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Freedom
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"Much of what we think we know about African American history isn't completely true," says Betty DeRamus in the introduction to Freedom by Any Means.
"According to the usual story, slaves gained their freedom by running away, being freed by their owners, buying their way out of bondage or having someone else buy them. But how do we account for people like John Bowley, who bluffed his and his family's way to freedom, or Althea Lynch, whose cooking sprang her from jail? And what about all those who managed to win their freedom by sidestepping tricks and traps or winning lawsuits?"
Bowley, Lynch and dozens of others are as vivid and surprising as the very real characters who made the veteran journalist's first book, Forbidden Fruit, a best-seller. Essence magazine described Forbidden Fruit as "a rich collection of true slave-era tales that are at times haunting, often riveting, but always triumphant in the end."
The same can be said of Freedom by Any Means, which takes a broader look at the various extraordinary ways that enslaved and dehumanized people achieved freedom and the means to a self-determined life. Among these people are visionaries who not only survived against the odds, but prospered -- building businesses, owning land and other property.
The historical research that grounds this beautifully written narrative is drawn from unpublished memoirs, census records, government reports, periodicals, books and much more. The story of slavery and the African American experience before the Emancipation Proclamation "isn't one story," according to DeRamus, but rather a multitude of stories. This book reveals how men and women were willing not just to risk their lives to escape the slave system, but able to use their intelligence and cunning to manipulate the court system, outwit slave traders and brave the unknown in order to assert their humanity.
- Sales Rank: #1069168 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Atria Books
- Published on: 2009-02-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.12" w x 6.00" l, 1.10 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
Arnold Gragston ferried slaves across the Ohio River, freeing other people while remaining enslaved himself; Nelson Gant was tried for attempting to steal his wife from slavery; Althea Lynch, cook and escaped slave, set off a crisis that involved one military governor, two posses and a U.S. Marshal. That's just a sampling of the stories of former slaves and freedmen who were agile enough to... sneak through holes in the system and take what seemed like very little and turn it into more than enough in award-winning journalist DeRamus's salute to the daring and the inventiveness of those who made history, while not making it into history books. DeRamus's touch is light and journalistic, close in tone to Sunday supplement pieces, and a bit jazzy (It was love bubbling on a stove, love shouting at the low-slung midnight moon). Entertaining and easy reading it is, but as DeRamus reaches beyond the famously heroic figures into the lives of the little known, she enriches and alters our perspective on 19th-century African-American daily life. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
As with so many other aspects of American slavery, achieving freedom carried far more variations than is widely known or understood. Journalist DeRamus follows up Forbidden Fruit (2005) with accounts of the myriad ways that slaves ran away. Her first section reprises some of the love stories from her earlier book, telling of escapes by married couples who faced the threat of separation when one was freed and the other not. She recounts the case of Nelson Gant, a freed Virginia slave, whose offer to buy his wife was refused. Gant’s attempt to steal her resulted in a court trial that eventually upheld their marriage, the first case in Virginia to recognize a marriage involving slaves. The second part of the book features stories of deceptions escaping slaves faced, including fake safe-house operators and tricksters who sometimes ensnared freed blacks. The final section is devoted to California, the destination for many escaped slaves though it had its own dubious policies, and to Mary Ellen Pleasant, a wealthy, powerful black woman who worked for the antislavery cause. --Vanessa Bush
About the Author
A veteran and award winning journalist, DeRamus was the jury's pick and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1993. She has been awarded a Michigan Press Association Award, as well as a Deems Taylor award for a profile of Roberta Flack published in Essence.
DeRamus was one of an international group of select journalists who toured Central African refugee camps under the auspices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and one of a small group of journalists outside Voerster prison in 1990 when Nelson Mandela finally left his cell.
She has wriiten about African-American history for Essence, Time-Life, North Star Journal, and Black World. She is a former commentator for The Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press, The Michigan Chronicle, and the British Broadcasting Company.
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
A MASTERPIECE BY ALL MEANS!!!
By Michele Wright
FREEDOM BY ANY MEANS is an ingeniously crafted historical book BY ALL MEANS!!! I was more than intrigued to discover the other side of the story as it relates to African American history as I ventured into the world of the fifteen luminously untold stories uniquely documented by author Betty DeRamus.
I was instantly mesmerized with this book the moment I began reading the opening story of John Bowley, a skillful ship carpenter and freed slave, who daringly and cunningly showed up at a Maryland Slave auction in the mid-1800's with nothing more than some bold guts and a clever plan in a successful attempt to secure the freedom of his wife Kessiah (the niece of Harriet Tubman - The "Moses of Her People") and their two children who were all scheduled to be sold at auction to another slave-owner.
And I remained awestruck as I continued to read one untold historical event after another. And being a native of Tuskegee, Alabama, I was also intrigued with Tuskegee Institute's founder Booker T. Washington's description of the "grapevine telegram" - the invisible communication wire for slaves and freed blacks. Additionally, I was pleased to read an excerpt from a 1901 letter of Robert W. Taylor, financial secretary of Tuskegee Institute, to a newspaper editor concerning Harriet Tubman which reads, "She told me that when she found her mother unwilling to leave behind her feather bed tick, and her father his broad axe and other tools, she bundled up feather bed, broad axe, mother, father - all and landed them in Canada".
