LEADER 04510nam 2200745 a 450 001 9910817462903321 005 20230617041906.0 010 $a0-292-79712-5 024 7 $a10.7560/706187 035 $a(CKB)1000000000456582 035 $a(OCoLC)61501208 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10245804 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000158182 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11162921 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000158182 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10145800 035 $a(PQKB)11530572 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3571722 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3571722 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10245804 035 $a(DE-B1597)587897 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780292797123 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000456582 100 $a20040426d2005 ub 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aFreedom colonies$b[electronic resource] $eindependent Black Texans in the time of Jim Crow /$fby Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad ; with research assistance and photographs by Richard Orton 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aAustin $cUniversity of Texas Press$d2005 215 $a1 online resource (257 p.) 225 1 $aJack and Doris Smothers series in Texas history, life, and culture ;$vno. 15 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-292-70618-9 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [221]-237) and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $t1. Introduction -- $t2. A Terrible Freedom -- $t3. Making Do, Getting By -- $t4. Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings -- $t5. School Days -- $t6. Working for the Man -- $t7. Decline and Remembrance -- $tAppendix: Freedmen's Settlements and Other Rural African American Landowner Communities, by County -- $tNotes -- $tBibliography -- $tIndex 330 $aIn the decades following the Civil War, nearly a quarter of African Americans achieved a remarkable victory-they got their own land. While other ex-slaves and many poor whites became trapped in the exploitative sharecropping system, these independence-seeking individuals settled on pockets of unclaimed land that had been deemed too poor for farming and turned them into successful family farms. In these self-sufficient rural communities, often known as "freedom colonies," African Americans created a refuge from the discrimination and violence that routinely limited the opportunities of blacks in the Jim Crow South. Freedom Colonies is the first book to tell the story of these independent African American settlements. Thad Sitton and James Conrad focus on communities in Texas, where blacks achieved a higher percentage of land ownership than in any other state of the Deep South. The authors draw on a vast reservoir of ex-slave narratives, oral histories, written memoirs, and public records to describe how the freedom colonies formed and to recreate the lifeways of African Americans who made their living by farming or in skilled trades such as milling and blacksmithing. They also uncover the forces that led to the decline of the communities from the 1930s onward, including economic hard times and the greed of whites who found legal and illegal means of taking black-owned land. And they visit some of the remaining communities to discover how their independent way of life endures into the twenty-first century. 410 0$aJack and Doris Smothers series in Texas history, life, and culture ;$vno. 15. 606 $aFreed persons$zTexas$xHistory 606 $aAfrican American farmers$zTexas$xHistory 606 $aAfrican Americans$xLand tenure$zTexas$xHistory 606 $aAfrican Americans$zTexas$xEconomic conditions 606 $aAgricultural colonies$zTexas$xHistory 606 $aLand settlement$zTexas$xHistory 607 $aTexas$xHistory$y1846-1950 607 $aTexas$xRace relations 607 $aTexas$xEconomic conditions 615 0$aFreed persons$xHistory. 615 0$aAfrican American farmers$xHistory. 615 0$aAfrican Americans$xLand tenure$xHistory. 615 0$aAfrican Americans$xEconomic conditions. 615 0$aAgricultural colonies$xHistory. 615 0$aLand settlement$xHistory. 676 $a333.33/5/089960730794 700 $aSitton$b Thad$f1941-$01651488 701 $aConrad$b James H$01694802 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910817462903321 996 $aFreedom colonies$94073584 997 $aUNINA