audiobook Babylon Village (Postcard History) (Postcard History Series) by Village of Babylon Historical and Preservation Society in History

Description

Between 1854 and 1864; more than a hundred free African Americans in Virginia proposed to enslave themselves and; in some cases; their children. Ted Maris-Wolf explains this phenomenon as a response to state legislation that forced free African Americans to make a terrible choice: leave enslaved loved ones behind for freedom elsewhere or seek a way to remain in their communities; even by renouncing legal freedom. Maris-Wolf paints an intimate portrait of these people whose lives; liberty; and use of Virginia law offer new understandings of race and place in the upper South. Maris-Wolf shows how free African Americans quietly challenged prevailing notions of racial restriction and exclusion; weaving themselves into the social and economic fabric of their neighborhoods and claiming; through unconventional or counterintuitive means; certain basic rights of residency and family. Employing records from nearly every Virginia county; he pieces together the remarkable lives of Watkins Love; Jane Payne; and other African Americans who made themselves essential parts of their communities and; in some cases; gave up their legal freedom in order to maintain family and community ties.