About this item
The long-hidden truth about America's black pioneers, the frontier they settled, and their fight for a better nationThe American frontier is one of our most cherished and enduring national images. We think of the early pioneers who settled the wilderness as courageous, independent--and white.This version of history is simply wrong. Starting in our nation's earliest years, thousands of free African Americans were building hundreds of settlements in the Northwest Territory, a territory that banned slavery and gave equal voting rights to all men. This groundbreaking work of research reveals the lost history of the nation's first Great Migration. Though forgotten today, these pioneers were a matter of national importance at the time; their mere existence leading to fierce political movements and battles that tore families and communities apart long before the Civil War erupted.The Bone and Sinew of the Land is a story with its roots in the ideals of the American Revolution, a story of courageous pioneers transformed by the belief that all men are created equal, seeking a brighter future on the American frontier.
About the Author
Anna-Lisa Cox is the author of The Bone and Sinew of the Land which was just made a "Best History Book of 2018" by the Smithsonian Magazine, as well as the award-winning book, A Stronger Kinship. She is an award-winning historian of race relations in the 19th century Midwest and is currently a fellow at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. She recently helped create two historical exhibits based on her original research at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, including one on African American pioneers. She lives in Michigan, where she is an honorary Adjunct at Western Michigan University and continues to hunt for long-buried histories from America's past. You can visit her at: www.annalisacox.com
