and even entire made-up backgrounds to some of the real people she highlights. Popular history nonfiction of this type can be done well, but this isn't it.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great read, if a bit imaginative, but that makes it more interesting. One has a much better understanding of Black lives and the obstacles they encountered in the Old Northwest. I was disappointed not to see mention of some of my favorite Illinoisans such as H. O. Wagoner, Joseph H. Barquet, Troy Porter, J. H. Magee, and the Donegans.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting topic I was excited to learn more about. Includes some great information, but jumps around a lot and is difficult to follow at times. I imagine this is a difficult topic to research, which may have contributed to it not being a very cohesive story. I would’ve liked the author to have focused more on the specific families in a linear fashion.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly readable—stories I’ve never imagined about Black Americans working to be full citizens and freeing themselves and their families. It takes place in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio before the Civil War and the stories are personal and compelling.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I struggled with this one at first, but I ended up being really glad I kept going! I think I had to adjust to the author's style but once I settled in, I was taken in by the stories of black pioneers.

[E.G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells a story I knew nothing about - the pioneering black farmers in the Northwest territory (Now Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, etc.), in the years before the Civil War. And most importantly about the continual attempts by Whites to ban Blacks from the territories altogether, deny them the right to own land, to carry guns, to vote. And often to kidnap them and ship them South into slavery. Or just outright kill them. This details just one more place and time, like now, where racism and White Supremacy in America was alive and well, and virulent, and deadly. Well worth the read.

[NOLaBookish aka blue-collared mind · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important book. The history of African American farming in the Northwest Territory which spanned all or large parts of six eventual U.S. States (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and the northeastern part of Minnesota) is almost completely forgotten* even among residents who are passionate about this history of their state.
The number of settlements that were founded or led by AA farmers were significant and is well researched by Cox. The book is laid out similarly to Isabel Wilkerson's Warmth of Other Suns, with the author creating a narrative around specific representative individuals to illustrate the main points.
I would have liked more tables, data and maps included but all in all it was an excellent introduction. In addition, the end notes are top notch and have led me to much primary research to expand my understanding.



*for example, this is the entirety of the Wikipedia note on anything about African Americans in the Territory, which begs a great deal more information that is covered in the book:
Prohibition of slavery
The ordinance was the first of its kind in prohibiting slavery in a U.S. state or territory, but a fugitive slave clause allowed slave owners in other states to reclaim runaway slaves.

[Vincent Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think had this been a more popular topic that was getting coverage from several authors I would be giving it 4 stars, but the parts of history this book covers I think makes it worthy of 5 stars. Had I been a publisher and saw this book come across my desk, I could see asking if this book would be a success on the financial front. After seeing the author speak at a book signing and read parts of the book I was sold and have been happy with what I've read so far. Just the fact that I learned quite a bit about the state of Illinois and it's history that was never mentioned was worth the price of the book.

[TammyJo Eckhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was born and raised in Iowa, a Midwestern state that once upon a time was wilderness of the American frontier. Before Iowa was even open to domination by European descendants, there was the frontier of the Northwest Territory consisting of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan. These states all stayed with the Union during the American Civil War but that never meant they were welcoming to anyone not of European heritage.

Scholar Anna-Lisa Cox has investigated 338 settlements in the Northwest Territory where at least one (and often more) African American farmers owned and worked sizable pieces of land. The book begins with a look into the everyday hardships of creating farmland and the unique challenges faced by free and freed peoples. I thought given the title and descriptions that his book would be focused on the farming of the land and the lives of the farmers but it quickly turned to the greater context of their lives.

This change was necessary to some degree so that the reader could understand why a black farmers faced different problems as well as identical problems as their white neighbors. However, the book became a look at the expansion, retraction, and regains of civil and economic rights away from the land. We meet several farmers and I wish they had been the focus of the book, each one a chapter where the greater context was added. I felt increasingly disconnected from the people as the book went on and I think that is a shame.

For most of us, this book is full of revelations about the continuous fight to keep, get, or regain civil rights as well as the horrific violence that surrounded African Americans just trying to live out that "American dream" that brought folks westward. There were things I knew about already but the majority of the evidence Cox lays out was eye-opening.

Some folks may get angry as they read and if you, like me, are white, get over it, this is history, we need to learn from it not repeat it or whine about it. We meet plenty of villains and heroes in this book; some of them flip during the period covered.

I read an ARC version of this book so I hope the final version will have a lot more maps, charts, drawings, and perhaps photos to help fill in that empathy gap that slips in when the farmer fades and the greater picture comes into focus. Cox writes well but I wish the order of topics, a focus on individual farmers or communities, and a solid narrative had tied each chapter together and worked as a road between them.

[Darcia Helle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much has been written about the Civil War and the Reconstruction period afterward, but the decades just prior to the war, particularly in black history, are often glossed over or ignored by historians and history classes. Anna-Lisa Cox breathes life into this period, showing us the everyday heroes in the early struggle for civil rights.

The writing style is narrative nonfiction, as if the author is telling us the story. This works well in that we're placed in the era, experiencing life during a tumultuous time. We get to know specific people, and we see their successes and struggles as their rights are slowly taken away. The problem I had was that sometimes the writing is too lax, reading more like a stream of consciousness than professional writing. The author uses an excess of conjunctions as sentence starters, particularly "and", "but" and "so", to the point where it grated on my nerves.

