Here's another one more up-t-date Arleigh, I'm sure you've never heard of: Race & Slave Petition Project 1776-1867 The scope of the compiled research from original courthouse records covers slave records from 1776-1867. This massive effort earned Nicole Mazgaj, Loren Schweninger, and Marguerite Howell a $200,000 grant to digitally archive their findings. "Genealogists may know their family history and that they were enslaved by so and so, and their ancestors lived on this plantation, but they may not know that one of their relatives was a cook or a carpenter or suffered a disease. These documents tell a lot of personal detail," Howell said. "They fill in the gaps a little bit and give a face to the individuals." [...] "Schweninger's Race and Slavery Petitions Project 1776-1867 is a compilation of 17,487 legislative and court documents from 200 county courthouses in the 15 former slaveholding states and the District of Columbia." If you have Black ancestry in the US, you'll need to watch the progress of this project. The full article is titled "Project reveals details of slave life" by Tina Firesheets Staff Writer for the News-Record of Greensboro, North Carolina: http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050828/NEWSREC010101/508280333 -----Original Message----- From: Rhonda Houston [mailto:rfhouston@mindspring.com] Sent: Friday, September 09, 2005 7:01 AM To: 'Arleigh Birchler'; 'MO-CW-L@rootsweb.com' Subject: RE: Slave Nation Another two outstanding ones for this subject is called": 'Slavery and The Law' by Paul Finkleman Which examins the law at that time by fifteen lawyers of our time ISBN# 0-45612-36-2 African Americans in the Early Republic 1789 - 1831 By Donald R. Wright ISBN# 0-88295-897-6 -----Original Message----- From: Arleigh Birchler [mailto:abirchler16@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 8:41 PM To: MO-CW-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Slave Nation Gang, Hope this is not too far off topic. But first, I hope everyone is okay after Katrina. Anyone been effected, and able to get back on-line to let us know how your are? Today I walked about twenty miles, and on the way I stopped at A Room of Ones Own, here in Madison, for a cup of tea. While browsing through the books I found: "Slave Nation; How Slavery United the Colonies & Sparked the American Revolution." (Please note that my prejudice is to call it the "United States Revolution.") The book is by Blumrosen & Blumrosen, and I am really enjoying it. Like most books, it has its own topic of focus, and the authors might seem to be overemphasizing their point. In this case, the basic thesis is that the reason we had a war against Britain around 1776 was because the British government wanted to abolish slavery. I have always thought that this was a very important reason, along with the fact that the British were trying to keep the Colonists from taking the lands away from Native Americans. Both of these issues are listed in the grievances in the Declaration of Independence, and I have seen the themes elsewhere. Blumrosen & Blumrosen play down the importance of things like the "Boston Massacre" (which was not), the Stamp Tax, or the tax on tea. I think the book probably only goes up to about 1783, so I don't know if there is much about the events leading up to the War Between the States. For some other books with similar themes, one might read: Berlin, Ira; "Many Thousands Gone: The first two centuries of slavery in North America" Carter, Jimmy: "The Hornet’s Nest; A novel of the Revolutionary War" Kennedy, R; "Mr Jefferson’s Lost Cause: Land, Farmers, Slavery, and the Louisiana Purchase" Morgan, Edmund Sears; "American Slavery American Freedom: The ordeal of Colonial Virginia" Oats, Stephen B; "The Approaching Fury: Voices in the storm, 1820-1861" Raphael, Ray; "A People’s History to the American Revolution: How common people shaped …" Arleigh Birchler, MDiv, BSN 1718 Fisher St #2 Madison WI 53713 608-251-4437 (Ali Sengaree - Allah'ka cli here chaya) Brams Addition Life&Choice Musick/Porter Fan Club Pleasure, Pain, Power, and Love