$35.00 when purchased online
Target Online store #3991
About this item
Highlights
- Even after the Civil War, blacks despaired of being treated as equals in a white man's world.
- About the Author: William Cohen is professor emeritus of history at Hope College, in Holland, Michigan.
- 362 Pages
- Biography + Autobiography, Cultural, Ethnic & Regional
Description
Book Synopsis
Even after the Civil War, blacks despaired of being treated as equals in a white man's world. They were deprived of many of the most basic rights of citizenship, and were often cheated and exploited. As a result they clung tenaciously to that most important of new rights--the right to move.
At Freedom's Edge is William Cohen's comprehensive history of black mobility from the Civil War to World War I. Cohen treats mobility as a central component of black freedom, crucial in the emergence of a free labor system, and equally crucial as an obstacle to the persistent southern white effort to reassert hegemony over blacks in all areas of life. This study has a rigorously southern focus. Most historians of black migration concentrate on telling how the migrants adjusted to northern life, but Cohen provides detailed accounts of internal southern movement and efforts to leave the South. He also examines the relative absence, during this period, of significant migration to the North. Cohen presents a thorough treatment of the efforts of the Freedmen's Bureau to restructure the southern labor system, showing how heavily this organization was influenced by questions involving black mobility. He also gives the fullest picture yet of the postwar emergence of the occupation of the labor agent. Among the migration episodes he considers are the Liberia movement, the Kansas exodus, the movement of blacks from Georgia and the Carolinas to Arkansas and Mississippi, and the migration to Oklahoma. The post-Reconstruction era was marked by a concerted white thrust to destroy black freedom. Cohen shows that while whites succeeded in establishing almost total dominion in the political and social realms, they failed when they tried to erect a system of involuntary servitude that would seriously limit black movement. Cohen argues that the difference here arose from the fact that whites were largely united on matters such as suffrage and segregation but were divided on the desirability of immobilizing the black labor force. Those who depended on black labor sought legal formulas aimed at stopping black movement. They met resistance, however, from those who did not share their economic interests. This study, then, is almost as much a legal history of white efforts to interdict black movement as it is a history of black migration. At Freedom's Edge is a probing study of the black search for freedom within freedom.From the Back Cover
Even after the Civil War, blacks despaired of being treated as equals in a white man's world. They were deprived of many of the most basic rights of citizenship, and were often cheated an exploited. As a result they clung tenaciously to that most important of new rights--the right to move.About the Author
William Cohen is professor emeritus of history at Hope College, in Holland, Michigan.Dimensions (Overall): 9.03 Inches (H) x 6.08 Inches (W) x .78 Inches (D)
Weight: 1.08 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Sub-Genre: Cultural, Ethnic & Regional
Genre: Biography + Autobiography
Number of Pages: 362
Publisher: LSU Press
Theme: General
Format: Paperback
Author: William Cohen
Language: English
Street Date: March 1, 1991
TCIN: 91571830
UPC: 9780807116524
Item Number (DPCI): 247-32-4311
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
If the item details above aren’t accurate or complete, we want to know about it.
Shipping details
Estimated ship dimensions: 0.78 inches length x 6.08 inches width x 9.03 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 1.08 pounds
We regret that this item cannot be shipped to PO Boxes.
This item cannot be shipped to the following locations: American Samoa (see also separate entry under AS), Guam (see also separate entry under GU), Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico (see also separate entry under PR), United States Minor Outlying Islands, Virgin Islands, U.S., APO/FPO
Return details
This item can be returned to any Target store or Target.com.
This item must be returned within 90 days of the date it was purchased in store, shipped, delivered by a Shipt shopper, or made ready for pickup.
See the return policy for complete information.
Trending Non-Fiction
$12.54
was $15.38 New lower price
Buy 1, get 1 50% off select books
4.6 out of 5 stars with 9 ratings
$24.50
MSRP $35.00
Buy 1, get 1 50% off select books
5 out of 5 stars with 2 ratings
$20.18
was $24.50 New lower price
Buy 1, get 1 50% off select books
5 out of 5 stars with 1 ratings