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Stealing Freedom Along the Mason-Dixon Line
Slavery, freedom, and kidnapping in the mid-Atlantic. This is the story of Thomas McCreary, a slave catcher from Cecil County, Maryland. Reviled by some, proclaimed a hero by others, he first drew public attention in the late 1840s for a career that peaked a few years after passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Living and working as he did at the midpoint between Philadelphia, an important center for assisting fugitive slaves, and Baltimore, a major port in the slave trade, his story illustrates in raw detail the tensions that arose along the border between slavery and freedom just prior to the Civil War. McCreary and his community provide a framework to examine slave catching and kidnapping in the Baltimore-Wilmington-Philadelphia region and how those activities contributed to the nation’s political and visceral divide.
Cecil County
Location, location, location: this catchphrase speaks to a dominant theme in the shaping of Cecil County's history. Cecil County is at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, with rivers defining two boundaries and the famous Mason-Dixon Line delineating the northern and eastern boundaries. Close to major cities and known as the most rural county along the northeast corridor of I-95, Cecil has held on to its agricultural heritage while at the same time accommodating the flow of trade, tourists, recreational visitors, dignitaries, military supplies, armies, the navy, and romantic couples ready to be married. The county has added its own agricultural products, natural resources, industrial goods, and citizens to the flow of traffic on the county's historic waterways and highways. Separated from Baltimore County in 1674, Cecil was a few decades from celebrating its bicentennial when the first itinerant photographer unpacked his equipment at the courthouse and began the process of preserving the county's history through images.
Making Freedom
The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law, which mandated action to aid in the recovery of runaway slaves and denied fugitives legal rights if they were apprehended, quickly became a focal point in the debate over the future of slavery and the nature of the union. In Making Freedom, R. J. M. Blackett uses the experiences of escaped slaves and those who aided them to explore the inner workings of the Underground Railroad and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, while shedding light on the political effects of slave escape in southern states, border states, and the North. Blackett highlights the lives of those who escaped, the impact of the fugitive slave cases, and the extent to which slaves planning to escape were aided by free blacks, fellow slaves, and outsiders who went south to entice them to escape. Using these stories of particular individuals, moments, and communities, Blackett shows how slave flight shaped national politics as the South witnessed slavery beginning to collapse and the North experienced a threat to its freedom.
I Have Seen Him in the Watchfires
The bonds linking family and the lines separating enemies have become very blurry for 17-year-old Robert. With his father away fighting for the Union, Robert must decide to act alone in order to help his ailing mother, extricate his injured Confederate Uncle, and bring relief to his cousin, Emily. When he unwittingly gets entangled in a Confederate escape plot, Robert must forge his anger and shame into a new determination to save his family. And, perhaps, he must also realize that the saving might not be entirely up to him. Honor and duty to God and country aren’t as clear-cut as he hoped them to be.
Maritime Cecil County
Virgin forests dominated the landscape when white settlers first explored the land now known as Cecil County. The only trails within the thick vegetation were thin Native American paths known only to the native people. The best way for settlers to travel the new land was by water. Soon after the pioneers arrived, trading posts and crude lodges were built near the shore. Ferries were then constructed to transport travelers across streams, and inns and taverns were built to service the weary wayfarers. Civilization and commerce evolved at ferry and shipping centers throughout the county. Beginning with Capt. John Smiths original exploration of the Chesapeake Bay in 1608, Cecil County has developed and maintained a cultural connection with its five main rivers and a large canal. Where mills, factories, waterfowl, and fisheries once provided sustenance for the countys residents, today recreational boating, fishing, and nature tourism bring jobs and entertainment.
Civil War Ghosts at Fort Delaware
Ghosts at the Civil War island prison at Fort Delaware State Park.
The Captive's Quest for Freedom
Examines the impact fugitive slaves had on the Fugitive Slave Law and the coming of the American Civil War.
Slavery, Surveillance, and Genre in Antebellum United States Literature
Slavery, Surveillance, and Genre in Antebellum United States Literature argues for the existence of deep, often unexamined, interconnections between genre and race by tracing how surveillance migrates from the literature of slavery to crime, gothic, and detective fiction. Attending to the long history of surveillance and policing of African Americans, the book challenges the traditional conception of surveillance as a top-down enterprise, equally addressing the tactics of sousveillance (watching from below) that enslaved people and their allies used to resist, escape, or merely survive racial subjugation. Examining the dialectic of racialized surveillance and sousveillance from fugitive slav...
Street Diplomacy
"Antebellum Philadelphia maintained a long tradition of both abolitionism and fugitive slave activity. Although Philadelphia's African Americans lived in a free state, they faced constant threats to their personal safety and freedom from enslavers and slave catchers. The conflicts that arose over fugitive slave removals and the kidnapping of free African Americans forced Philadelphians to confront the politics of slavery that sought to protect enslavers' property rights across the Union"--
Lincoln on the Verge
WINNER OF THE LINCOLN FORUM BOOK PRIZE “A Lincoln classic...superb.” —The Washington Post “A book for our time.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin Lincoln on the Verge tells the dramatic story of America’s greatest president discovering his own strength to save the Republic. As a divided nation plunges into the deepest crisis in its history, Abraham Lincoln boards a train for Washington and his inauguration—an inauguration Southerners have vowed to prevent. Lincoln on the Verge charts these pivotal thirteen days of travel, as Lincoln discovers his power, speaks directly to the public, and sees his country up close. Drawing on new research, this riveting account reveals the president-elect as a work in progress, showing him on the verge of greatness, as he foils an assassination attempt, forges an unbreakable bond with the American people, and overcomes formidable obstacles in order to take his oath of office.
