Invisible in Plain Sight

Jill E. Rowe is Assistant Professor at Western Michigan University. She earned her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at Michigan State University and her M.P.H. in health education and behavior at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Some of her recent publications are included in The Encyclopedia of African American History, Health Education and Behavior, Journal of Black Studies, and Social Service Review.

The Land Act of 1820 made it possible for settlers to begin to populate the West and added to the confiscation of land from Native Americans. Former landowners - a mix of Native American, African and European ancestry - migrated to the northern frontier and founded at least thirty well-defined free black communities between 1820 and 1850 in the Old Northwest, becoming an important safe haven and beacon of freedom.

Its notoriety and size grew as slaves often migrated to these locations after they were granted emancipation in the wills of slave owners who purchased land in the area for them to settle on. The newly free people found sanctuary as these communities were also rumored to shelter runaway slaves in their role as active participants in the Underground Railroad Movement.

However, the prosperity of blacks living in these villages angered some of the local whites - many of whom were migrating at the same time and were connected to local law officials and politicians. Archival documents reveal continued acts of terrorism perpetuated against blacks which heightened the importance of the strength of the communities they founded - specifically schools, churches, businesses, and intergenerational family structures - in providing a unified front that allowed them to bond and thrive in an environment that was not always conducive to their survival.

Invisible in Plain Sight: Self-Determination Strategies of Free Blacks in the Old Northwest provides a rare detailed examination of an often overlooked piece of the American tapestry. It is perfect reading for history classes in high school and college, as well as for history enthusiasts looking for something new.

List of Illustrations - Acknowledgments - Introduction - The Virginia Confederacy of Indians - Immigration of European Indentured Servants - Immigration of African Indentured Servants - Alliances between Indigenous People and African Indentured Servants - Alliances between European Indentured Servants and African Indentured Servants - From African Indentured Servants to Enslaved People - Race as a Social Construct-Structural Constraints on Race Mixing - African American Legal Status and the American Revolution - Registers of Free Blacks - Western Expansion - The Relationship between Western Expansion and Free Blacks - Migrations to Ohio - The Goings Clan-the Genealogy - The Migration of the Goings Clan to Northwestern Ohio - The Village of Rumley - The Village of Carthagena - The Village of Wren - The Village of Middle Creek - Education in the Black Settlements - The Importance of the Church in the Black Settlements - Life in the Black Settlements after the Civil War - Benevolence Societies in the Black Settlements - Social Life in the Black Settlements - Living Conditions in the Black Settlements - Health and Wellness in the Black Settlements - Health-Seeking Traditions in the Black Settlements - Conclusions: Invisible in Plain Sight: Self-Determination Strategies.