In this first account of the full scope of Black homesteading in the Great Plains, Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld weave together two distinct strands: the narrative histories of the six most important Black homesteader communities and the several themes that characterize homesteaders' shared experiences. Using homestead records, diaries and letters, interviews with homesteaders' descendants, and other sources, Edwards and Friefeld illuminate the homesteaders' fierce determination to find freedom--and their greatest achievements and struggles for full equality.
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9781496230843
Media Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Bison Books
Publication Date: 08-01-2023
Pages: 508
Product Dimensions: 9.06h x 6.14w x 1.89d
About the Author
Richard Edwards is director emeritus of the Center for Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History (Nebraska, 2017) and Natives of a Dry Place: Stories of Dakota before the Oil Boom. Jacob K. Friefeld is a historian at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois. He is coauthor of Homesteading the Plains: Toward a New History (Nebraska, 2017). Angela Bates is the executive director of the Nicodemus Historical Society and a descendant of the original homesteaders of Nicodemus. She has served on the Kansas Historical Foundation board of directors and is a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.