NONE NEED FEAR THE TRUTH
There were, and are, so many white heroes who have assisted runaway slaves, and later freed blacks, that there is no need for whites to fear accurate portrayals of themselves, nor for blacks to be nervous about these portrayals!
One such account is in "Chased by Wolves," in the book, FORBIDDEN FRUIT LOVE STORIES FROM THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Betty DeRamus (2006), that I am now reading!
DeRamus writes of Frances Gordon 's flight from Kentucky with her entire passel of paternally bequeathed slaves, and their families, in her canvas-covered wagon, with the help of a white preacher companion, while defeating her wolfish, slave-stealing brothers possessory actions in court twice, through Missouri to Keokuk, Iowa, in the 1850s, and the many amazing escapes and adventures attendant thereto!
No less remarkable than"Mistress" Frances Gordon was Mrs. Charlotta Pyles, the enslaved mother, her free husband, Harry Pyles, their 11 children and 5 grandchildren, who not only made the journey, but who --thanks to mother Charlotta's travels to the East Coast to speak to Antislavery audiences--raised $3,000 in 6 months to buy the freedom of their two sons-in-law who were left behind in Kentucky on another plantation!
Facts trump fiction as history trumps mythology! Truth is a marvelous thing!
And all of that's just the beginning!
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
NO NEED TO FEAR THE TRUTH
NONE NEED FEAR THE TRUTH
There were, and are, so many white heroes who have assisted runaway slaves, and later freed blacks, that there is no need for whites to fear accurate portrayals of themselves, nor for blacks to be nervous about these portrayals!
One such account is in "Chased by Wolves," in the book, FORBIDDEN FRUIT LOVE STORIES FROM THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Betty DeRamus (2006), that I am now reading!
DeRamus writes of Frances Gordon 's flight from Kentucky with her entire passel of paternally bequeathed slaves, and their families, in her canvas-covered wagon, with the help of a white preacher companion, while defeating her wolfish, slave-stealing brothers possessory actions in court twice, through Missouri to Keokuk, Iowa, in the 1850s, and the many amazing escapes and adventures attendant thereto!
No less remarkable than"Mistress" Frances Gordon was Mrs. Charlotta Pyles, the enslaved mother, her free husband, Harry Pyles, their 11 children and 5 grandchildren, who not only made the journey, but who --thanks to mother Charlotta's travels to the East Coast to speak to Antislavery audiences--raised $3,000 in 6 months to buy the freedom of their two sons-in-law who were left behind in Kentucky on another plantation!
Facts trump fiction as history trumps mythology! Truth is a marvelous thing!
And all of that's just the beginning!