This expertly compiled masterpiece of "untold" historical events brings a whole new but most tasteful depiction to the accounts of African American freedom and history. As opposed to viewing slaves as a people who secured freedom through fear and avoidance, you now can appreciate an enduring account of slaves as strong people with a large vision who strategically and cleverly devised an effective and commendable plan of action for freedom. This took not only gutsy creativity but brilliant implementation.
And likewise, Author Betty DeRamus displays both gutsy creativity and brilliant implementation in her compilation of these remarkably documented untold stories. These intriguing pearls of history of American slavery should become integrated into the American history teaching curriculum of every educational facility. Needless to say, as author of "Freedom By Any means", DeRamus continues her excellence in documenting tales of African American history that she commendably started in her first book, "Forbidden Fruit".
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
How To become Free
By Lolita M. Hernandez
This collection of historically accurate tales describes the many paths to freedom undertaken by black slaves through previously unheard of "Con Games, Voodoo Schemes, True Love and Law Suits on the Underground Railroad." They will strike you as clever, at times harrowing, and at other times flat out dangerous, but always full of heart, intelligence and love. The people in these historical renderings were guided by much more than the North Star. They were inspired by a deep and abiding faith in their humanity. No, these are not just stories of yesteryear, long ago days when slavery existed; these are not just stories to trot out righteously every February. These are stories to read for present-day guidance on how to escape the morass of war, poverty, hate, racism, and all the other isms that keep us isolated, insulated and thoroughly oblivious to our global kinship - except when our pocketbooks are empty and we are looking for someone to blame. Betty DeRamus masterfully wove these stories into one long proscription for modern times. They are a look back for a hope forward. Or should I say a hop? Or a row on the Ohio River, one of the routes of the Underground Railroad? Until this book I never knew Michigan, my home state, had such a progressive role in the Railroad. I'm not talking about Detroit. I'm talking about Cassopolis, Cass County, Michigan where one wouldn't ordinarily think of help for escapees from slavery. So these stories represent a portion of American history that every single person in this country needs to read as a path to understanding the heroism and heart of true patriots. These stories are well researched. DeRamus now has established a network of the families, white and black, whose ancestors played a role in the thumping of feet, the rustling of brush and the soft rippling of waves on the way to freedom.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Read This Book
By A. Hodari
"Freedom was supposed to taste like sweet potatoes simmered in cinnamon or pecan pies baptized with rum." However, former slave Sally Williams found the taste of actual freedom bittersweet at first. Like other people in Betty DeRamus's "Freedom by Any Means," though, Williams quickly embraced the life she and her son took extraordinary steps to create.
There are history books that spew facts. Then, there are history books that are written. With "Freedom by Any Means," journalist Betty DeRamus has written a factual book about stories from the Underground Railroad with an authentic, friendly, relevant voice.
Take for example, the beginning to Chapter Fourteen, "Let's pretend the academy of Motion Pictures was around in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, handing out shiny trophies to people on both sides of the antislavery movement..." This statement serves as an introduction to a chapter highlighting the acting and performance skills that often helped Blacks gain their freedom. There are quite a few examples like this in this book- where DeRamus uses timely, modern images to explain historical events.
Indeed, the narrator voice is engaging, guiding, instructive, yet unobtrusive. Challenging enough for scholars, but accessible enough for younger, or less seasoned audiences. Further, the author does not assume history is a bland subject for the classroom, or "historiophiles." Rather, this book includes quotes, poetry and even recipes. DeRamus uses several devices to share stories of the Underground Railroad with readers.
The stories and anecdotes contained in "Freedom by Any Means" travel ground that have not been adequately covered previously. And, happily, the work is equitable with regard to gender. In addition to males, who tend to be overrepresented in history, we learn about Tempe, a Missouri woman, who successfully sued for her freedom in court. And, we gain more insight into some of my favorites-- women like Mary Ellen Pleasant and the never too familiar Ms. Harriet Tubman. By the way, it isn't easy to teach me something new about Harriet Tubman.
I posit that when it comes to an oppressive, overarching institution such as slavery, there cannot truly be voluntary relationships between an oppressor, and the oppressed. Still, DeRamus' research offers an alternative to the standard, hostile, abusive and exploitative relationships that, more often than not, existed between Blacks and whites with stories about John L. Brown, and others. One of the best aspects of this book is that it can bear the weight of critical analysis and is worthy of inspiring intellectual and scholarly debate.
As a professor of Black Studies, what I appreciate most about this book is the profound attention to the seven principle areas of Black Studies. This text addresses history, politics, spirituality, psychology, sociology, economics, and creative production, as it relates to freedom. Indeed, the biggest problem with this text was not being able to identify a favorite section, because all the sections are significant, educational and contributory to the unfolding of Black Studies as a necessary academic discipline. The bibliography has been used intelligently, and enhances the text.
This book takes an important, urgent and needed step toward abolishing the myth of the "happy slave" and documenting our people's resistance. In a just world, a people would not have been held in inhumane bondage. But, if you want to know the many ways our people gained freedom, then, read this book!
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