Title Happy dreams of liberty : an American family in slavery and freedom / R. Isabela Morales

Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2022] ©2022

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 319 pages) : illustrations (black and white, and colour) Summary "When Samuel Townsend died at his home in Madison County, Alabama, in November 1856, the white cotton planter left behind hundreds of slaves and an estate worth approximately $200,000. In life, Samuel had done little to distinguish himself from other members of the South’s slaveholding elite. But he made a name for himself in death by leaving his fortune to his five sons, four daughters, and two nieces: all of them enslaved. Happy Dreams of Liberty is the story of these former slaves, a mixed-race family that migrated across the American West and South in the second half of the nineteenth century. Searching for communities where they could enjoy their freedom and wealth to the fullest, the Townsends homesteaded in Ohio and Kansas, fought for the Union Army in Mississippi, mined for silver in the Colorado Rockies, and, in the case of one son, returned to Alabama to purchase a part of the old plantation where he had once been enslaved. Their travels map a landscape of opportunity and oppression where meanings of race and freedom, as well as concrete opportunities for social and economic mobility, were dictated by highly local circumstances. During the turbulent period between the Civil War and the rise of Jim Crow at the turn of the twentieth century, the Townsends carved out spaces where they were able to benefit from their money and mixed-race ancestry, pass down generational wealth, and pursue their dreams of advancement and equality"--Publisher's description Notes Also issued in print: 2022 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Audience Specialized Notes Description based on online resource; title from home page (Oxford Academic, viewed on February 24, 2023) Subject Townsend family. SUBJECT Townsend family fast Subject Racially mixed families -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Biography Freed persons -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Biography Racially mixed people -- United States -- History -- 19th century -- Biography Freed persons Racially mixed families Racially mixed people Social conditions SUBJECT United States -- Social conditions -- 19th century Subject United States Genre/Form Biographies History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780197531822 0197531822

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