• Organizing Freedom: Black Emancipation Activism in the Civil War Midwest by Jennifer R. Harbour (SIU Press, 2020).
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm-3xWLNoEDSEemglgzSukJHJPxiyOflFTVjVNCh73TtMRcfPwGnSFfxOLEsLR1t0i40WaGg1pUYNM4ueItucy1WPk5nn3qNOqJ4fYeYIDkAFaJWZUQPDBuTja7STs5ICQElXccA/s200/0harbour.jpg)
From the description: "Nevertheless, as Harbour shows, black Americans settled there, and in a liminal space between legal slavery and true freedom, they focused on their main goals: creating institutions like churches, schools, and police watches; establishing citizenship rights; arguing against oppressive laws in public and in print; and, later, supporting their communities throughout the Civil War."
Harbour's research is centered is on the emancipation efforts of black women during the war. More from the description: "Her distinct focus on what military service meant for the families of black Civil War soldiers elucidates how black women navigated life at home without a male breadwinner at the same time they began a new, public practice of emancipation activism. During the tumult of war, Midwestern black women negotiated relationships with local, state, and federal entities through the practices of philanthropy, mutual aid, religiosity, and refugee and soldier relief."
In the end, according to Harbour, "(a)s they worked through the sluggish, incremental process to achieve abolition and emancipation, Midwestern black activists created a unique regional identity."
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