Fugitivism by S. Charles Bolton

Fugitivism: Escaping Slavery in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1820-1860 By S. Charles Bolton

_{Estimated Length: 10.5 hours}
_{Project Budget: Royalty Share}
_{Word Count: 98000}
_{Language: English}
_{Distribution: Exclusive}
_{Territories: World}

Winner, 2020 Booker Worthen Literary Prize

During the antebellum years, over 750,000 enslaved people were taken to the Lower Mississippi Valley, where two-thirds of them were sold in the slave markets of New Orleans, Natchez, and Memphis. Those who ended up in Louisiana found themselves in an environment of swamplands, sugar plantations, French-speaking creoles, and the exotic metropolis of New Orleans. Those sold to planters in the newly-opened Mississippi Delta cleared land and cultivated cotton for owners who had moved west to get rich as quickly as possible, driving this labor force to harsh extremes.

Like enslaved people all over the South, those in the Lower Mississippi Valley left home at night for clandestine parties or religious meetings, sometimes “laying out” nearby for a few days or weeks. Some of them fled to New Orleans and other southern cities where they could find refuge in the subculture of slaves and free blacks living there, and a few attempted to live permanently free in the swamps and forests of the surrounding area. Fugitives also tried to return to eastern slave states to rejoin families from whom they had been separated. Some sought freedom on the northern side of the Ohio River; others fled to Mexico for the same purpose.

Fugitivism provides a wealth of new information taken from advertisements, newspaper accounts, and court records. It explains how escapees made use of steamboat transportation, how urban runaways differed from their rural counterparts, how enslaved people were victimized by slave stealers, how conflicts between black fugitives and the white people who tried to capture them encouraged a culture of violence in the South, and how runaway slaves from the Lower Mississippi Valley influenced the abolitionist movement in the North.

Readers will discover that along with an end to oppression, freedom-seeking slaves wanted the same opportunities afforded to most Americans.

New audiobook release coming November 2021!

NEW RELEASE: Booker T. Washington: Builder of a Civilization

by Andrew Barnes

By: Lyman Beecher Stowe, Emmett J. Scott
Narrated by: Andrew L. Barnes
Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 08-04-20
Language: English
Publisher: Legacy Audio Books

It is not hyperbole to say that Booker T. Washington was a great American. For 20 years before his death, he had been the most useful, as well as the most distinguished, member of his race in the world, and one of the most useful, as well as one of the most distinguished, of American citizens of any race.

Eminent though his services were to the people of his own color, the White men of our Republic were almost as much indebted to him, both directly and indirectly.

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They were indebted to him directly, because of the work he did on behalf of industrial education for the Negro, thus giving impetus to the work for the industrial education of the White man, which is, at least, as necessary; and, moreover, every successful effort to turn the thoughts of the natural leaders of the Negro race into the fields of business endeavor, of agricultural effort, of every species of success in private life, is not only to their advantage but to the advantage of the White man, as tending to remove the friction and trouble that inevitably come throughout the South at this time in any Negro district where the Negroes turn for their advancement primarily to political life

The indirect indebtedness of the White race to Booker T. Washington is due to the simple fact that here in America we are all, in the end, going up or down together; and therefore, in the long run, the man who makes a substantial contribution toward uplifting any part of the community has helped to uplift all of the community. Wherever in our land the Negro remains uneducated, and liable to criminal suggestion, it is absolutely certain that the Whites will themselves tend to tread the paths of barbarism; and wherever we find people of color as a whole engaged in successful work to better themselves, and respecting both themselves and others, there we shall also find the tone of the White community high.

Moving Up Moving Out is ready for download!

by Andrew Barnes

The story of the Black Middle class on the Southside of Chicago amidst the industrial revolution is ready for release! This book is an exceptionally well-written account of the struggles, frustrations, and problems with the expansion of Chicago, and the various ways Blacks were determined to overcome the systemic problems that existed at the time.

I am overflowing with pride to release this audiobook, because it features one of the great cities of our nation, once considered a second home, Chicago. That’s right! The Windy City! As I narrate this story, it introduced me to different communities, some familiar others not so much. Nonetheless, I learned a great deal about the people of Chicago and how this great town became one of the most important battlefields of civil rights in the industrialized north.

Just when you thought you knew this city…. Think again!

“Moving Up, Moving Out” by Will Cooley

by Andrew Barnes

COMING APRIL 2020!

In Moving Up, Moving Out, Will Cooley discusses the damage racism and discrimination have exacted on black Chicagoans in the twentieth century while accentuating the resilience of upwardly-mobile African Americans.

Cooley examines how class differences created fissures in the black community and produced quandaries for black Chicagoans interested in racial welfare. While black Chicagoans engaged in collective struggles, they also used individualistic means to secure the American Dream.

Black Chicagoans demonstrated their talent and ambitions, but they entered through the narrow gate, and whites denied them equal opportunities in the educational institutions, workplaces, and neighborhoods that produced the middle class. African Americans resisted these restrictions at nearly every turn by moving up into better careers and moving out into higher-quality neighborhoods, but their continued marginalization helped create a deeply dysfunctional city.

Lecture by Will Cooley

African Americans settled in Chicago for decades, inspired by the gains their forerunners were making in the city. Though faith in Chicago as a land of promise wavered, the progress of the black middle class kept the city from completely falling apart.

In this important study, Cooley shows how Chicago, in all of its glory and faults, was held together by black dreams of advancement.

Moving Up, Moving Out will appeal to urban historians and sociologists, scholars of African American studies, and general readers interested in Chicago and urban history.

Narrated by Andrew L. Barnes

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KLAN: Killing America

by Andrew Barnes

KLAN: Killing America
new promo for 2020 narrated by Andrew L Barnes

The strife and horrors of the Civil War in America were raw with the wounds of the war lasting for decades, and affecting those who lived in both the North and the South. As the nation struggled to find unity, the forces of darkness and of those who wished to rule through intimidation and terror, spread their wicked ways under the cover of white sheets.

This is the story of the Ku Klux Klan and their chief brand: Lynchings, as told in the original newspaper stories from journals across the nation. Some are brief, telling only of a single attack while others are more comprehensive and detailed, telling the story with the inclusion of complex and emotional occurrences.

The attempt of the KKK to cloak the power of control over others with fear and violence is explained in some of these news stories. The chief advocate and leader of the Klan was interviewed by reporters and allowed fair access to give his side of the story. The heroism of various groups such as the NAACP and others who risked their lives standing up to thugs and criminals is also noted, as well as the words of those individuals and leaders who fought to eliminate the influence of the Ku Klux Klan.

While the KKK had as much right as any group to demonstrate and articulate their cause, the deceits and criminal actions employed by them separated their group from the legal actions of others.

For listeners in the 21st Century who know little of the life and death of the KKK, the admonition to understand and know history in order to avoid repeating it should be considered. Therefore, it is in that hope that this audiobook has been prepared. WARNING: Authentic descriptions are vivid and brutal and the racially charged language of these historic news reports and commentary has not been modified. This material is for adults and parental guidance is appropriate.©2012 Kenneth C. Rossignol (P)2013 Kenneth C. Rossignol