William Loren Katz tells of the Blacks who were part of the flow of people into the lands opened for settlement after the Revolution: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and of the bloody events that took place as Kansas entered the Union. These territories originally granted freedom to all settlers, but territorial and state governments limited Black freedoms early on.
Here are the stories of some of the early Black settlers who established townships and schools - when education was denied - ran stations on the underground railroad, founded churches and organized to fight the limitations on their rights in every state. These stories of little known heroes will add a new chapter to the history of the settlement of the Midwest.
