Finding Francis
eBook - PDF

Finding Francis

One Family's Journey from Slavery to Freedom

  1. 192 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Finding Francis

One Family's Journey from Slavery to Freedom

About this book

Winner of the 2023 College Language Association Book Award

Finding Francis, finding family, freeing history

Francis is found. Beyond Francis, a family is found—in archival material that barely deigned to notice their existence. This is the story of Francis Sistrunk and her children, from enslavement into forced migration across South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It spans decades before the Civil War and continues into post-emancipation America. A family story full of twists and turns, Finding Francis reclaims and honors those women who played an essential role in the historical survival and triumph of Black people during and after American slavery.

Elizabeth West has created a remarkable "biohistoriography" of everyday Black resistance, grounded in a determination to maintain enduring connections of family, kinship, and community despite the inhumanity and rapacity of slavery. There is inevitable heartbreak in these histories, but there is also an empowering strength and inspiration—the truth of these lives will indeed set us all free.

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Yes, you can access Finding Francis by Elizabeth J. West in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Social Science Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. FINDING FRANCIS
  3. Title
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction
  9. CHAPTER 1 Francis in Georgia: Kinship and Family Formation in the Black Antebellum South
  10. CHAPTER 2 Neshoba to Noxubee: Pre-Civil War to Reconstruction
  11. CHAPTER 3 Post-Reconstruction and a New Century: Anxious and Audacious Times (1870s–1910)
  12. CHAPTER 4 Hillman: A Man’s Story Bookended by Women
  13. Coda: Reflections on Methodology
  14. Appendix
  15. Notes
  16. Bibliography
  17. Index