This book is short, at only 210 pages without the end notes. Within that short span, the author covers a lot of years and chronicles a lot of people's lives. In this respect, the content feels light. We don't have time to go deeply into the various aspects or really explore this heavy topic.

Despite my grumbling points, this book is well worth reading, offering a profound glimpse into life for free black pioneers prior to the Civil War.

*I received a review copy from the publisher, via Amazon Vine, in exchange for my honest review.*

[Eric Snow · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the subject matter is of course interesting, the author’s treatment of the black families who struggled for freedom against increasingly racist legislation and mob violence vacillates strangely between idolatry and white supremacy. Black pioneers who are lauded as “heroes” and “fearless” are at the same time the subject of cringe-worthy comments masquerading as poignant insights which serve only to reinforce a white (supremacist) reading of this largely untold history.

The most egregious example of linguistic trouble happens when the author discusses the concepts of bondage, property, and the buying of freedom. While this is admittedly a thorny subject, especially for a white author, Cox does an abysmal job of clarifying that the language she uses and the positions she describe come from historical sources and are not contemporary (or even appropriate) ways of discussing human trafficking.

In one instance, the author discusses the traumatic and unjust incident of a person of color choosing to pay for the freedom of another in order to release them from bondage as “putting a new spin on the term ‘property flipping.’” It was so outrageous that I stopped reading - I couldn’t imagine that a professor of Cox’s credentials could possibly make such a disgusting joke, especially in the midst of a text so steeped the horrors of slavery.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, save for a few chapters and stories about black life on the frontier.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is quite good. If you're feeling any white privilege that could use some humbling during Black History Month, I encourage you to read "The Bone and Sinew of the Land: American's Forgotten Black Pioneers & the Struggle for Equality" by Anna-Lisa Cox (2018). With almost 100 pages of endnotes, Ms Cox smoothly interweaves history and historical narrative to tell the story of Black settlers to the Northwest Territories that I suspect most people reading this review didn't get during their K-12 experience.

She brings a biased perspective to the easily read work, particularly to the fictional narrative, for sure, but there is so much more in here that is referenced fact that one cannot help but be moved and inspired to help make our current and future world better. We might be equally outraged.

As present-day Republican Senators during the 2021 Trump impeachment say they are worried about setting a precedence against prejudice toward future presidents and cabinet members yet are willing to vote for the precedent they are fully willing to set and affirm by allowing a sitting president to help plan and incite an insurrection against the U.S. government, you may need little more inspiration to stand for what is right, true and moral for our country's future. But in case you do, or are simply interested in learning more about a little-told part of the history of the Great Lakes Midwest, I encourage you to find "The Bone and Sinew of the Land" among the booklist for your future reading.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is an important story to be told here - Cox gives greater visibility to black pioneers in the old Northwest (Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, and parts of Minnesota). Cox tells the story of of a number of black families and individuals that moved to what was then the American frontier. An important part of this story is the significant development that slavery was banned in the NW territories as part of its charter. One the one hand, there was the promise of freedom and opportunity, but Cox discusses the challenges - being a pioneer and facing risk from wild animals, weather, and the hard process of clearing land of trees and rocks; but also the threat of racism and prejudice that continued. Cox really helped to bring home the fear and risk that the Fugitive Slave Act brought with it to communities of color. Cox looks at the striving to create not only successful farms, but also to build communities and schools. She also points to some of the areas of success and integrated communities.
I did not connect well with Cox's writing style - others may be comfortable with it, or even appreciate it, but Cox's style (extensive speculation on the thoughts of many of the individuals in the book and some segments that are written in a breathless style that feel like sentences should end with exclamation marks!).
All in all, an important book to help understand the story of black pioneers in the Northwest Territories.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this informative book. It used the true stories of people who lived in the Northwest Territory (which became Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan) to illustrate what free blacks achieved there and the struggles they faced. The author started by talking about the rights that free blacks enjoyed at the beginning of the 1800s--including many places with the right to vote equal to a white man's right. It was heart breaking to follow how prejudiced and greedy people initially circumvented these laws for freedom and equality and later passed new legislation to remove the rights of free blacks. But we also learn of the free blacks and others who believed in equality who worked against the injustice and violence. The book ended right before the Civil War began, but the author provided an epilogue to tell what happened to the main families that we'd been following.

The author used and quoted from legal records, newspapers, and other records and documents from that time. She talked about what the pioneers faced, stories of men who managed to buy their freedom and of those that ran away, the laws that were changed, and the prejudice and violence they faced (especially in the dangerous years right before the war).

I received an ARC review copy of this book from the publisher through Amazon Vine.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and then, I come across a book on a subject I thought I knew reasonably well (US history and slavery) that blows my constructed perspective out of the water.

The old NW territories (land NW of the Ohio river) which eventually became the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin were ceded to the US in 1787. This narrative described the political and economic formation of these lands with an emphasis on freed African Americans who became established farmers in the years soon after the Revolution and before the Civil War.

How discouraging and depressing to see the governance of these forming states leave behind the equality envisioned in the Declaration of Independence (created equal) and restrict the freedoms of blacks in numerous ways (voting rights, setting bonds, narrowing legal recourse, etc.) even as these states eventually remained in the Union and fought the confederacy.

It highlights the power of states as well, as opposed to the idea that states are mere administrative units of the federal government. The US is (or at least once was) a union of sovereign states where clearly ideas of freedom and equality were (are?) all up for grabs.

Well written, not dry, rather compelling reading and for me, a whole host of new thoughts and nuances regarding that period of time.