The First Migrants
Format: Hardcover
ISBN13: 9781496230843
Hardcover|9781496230843
✨ Featured Offer
Overview
The First Migrants recounts the largely unknown story of Black people who migrated from the South to the Great Plains between 1877 and 1920 in search of land and freedom. They exercised their rights under the Homestead Act to gain title to 650,000 acres, settling in all of the Great Plains states. Some created Black homesteader communities such as Nicodemus, Kansas, and DeWitty, Nebraska, while others, including George Washington Carver and Oscar Micheaux, homesteaded alone. All sought a place where they could rise by their own talents and toil, unencumbered by Black codes, repression, and violence. In the words of one Nicodemus descendant, they found "a place they could experience real freedom," though in a racist society that freedom could never be complete. Their quest foreshadowed the epic movement of Black people out of the South known as the Great Migration.
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.
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.
| ISBN-13 | 9781496230843 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10 | 1496230841 |
| Weight | 2.10 Pounds |
| Dimensions | 6.50 x 1.75 x 9.25 In |
| List Price | $36.95 |
| Format | Hardcover |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Pages | 508 pages |
| Publisher | Bison Books |
| Published On | 2023-08-01 |
View All Offers
Sort by:
Price
Condition
Seller
Seller Comments
Price
Used, Good
Seller details
Zoom Books East
Glendale Heights, IL, USA
Book is in good condition and may include underlining highlighting and minimal wear. The book can al...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Used, Very Good
Seller details
Midtown Scholar Bookstore
Harrisburg, PA, USA
HARDCOVER Very Good-Crisp, clean, unread book with some shelfwear/edgewear, may have a remainder mar...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
Midtown Scholar Bookstore
Harrisburg, PA, USA
HARDCOVER Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text blo...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
Used, Good
Seller details
Big River Books
Powder Springs, GA, USA
This book is in good condition. The cover has minor creases or bends. The binding is tight and pages...
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026
✨ Brand New
Seller details
Alibris
Sparks, NV, USA
Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 508 p.
Free delivery by: 31 Mar 2026