144435
Author: Sydney Nathans
File Type: pdf
font face=Segoe UI, serif size=2What was it like for a mother to flee slavery, leaving her children behind? To Free a Family tells the remarkable story of Mary Walker, who in August 1848 fled her owner for refuge in the North and spent the next seventeen years trying to recover her family. Her freedom, like that of thousands who escaped from bondage, came at a great price-remorse at parting without a word, fear for her familys fate.fontfont face=Segoe UI, serif size=2This story is anchored in two extraordinary collections of letters and diaries, that of her former North Carolina slaveholders and that of the northern family-Susan and Peter Lesley-who protected and employed her. Sydney Nathans sensitive and penetrating narrative reveals Mary Walkers remarkable persistence as well as the sustained collaboration of black and white abolitionists who assisted her. Mary Walker and the Lesleys ventured half a dozen attempts at liberation, from ransom to ruse to rescue, until the end of the Civil War reunited Mary Walker with her son and daughter.fontfont face=Segoe UI, serif size=2Unlike her more famous counterparts-Harriet Tubman, Harriet Jacobs, and Sojourner Truth-who wrote their own narratives and whose public defiance made them heroines, Mary Walkers efforts were protracted, wrenching, and private. Her odyssey was more representative of women refugees from bondage who labored secretly and behind the scenes to reclaim their families from the South. In recreating Mary Walkers journey, To Free a Family gives voice to their hidden epic of emancipation and to an untold story of the Civil War era.font p Segoe UI, serif 13px**h3 Segoe UI, serif 13pxReview p Segoe UI, serif 13pxA remarkable story by a master storyteller, To Free a Family takes us inside the exhilarating and heartbreaking world of those fugitives whose escape from slavery required a separation from family and friends. Nathans brilliantly narrates a neglected area of the black experience. (Ira Berlin, author of Many Thousands Gone The First Two Centuries of Slavery in Mainland North America) p Segoe UI, serif 13pxTo Free a Family puts names and faces on the historic black struggle to reunite families broken by slavery. Well written and beautifully researched, it is a triumph. (Jean Fagan Yellin, author of Harriet Jacobs A Life) p Segoe UI, serif 13pxIn this brilliant biography, Nathans offers an incomparable view into the stresses that escaped slaves had to endure, and he provides a wonderful prism through which to view the dilemmas of race and self-fulfillment that accompanied the long march to freedom. (William H. Chafe, author of The Rise and Fall of the American Century) p Segoe UI, serif 13pxA refreshingly unique portrait not only of a fugitive slave, but also of her complex relations with both her enslavers and with Northern abolitionists who befriended her. Nathans has discovered a remarkable woman, and he has made her as memorable as she was to those who knew and loved her in life. (Fergus M. Bordewich, author of Bound for Canaan The Underground Railroad and the War for the Soul of America) p Segoe UI, serif 13pxTo Free a Family is a brilliant book, a poignant and elegantly told story of an ordinary fugitive, Mary Walker, whom Nathans has beautifully, vividly brought to life. A true pleasure to read. (John Stauffer, author of The Black Hearts of Men and Giants The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln) p Segoe UI, serif 13pxIn this rigorously scholarly but totally absorbing narrative, Nathans unfolds a history as spellbinding as a novel, chockfull of fascinating people engaged in a venture both risky and affecting. When the fugitive slave Mary Walker finds refuge with the Lesleys in Pennsylvania, their lives, their families, and their circle of friends become deeply involved in the general cause and the specific mission--to secure the freedom of Walkers mother and her children. Nathanss account is full of twists and turns, as efforts to free the family are thwarted and Marys son makes his own escape. The intimacy achieved through the use of letters between friends and family is remarkable here is history lived in an ordinary household. The center, however, is held by Mary Walkers crusade, accompanied as it is by the Lesleys own evolution Susan finds her work in the world, and Peter moves from antislavery to abolition. Nathans has transformed the paraphernalia of academia (ploughing through archives, thorough documentation, guarded speculation) into a book that will entrance the general reader, inform the scholar, and engage both. (Publishers Weekly (starred review) 2011-10-24) p Segoe UI, serif 13pxPrior to the Civil War, thousands of African Americans escaped from slavery, but because few recorded their experiences little is known about their efforts to forge new lives in freedom. Mary Walker, the focus of this study, was a light-skinned fugitive who escaped from a North Carolina planter couple when she accompanied them to Philadelphia in 1848. Her history, though unique in many ways, is illustrative of the hardships and challenges such migrants faced and the support they sometimes received from abolitionist networks. Her efforts to preserve her freedom, gain economic independence, and locate and purchase the freedom of her children still held as slaves is pieced together here by Nathans from the papers of Northern abolitionists and Southern slaveholders. The result is an engrossing and readable study, thoroughly researched and well documented, that fills a significant gap in the history of the period. It is recommended for all readers seriously interested in the experience of fugitive slaves in Antebellum America. (Theresa McDevitt Library Journal (starred review) 2012-01-15) p Segoe UI, serif 13pxA page-turning history. (Pam Kelley Charlotte Observer 2012-02-11) p Segoe UI, serif 13px[A] penetrating narrative...[A] captivating book. (Charles Shea LeMone Roanoke Times 2012-02-14) p Segoe UI, serif 13pxWith few exceptions, we know little about the day-to-day lives of female runaways, their families and their relationships with Northern whites. Sydney Nathanss To Free a Family is a minor masterpiece that goes a long way toward filling this gap. [It is] deeply researched and elegantly written...Nathans is brilliant at reconstructing Mary Walkers life and her relationship with Peter and Susan Lesley...Nathans creates a vibrant and subtle portrait of the Lesleys, enabling readers to decide for themselves how trusting Mary Walkers relationship with them became. The result is a remarkable story of an extended biracial family that embarked on a 15-year effort to reunite Walker with her surviving children. (John Stauffer Wall Street Journal 2012-02-24) h3 Segoe UI, serif 13pxAbout the Author p Segoe UI, serif 13pxSydney Nathans is Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University.
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