The Essence of Liberty

Free Black Women During the Slave Era (Volume 1)

By: Wilma King

Narrated by: Jeanné Giddens

The Essence of Liberty blends social, political, and economic history to analyze black women’s experience in both the North and the South, from the colonial period through emancipation. Focusing on class and familial relationships, King examines the myriad sources of freedom for black women to show the many factors that, along with time spent in slavery before emancipation, shaped the meaning of freedom. Her book also raises questions about whether free women were bound to or liberated from gender conventions of their day.

Drawing on a wealth of untapped primary sources—not only legal documents and newspapers but also the diaries, letters, and autobiographical writings of free women—King opens a new window on the world of black women. She examines how they became free, educated themselves, found jobs, maintained self-esteem, and developed social consciousness—even participating in the abolitionist movement. She considers the stance of southern free women toward their enslaved contemporaries and the interactions between previously free and newly freed women after slavery ended.

Throughout this engaging history, King underscores the pernicious constraints that racism placed on the lives of free blacks in spite of the fact that they were not enslaved.

The book is published by University of Missouri Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

©2006 The Curators of the University of Missouri (P)2024 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

“Well conceived and well organized....provides a comprehensive history of free black women.” (Victoria Bynum, author of Unruly Women)

“Its strength is its great variety of personal stories culled from primary sources.” (Choice)

“A marvelous piece of scholarship...will immediately become the standard source on its subject.” (Thomas H. Appleton Jr., coeditor of Searching for Their Places)