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The Bone and Sinew of the Land: America's Forgotten Black Pioneers & the Struggle for Equality
The long-hidden stories of America’s black pioneers, the frontier they settled, and their fight for the heart of the nation
When black settlers Keziah and Charles Grier started clearing their frontier land in 1818, they couldn’t know that they were part of the nation’s earliest struggle for equality; they were just looking to build a better life. But within a few years, the Griers would become early Underground Railroad conductors, joining with fellow pioneers and other allies to confront the growing tyranny of bondage and injustice.
The Bone and Sinew of the Land tells the Griers’ story and the stories of many others like them: the lost history of the nation’s first Great Migration. In building hundreds of settlements on the frontier, these black pioneers were making a stand for equality and freedom. Their new home, the Northwest Territory—the wild region that would become present-day Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin—was the first territory to ban slavery and have equal voting rights for all men. Though forgotten today, in their own time the successes of these pioneers made them the targets of racist backlash. Political and even armed battles soon ensued, tearing apart families and communities long before the Civil War.
This groundbreaking work of research reveals America’s forgotten frontier, where these settlers were inspired by the belief that all men are created equal and a brighter future was possible.
Advanced Praise
“Tracing the free black families who settled the nation’s first frontier, the great Northwest Territory, Anna-Lisa Cox convincingly shows that African American history has always been interwoven with the pioneer experience in America. At the same time, she reveals the blurred, often dangerous lines between freedom and bondage even in the territories that the Founding Fathers established from the beginning to be beyond the reach of America’s original sin: slavery…. The Bone and Sinew of the Land is a revelation of primary historical research that is written with the beauty and empathic powers of a novel.” —Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
“The journey of America’s Black pioneers is a story that remains unknown to Americans like the frontiers they settled. Starting in the earliest days of the republic, these brave men and women built new lives far away from the White enslavers who doubted them, threatened them, and attacked them. This groundbreaking work of research is a beautifully written testament to their bold courage, to their trailblazing strength.” —Ibram X. Kendi, New York Times bestselling author of Stamped from the Beginning
“Through ingenious research and a generous sensibility, Anna-Lisa Cox captures the hidden stories of African American farmers who fought for equality and justice against virulent white supremacy. Her heartfelt, lyrical narrative brings the bones and sinews of black frontier families back to life, showing how their idealistic struggles helped to shape the Midwest, and the nation.” —Peter H. Wood, author of Black Majority and Strange New Land
“The Bone and Sinew of the Land unearths and shines a light on a crucial but untold African American and American history that parallels and complicates the well-known story of the Underground Railroad….This work will not only influence scholarship. It should also deeply shape public history.” —Paul Gardullo, curator, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
A Stronger Kinship: One Town's Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith
Starting in the 1860s, the people of Covert, Michigan, broke laws and barriers to attempt what then seemed impossible: to love one's neighbor as oneself. This is the inspiring, true story of an extraordinary town where blacks and whites lived as equals.
Reviews
"A Stronger Kinship is a proof of the wealth of new insight into American history to be found through attention to small towns and rural places, where settlers sought to realize beliefs and ideals that sometimes put them far in advance of society as a whole. These are precious narratives, instructive and heartening." —Marilynne Robinson (author of Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize)
"Anna-Lisa Cox has excavated a jewel from our past. A Stronger Kinship is as refreshing as a cool breeze, and ever so revealing. It’s a must read for anyone who has ever tangled with race, America’s dilemma. It will give you hope." —Alex Kotlowitz (Author of There Are No Children Here and The Other Side of the River)
"A wonderful book.... Stories like this need to get around sooner than later. They are what will save this world." —Pete Seeger
