The Black Woods: Pursuing Racial Justice on the Adirondack Frontier - Paperback
Choose Option
Paperback
Hardcover
Pay over time for orders over $35.00 with
Offers & Perks
Earn 17 points with this purchase
Added to your rewards balance after checkout.
100 points welcome bonus
Create an account and start with extra points.
Winner of the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Forest History Society Book Award
The Black Woods chronicles the history of Black pioneers in New York's northern wilderness. From the late 1840s to the 1860s, they migrated to the Adirondacks to build the farms that helped them meet a $250 property requirement imposed on Black New York voters in 1821.
Abolitionist Gerrit Smith gifted 120,000 acres to 3,000 landless Black New Yorkers, with the support of Frederick Douglass, John Brown and other abolitionists. His prescient plan enacted affirmative action and distributive justice. But when most of his grantees did not move north, Smith's interest cooled. He would not visit Timbuctoo, Freemen's Home, or Blacksville. The settlers were on their own.
In The Black Woods, Godine revives this history with stirring stories of frontier life and racial justice. She puts the vote-seeking Black pioneers at the heart of the Adirondack narrative. At long last, their shaping role has been reclaimed.
Amy Godine is an independent scholar. She has been writing and speaking about ethnic, migratory, and Black Adirondack history since 1990. She lives in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Contributor(s)
Author
Free shipping on orders over $75. Standard shipping takes 3-7 business days. Eligible items may be returned within 30 days of delivery. Conditions apply.