Journey to Freedom
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€34.99
A01=Gail Shaffer Blankenau
African American History
African American Studies
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
American History
Antebellum Period
Author_Gail Shaffer Blankenau
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Black History
Black Studies
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJK
Category=HBLL
Category=HBTS
Category=NHK
Category=NHTS
Celia Grayson
Civil Bend
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
Eliza Grayson
Enslavement
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eq_history
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
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Escaped Slaves
Great Plains History
History
Iowa
John Williamson
Language_English
Midwest History
Missouri River
Mixed Race
Nebraska
Nebraska Book Award winner
Nebraska City
Nebraska History
Nebraska Territory
PA=Available
Popular Sovereignty
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
Slave Narrative
Slavery
softlaunch
Stephen F Nuckolls
Territorial Politics
Underground Railroad
Product details
- ISBN 9781496231529
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 01 Mar 2024
- Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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In late November of 1858 two enslaved Black women-Celia Grayson, age twenty-two, and Eliza Grayson, age twenty-escaped the Stephen F. Nuckolls household in southeastern Nebraska. John Williamson, a man of African American and Cherokee descent from Iowa, guided them through the dark to the Missouri River, where they boarded a skiff and crossed the icy waters, heading for their first stop on the Underground Railroad at Civil Bend, Iowa.
In Journey to Freedom Gail Shaffer Blankenau provides the first detailed history of Black enslavement in Nebraska Territory and the escape of these two enslaved Black women from Nebraska City. Poised on the “frontier,” the Graysons’ escape demonstrated that unique opportunities beckoned at the confluence of Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas, and their actions challenged slavery’s tentative expansion into the West and its eventual demise in an era of territorial fluidity. Their escape and the violence that followed prompted considerable debate across the country and led to the Nebraska legislature’s move to prohibit slavery. Drawing on multiple collections, records, and slave narratives, Journey to Freedom sheds light on the Graysons’ courage and agency as they became high-profile figures in the national debate between proslavery and antislavery factions in the antebellum period.
In Journey to Freedom Gail Shaffer Blankenau provides the first detailed history of Black enslavement in Nebraska Territory and the escape of these two enslaved Black women from Nebraska City. Poised on the “frontier,” the Graysons’ escape demonstrated that unique opportunities beckoned at the confluence of Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas, and their actions challenged slavery’s tentative expansion into the West and its eventual demise in an era of territorial fluidity. Their escape and the violence that followed prompted considerable debate across the country and led to the Nebraska legislature’s move to prohibit slavery. Drawing on multiple collections, records, and slave narratives, Journey to Freedom sheds light on the Graysons’ courage and agency as they became high-profile figures in the national debate between proslavery and antislavery factions in the antebellum period.
Gail Shaffer Blankenau is a professional genealogist, historian, speaker, and author. She holds an MA degree in history from the University of Nebraska–Kearney, and in 2023 she received the James L. Sellers prize for her article about the Grayson sisters in a volume of Nebraska History magazine. Blankenau is from Nebraska and currently lives in Lincoln.
