Jacob K. Friefeld's Books

Homesteading the Plains

Toward a New History

By: Richard Edwards,Jacob K. Friefeld,Rebecca S. Wingo

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Homesteading the Plains

Toward a New History

By: Richard Edwards,Jacob K. Friefeld,Rebecca S. Wingo

2018 Nebraska Book Award 2018 Outstanding Academic Title, selected by Choice Homesteading the Plains offers a bold new look at the history of homesteading, overturning what for decades has been the orthodox scholarly view. The authors begin by noting the striking disparity between the public’s perception of homesteading as a cherished part of our national narrative and most scholars’ harshly negative and dismissive treatment. Homesteading the Plains reexamines old data and draws from newly available digitized records to reassess the current interpretation’s four principal tenets: homesteading was a minor factor in farm formation, with most Western farmers purchasing their land; most homesteaders failed to prove up their claims; the homesteading process was rife with corruption and fraud; and homesteading caused Indian land dispossession. Using data instead of anecdotes and focusing mainly on the nineteenth century, Homesteading the Plains demonstrates that the first three tenets are wrong and the fourth only partially true. In short, the public’s perception of homesteading is perhaps more accurate than the one scholars have constructed. Homesteading the Plains provides the basis for an understanding of homesteading that is startlingly different from current scholarly orthodoxy.

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Page Count

270

Publisher

U of Nebraska Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496202317

ISBN 13

9781496202314

The First Migrants

How Black Homesteaders' Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America's Great Migration

By: Richard Edwards,Jacob K. Friefeld

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The First Migrants

How Black Homesteaders' Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America's Great Migration

By: Richard Edwards,Jacob K. Friefeld

The First Migrants recounts the largely unknown story of Black people who migrated from the South to the Great Plains between 1877 and 1920 in search of land and freedom. They exercised their rights under the Homestead Act to gain title to 650,000 acres, settling in all of the Great Plains states. Some created Black homesteader communities such as Nicodemus, Kansas, and DeWitty, Nebraska, while others, including George Washington Carver and Oscar Micheaux, homesteaded alone. All sought a place where they could rise by their own talents and toil, unencumbered by Black codes, repression, and violence. In the words of one Nicodemus descendant, they found "a place they could experience real freedom," though in a racist society that freedom could never be complete. Their quest foreshadowed the epic movement of Black people out of the South known as the Great Migration. In this first account of the full scope of Black homesteading in the Great Plains, Richard Edwards and Jacob K. Friefeld weave together two distinct strands: the narrative histories of the six most important Black homesteader communities and the several themes that characterize homesteaders' shared experiences. Using homestead records, diaries and letters, interviews with homesteaders' descendants, and other sources, Edwards and Friefeld illuminate the homesteaders' fierce determination to find freedom--and their greatest achievements and struggles for full equality.

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Page Count

580

Publisher

U of Nebraska Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496236483

ISBN 13

9781496236487

The First Migrants

How Black Homesteaders' Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America's Great Migration

By: Richard Edwards,Jacob K. Friefeld

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The First Migrants

How Black Homesteaders' Quest for Land and Freedom Heralded America's Great Migration

By: Richard Edwards,Jacob K. Friefeld

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

580

Publisher

U of Nebraska Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1496236483

ISBN 13

9781496236487

Book's by Jacob K. Friefeld

Homesteading the Plains

Homesteading the Plains

The First Migrants

The First Migrants

The First Migrants

The First Migrants

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