Florida Historical Society Harry T. And Harriette V. Moore AwardA brilliant philosopher and his influence on the rise of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights MovementWhile intellectual histories of the civil rights movement often center Martin Luther King Jr.’s writings, author Larry Omar Rivers argues that this approach leaves out the scholar-activists who set the path for King. In this volume, Rivers tells the mostly unknown story ...

The story of a church that became influential within the Black community in Florida after the Civil WarThis history of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church in Florida tells how dedicated members of one of the oldest and most prominent black religious institutions created a forceful presence within the African-American community—against innumerable odds and constant challenges.The African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination established an off...

This important illustrated social history of slavery tells what life was like for bond servants in Florida from 1821 to 1865, offering new insights from the perspective of both slave and master.Starting with an overview of the institution as it evolved during the Spanish and English periods, Larry E. Rivers looks in detail and in depth at the slave experience, noting the characteristics of slavery in the Middle Florida plantation belt (the more traditional slave-based, cotton-growi...

This first-of-its-kind biography tells the story of Rev. James Page, who rose from slavery in the nineteenth century to become a religious and political leader among African Americans as well as an international spokesperson for the cause of racial equality.Winner of the Rembert Patrick Award by The Florida Historical Society, Florida Non-Fiction Book Award by the Florida Book Awards, Harry T. and Harrietter V. Moore Award by the Florida Historical SocietyJ...

The overlooked story of one of nineteenth-century America's popular writers of mass market fictionThe publication of Manch in 1880 marked the beginning of Mary Edwards Bryan's rise to prominence as one of nineteenth-century America's best-known writers of mass-market fiction. At a time when women were discouraged from having jobs of their own, she made a name for herself as a thoughtful—and well-paid—editor. Despite her cultivated image as editor of Fa...

The burgeoning terrain of Martin Luther King Jr. studies is leading to a new appreciation of his thought and its meaningfulness for the emergence and shaping of the twenty-first-century world. This volume brings together an impressive array of scholars from various backgrounds and disciplines to explore the global significance of King—then, now, and in the future.Employing King’s metaphor of “the great world house,” the major focus is on King’s appraisal of the global-human struggl...

Octavius Valentine Catto was an orator who shared stages with Frederick Douglass, a second baseman on Philadelphia’s best black baseball team, a teacher at the city’s finest black school and an activist who fought in the state capital and on the streets for equal rights. With his racially-charged murder, the nation lost a civil rights pioneer—one who risked his life a century before Selma and Birmingham.In Tasting Freedom Murray Dubin and Pulitzer Prize winner Dan Biddle p...

* Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times * Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History *“Extraordinary…a great American biography” (The New Yorker) of the most important African American of the 19th century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era.As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818–1895)...

PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’ TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A sweeping history of one of the nation’s most important African American churches and a profound story of courage and grace amid the fight for racial justice—from Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Kevin Sack“A masterpiece . . . a dense, rich, captivating narrative, featuring vivid prose . . . expansive, inspiring and hugely important.”—The New York Times (Ed...

Lost on the other side of the world since 1855, the story of John Swanson Jacobs finally returns to America. This comprehensive edition includes Jacobs's narrative in full alongside a full-length biography.For one hundred and sixty-nine years, a first-person slave narrative written by John Swanson Jacobs—brother of Harriet Jacobs—was buried in a pile of newspapers in Australia. Jacobs’s long-lost narrative, The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Des...

An updated edition of the classic study that took "an enormous step toward filling some of the voids in the literature of slavery" ( The Washington Post Book World).One of the most important books published on slave society, Stolen Childhood focuses on the millions of children and youth enslaved in 19th-century America. This enlarged and revised edition reflects the abundance of new scholarship on slavery that has emerged.

From Midnight to Dawn presents compelling portraits of the men and women who established the Underground Railroad and traveled it to find new lives in Canada. Evoking the turmoil and controversies of the time, Tobin illuminates the historic events that forever connected American and Canadian history by giving us the true stories behind well-known figures such as Harriet Tubman and John Brown. She also profiles lesser-known but equally heroic figures such as Mary Ann Shadd, who bec...